, Fulham comment: Patience with Parker can only stretch so far before the inevitable

Fulham comment: Patience with Parker can only stretch so far before the inevitable

Fulham had 10 games in the 2018/19 Premier League under the guiding hand of Scott Parker after Slavisa Jokanovic was sacked. He couldn’t save them.

Fulham spent big that first season in the Premier League but it was in vain as they came straight back down after the 2018/19 campaign as a 19th-placed side with Parker winning three of his 10 games in charge – the other seven all losses.

They rebounded from that and went up again in 2019/20 via the Championship play-offs only to suffer a second relegation from last season’s Premier League – coming down as the 18th-placed side.

All of this has left Parker learning a harsh lesson about the gulf in class between the Premier League and the Sky Bet Championship.

Fulham under Parker – a brief look

40-year-old Parker became Fulham boss in late February 2019 – effectively the Cottager’s Premier League fate had been all but sealed by the time of his appointment.

He’s gone on to manage the Craven Cottage outfit for 105 games – earning an average of 1.3 points per game over that time.

Catherine Ivill/Getty Images Sport

His record stands at 37 wins, 25 draws and 43 losses to give him a 41% win rate as Fulham boss. He’s used 53 players across his time at the club – scoring on average 1.06 goals per game and conceding 1.28 goals.

He’s managed Fulham for 49 Premier League games (W8/D13/L27) and 49 Championship games (W25/D12/L12) – this shows he has a measure of the Championship.

Comment: Surely Fulham’s Parker patience can only stretch so far

Football is, ultimately, a results business and managers’ futures walk a fine line along that premise. Get it right, they stay; get it wrong, they are gone.

In a way, Scott Parker has shown that he can do half a job – the Championship job at Fulham. That much is clear and his record demonstrates that.

Yet, his record also more than demonstrates that he cannot do the Premier League job and that is where the axe usually falls hardest.

Given that he’s proven that the side he helped assemble can’t cope with the Premier League, the question must remain as to how long the bigwigs at Fulham will put up with the Cottagers becoming a yo-yo side between the Championship and Premier League?

Players are tipped to leave Craven Cottage this summer and there is one point that surely has to be put forward. How long will Fulham bear their patience towards Scott Parker’s management before the inevitable happens?

That inevitability? Well, the realisation that Parker isn’t the man for the Craven Cottage job!

Statistics derived from Scott Parker’s profile on the Transfermarkt website.

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