Scott’s got what it takes, I knew it straight away!
Former Fulham star Ryan Babel backs Parker to be a top coach
IT DID not take long for Scott Parker to prove he had what it takes. Just one season in management and there he was, the man in the suit with the perfect hair, celebrating Fulham’s return to the Premier League. No wonder a new contract is on its way.
He made his impression well before he was flung behind the manager’s desk at Craven Cottage. It was as the club’s assistant coach under Slavisa Jokanovic and then Claudio Ranieri, even as their relegation from the top flight became ever more certain, that he made his mark on the players.
As far as Ryan Babel, the enigmatic forward who joined Fulham on a six- month deal in January of 2019, is concerned it was immediate.
‘ He would do a lot of training sessions and already then I could tell, with the way he coached the players, that he would become a manager,’ says Babel, 33. ‘ Of course, at that point I didn’t know the manager role was going to come so quick for him, but you can always tell if an assistant coach or manager understands football in the way you hope he does.
‘ I felt like he gave the older players, including me, the responsibility to speak to the younger players and help them out. That also gives the older players confidence because it makes you feel like he sees you as a grown-up.’
Following Ranieri’s sacking, Parker was bumped up to the top job in March last year with 10 games remaining and a 10-point gap they were ultimately unable to make up. Five defeats in his first five games was hardly the best start to managerial life. Seventeen months and one season later, his team are back in the big time.
‘ He has been able to put his influence on the team,’ says Babel. ‘They were unable to show it in the Premier League but he finally had time to make sure the team understood how he wanted to play. This is the reward for him.’
While Babel did not stay beyond his short stint, signing a three-year contract at Turkish club Galatasaray and having just finished a six-month loan spell at Ajax, he continued to support Fulham from afar.
‘I fell in love with Fulham the first week I was there,’ he says. ‘Not only because they were great people but t he way the whole club bonded with each other. For me it was pretty new to see, at the training ground, that you have lunch with also the people who work in the office. Everyone taking food from the same buffet, having conversations with each other. Normally with teams, I feel like they always try to separate the first team from the rest.
‘I built great relationships there. If I couldn’t watch the games [last season], I had it on Live-Score. To see the final game, how they won it, gave me a satisfying feeling to see them come up again.’
Babel scored five goals in 16 games during his time at Fulham, including the club’s goal of the season for his strike against Cardiff. Those strong bonds off the field did not carry on to it for Fulham’s fight for survival. Twelve summer signings, at a cost of about £100 million, failed to gel and the club paid the price. ‘What I noticed was you had a lot of different types of players from different nationalities,’ says Babel. ‘If you have two centre-backs who can not communicate with each other because they do not speak the same language then you know there is going to be miscommunication. I could sense the bonding was not on point to a level where we could show we could do it as a team.’
Now, under Parker’s leadership, they have. Holding on to Aleksandar Mitrovic was vital, as were the additions of Ivan Cavaleiro and Anthony Knockaert. The close bond he forged with his players was the key.
For Babel, the responsibility to look after the younger players is one that the former Liverpool winger carries with him. He is trying to encourage them to invest money for their futures, specifically in real estate.
Babel began buying property in 2011, shortly after he left Liverpool, the club that signed him for £11.5m and he now has a portfolio of nearly 50 properties worth over £ 27m, through which he wants to provide affordable housing for families.
‘I recognise the kind of behaviour that a typical footballer is doing, spending a lot of money on cars, fancy stuff, clothing and I try to get them to open their eyes to what they should do with their football earnings, because their football career is very short. God forbid someone gets injured and they don’t have the career they hope they can have,’ he says.
Such a sensible sense of forethought is, perhaps, not what you may expect to hear from a player with his reputation. Think Babel, you think social media. You think of Howard Webb mocked up in a Manchester United shirt, a post for which Babel was fined £10,000. Think Babel, think music too and him rapping on YouTube. Turning up at Fulham with red hair played more into that stereotype than of a man in his thirties ready for a relegation battle.
For Babel, it is about perception. The gulf between what people see, what they want to think and the truth. During the interview, he is engaging, open and honest on all topics. You realise there is more to the man than the caricature. ‘I remember when I was 18, 19, I was involved with musicians in Holland,’ he said.
‘I did some fun stuff in my summer holiday. After that, I didn’t do so much with music, but because that was still on YouTube people thought I was focused on music and not on football. That affected me also in my time in Liverpool. I was, in people’s eyes, not the professional I thought I was.
‘Of course, it affected me. I was 20 and there were so many new things for me. I was living abroad for the first time. I was living by myself for the first time. If you saw how I was behind the scenes, I was really not that crazy or unprofessional as people thought.’
Babel has spoken before about how he felt marginalised by Rafa Benitez and, while he does not name the former Liverpool boss, it is clear there is lingering pain from his time at Anfield.
‘ I have always said that some players need the right guidance. If managers feel that, they can always get the best out of people. Not every manager is built to invest time in young players. I feel like I didn’t get the help I needed to excel and be the player I could have been at that time.’
He is older now, wiser too. And he feels he has plenty more to give, not just on the pitch but also to the younger generation, to give them guidance he feels he never had.