Opinion: Why Scott Parker shouldn’t be overlooked by Spurs

Scott Parker has been dismissed by many as a risky candidate for the Spurs job – and they would be correct – but he has had Fulham playing some scintillating football this season and the Cottagers are very unlucky to be where they are in the table.

He brings with him a roaring passion alongside a tactical nous that Ryan Mason just can’t deliver yet; highlighted by some big, big results such as victories away at Liverpool, away at Everton and away at Leicester.

They also dominated both games against Spurs this season and we were lucky to snatch a victory from them, but it wasn’t without massively riding our luck.

The point is, you don’t go to those teams away from home and beat them all in the same seaon by fluke. That’s down to the way Parker sets his team up.

Fulham like to aggressively camp in the opposition half and play through you, often using a false 9 such as Loftus-Cheek, and more recently Josh Maja, who come deep to link up play with bombarding forwards in Ivan Caveillero and Ademola Lookman always looking to get in behind.

The only reason they are where they are is that these players aren’t scoring enough goals.

Now just imagine Harry Kane (lest he doesn’t leave) spraying passes to the onrushing Son and Bergwijn (whom I believe there are big things to come from) whilst we apply relentless pressure with the likes of Ndombele and Lo Celso and their press resistance playing between the lines.

Sounds like Tottenham, doesn’t it?

Of course, the defence has been our problem all season more than attack and Fulham’s defensive record is actually barely worse than our own. They have conceded 43 goals, the same as West Ham, and we have conceded just 5 fewer, at 38.

This is with a defence that, on paper, is even worse than ours. An ageing Tete, an inexperienced Ola Aina on loan from Torino and Tosin Adarabiyoyo make up 3 of their usual back four which on paper, even our defence massively trumps this.

But they have a stand-out centre-back in Joachim Anderson who has been putting in mammoth performances all season.

Parker has transformed him from a Lyon reject to one of the Premier League’s outstanding performers this season and at just 22, you can see the foundations have been laid for a future world-class defender.

He’s the player we are crying out for in a disjointed and unsettled back four. We lost our leader in Vertonghen and Toby is sadly past it.

We need that character, that lion who doesn’t stop roaring at his pack until they are in position. We need the same in the dugout. Parker and Anderson are those lions.

If Parker came to take over to the Lane with Andersen coming with him, I think few of us could complain. We’ve tried the box office name, it went overwhelmingly badly.

Now Nagelsmann is out of the picture, I believe Scott Parker really is one of the outstanding candidates. Just like his partnership back in the day with Modric, there is something about Scott Parker and Tottenham Hotspur that just…. fits.

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