Scott Parker adamant Fulham’s director of football Tony Khan had no right to offer apology for Aston Villa performance
Scott Parker has told Fulham’s director of football Tony Khan that he had no right to offer a Twitter apology for the team’s performance against Aston Villa on Monday night, saying that his players had put everything into the performance.
The son of billionaire owner Shahid Khan immediately posted on Twitter in the aftermath of the 3-0 home defeat, their third from three this season, that he wished to “apologise for our performance” and explain to Fulham fans why, among other things, the club had failed to sign a centre-back.
In his press conference ahead of Thursday’s Carabao Cup round of 16 game against Brentford, a re-run of last season’s play-off final, Parker was emphatic that his Tony Khan should not have apologised. Tony, who bills himself as Fulham’s general manager, sporting director and director of football, has long overseen the club’s transfer policy and the integration within that of his own company’s data analytics.
Asked why in particular the apology from Tony had dismayed him so much Parker said: “I just don’t agree with that. You don’t need to apologise for the performance. The performance was there and there was nothing wrong with the performance. If you want to apologise for a performance that means you are apologising for a lack of work ethic, lack of desire, lack of energy, people not really bothering.
“When you play a football match you can lose it you can have bad games, you can make mistakes and for that you should never apologise. That’s sport. That’s humans. In that you never ever apologise … every single one of them [players] gave us everything and they worked tirelessly hard during that whole time. As a football club and an organisation I will accept nothing less than that. I would be the first to apologise if that was the case. But that’s not the case and that was not the case last night.”
Parker pointed out that he also felt that the Fulham supporters were not looking for an apology, although many questioned the club’s approach to building a Premier League ready team. In his responses on Twitter on Monday night, Tony Khan said that the club had lost out on two unnamed centre-backs “as 2 got COVID” [sic] and said there had been problems with signing another two targets in that position.
The 37-year-old Khan, who is also involved with the family’s NFL franchise, Jacksonville Jaguars, added on Twitter: “I should + will apologize repeatedly for that performance. I’m sorry everybody. We all need to do a better job”. Parker said he was unaware of the Fulham transfer targets who might potentially have contracted coronavirus. The Brazilian defender Marlon Santos, of Sassuolo in Serie A, is understood to have failed a medical at Fulham in the last week although for unspecified reasons.
The Telegraph columnist and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher described Tony Khan as a “clown” on Monday night. “It always ends up in tears,” Carragher said on the subject of owners or sporting directors trying publically to criticise team performances. The Khans have tried to learn from the summer of 2018 when they invested around £100 million on a promoted Fulham team that finished 19th in the Premier League.
Parker said that he had prepared his players for the likelihood that there would be a lot of external criticism as they fought for their Premier League lives this season – although the most damning has come from the family that owns the club.
He said: “I think the owner in Tony is passionate. He wants the best for the team and I totally understand that. It’s my job to try to manage a group of players and keep us on a level where we compete and we give the players some sort of realism. This is where we are this year. We are going to lose four on the bounce. That is going to happen the same as with other teams in this division. There are other teams who have lost four on the bounce or conceded more goals than us.
“Ultimately we can’t control the noise and what people say. I understand what we are living in, in terms of what I am doing and what the team are doing. I understand the narrative will often be when it is us. We can only change that by getting results and getting performances. [The tweets from Tony Khan were] not helpful but it is what it is.”
Parker, who signed a new deal until the summer of 2023 this month said that he would discuss the issue with Tony Khan with whom he speaks, he says, more than once a week. Both Mario Lemina and Harrison Reed will be missing for the Cup game against Brentford although Parker was hopeful that one might return for the Wolverhampton Wanderers game on Sunday.
