Scott Parker wanted by Bournemouth as Fulham exit looms for manager
Bournemouth are lining up a move to appoint Scott Parker, who is close to leaving his post as Fulham’s manager.
Parker’s two-year spell at Fulham is expected to end following relegation from the Premier League and Bournemouth have placed the 40-year-old top of their shortlist as they search for a manager.
The former England midfielder’s future at Craven Cottage has been in doubt since the end of the season. Parker, initially appointed by Fulham on a caretaker basis in February 2019, has not seen eye to eye with Fulham’s board over their plans for the future and it is understood that he is interested in taking over at the Vitality Stadium.
It is unlikely that Bournemouth will find it hard to complete a deal with Parker, who built a good reputation during his time at Fulham. The southcoast club will wait before Parker’s departure from Fulham is confirmed before formalising their interest.
Bournemouth, relegated from the Premier League in 2020, are preparing for another season in the Championship after failing to make it through the play-offs. They made Jonathan Woodgate their head coach on an interim basis until the end of the season after sacking Jason Tindall in February. Woodgate has yet to leave his role but Bournemouth want Parker to lead a promotion push.
Although Parker could not stop the Fulham from falling out of the Premier League in 2019, he secured promotion via the play-offs during his first full season.
Fulham’s second relegation in three years will not deter Bournemouth from pursuing Parker. Their view is that he did a good job in difficult circumstances. Although Fulham lacked enough quality to stay in the Premier League, they often played enterprising football.
Gary O’Neil, the former Portsmouth midfielder who is now Bournemouth’s first-team coach, is highly rated at the club and expected to stay following any reshuffle.
A smiling Christian Eriksen has insisted he is “fine – under the circumstances” as doctors work to determine the cause of his cardiac arrest. The 29-year-old Denmark midfielder continues to undergo tests in hospital after collapsing on the pitch during Saturday’s game against Finland at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen.
On Tuesday he posted on Instagram a photograph of himself making a thumbs-up gesture. The image was accompanied by a message to his 3.2m followers which read: “Big thanks for your sweet and amazing greetings and messages from all around the world. It means a lot to me and my family.
“I’m fine – under the circumstances. I still have to go through some examinations at the hospital, but I feel OK. Now, I will cheer on the boys on the Denmark team in the next matches. Play for all of Denmark. Best, Christian.”
Eriksen fell to the ground during the first half of the Group B game as he prepared to receive a throw-in. The team doctor, Morten Boesen, later confirmed Eriksen had suffered a cardiac arrest and “was gone”.
Uefa offered the players, who gathered in the changing room, the choice of resuming the match on Saturday evening or beginning again on Sunday at noon local time. But the Denmark coach, Kasper Hjulmand, has said that his players were put under pressure to play and questioned why the tournament’s protocols did not take this kind of incident into account.
“Coronavirus allows you to postpone a match for 48 hours. A cardiac arrest obviously does not. That, I think, is wrong,” Hjulmand said. “There is learning here. It was not the right decision to continue playing. The boys showed so much strength by going out and playing on. But I do not think it was the right thing to give us and the players the choice to go out and finish play on Saturday or Sunday.
“I felt that the players – and us close to them – were put under that pressure and were given that dilemma. It was a hugely difficult situation to be in. The only real leadership would have been to put the players on a bus and send them home and then deal with it after. You don’t necessarily find good leadership in the protocols. Good leadership can sometimes be to lead with compassion.”
Uefa insisted on Monday it had dealt with the matter as carefully as it could at the time. “It was decided to restart the match only after the two teams requested to finish the game on the same evening,” it said.
Denmark are due to return to action at the same venue on Thursday evening, when they face Belgium. Hjulmand said it would be “very emotional” for his players. “I have said – very apropos – that Christian is the heart of our team. He is the pulse, the rhythm of our game,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “No one can replace Christian … But together we will do something together, something different.”
He added: “I don’t think they’re afraid to play but the normal reaction to a trauma like this, you should know, it’s not only yourself. It’s also your family, maybe your kids, your wife, your parents. So the box of emotions has been opened. I think we took a big step yesterday and I think we’ll take another one today.
“Of course the time until the kickoff will be emotional and we have to prepare ourselves for that, for entering the stadium again. Getting back to see our great fans. And up to kick-off there’ll be a lot of emotions we have to handle, and then prepare ourselves for when the referee whistles his first whistle.
“We will be ready to go and fight and play well and do everything for Denmark.”