Finally confirmation of the news we have pretty much all been expecting over the past couple of weeks, Scott Parker is our new Head Coach. I didn’t for a second think that Tom Cairney would sign a new contract without knowing who the new manager was going to be so I guess this has been in the works for a bit of time. Given that Cairney, the leader of our squad, is clearly happy with the news, I think that we can be confident that it’s a welcome appointment from the players point of you.

I don’t know about you, but I feel so much more confident about relegation this time around than I did five years ago and one of the reasons for that is because I think we have a Head Coach who understands the club so much more than Magath did. Parker finished his career at Fulham. He was the one of the first signings of the Khan era back in 2013 and has been our captain and club captain. This is a signing that we can all get excited about. While he doesn’t have mountains of experience, if we can keep hold of Stuart Gray then I believe that Scott has all the ingredients to be a successful manager. He was always the sort of player who would run himself into the ground for his club and the fact that he has already instilled that sort of attitude into players who were facing relegation, means that we are in good hands.

One of my fondest memories from his playing days at Fulham was in 2016 in a dull and uninspiring 1-1 draw at Birmingham. It was just after the January transfer window when Moussa Dembele had been rumoured to be joining Spurs, but the move didn’t come off and Dembele’s head dropped. He looked dis-interested for the remainder of the season. Going into the last few minutes with the game still level, Jokanovic brought Dembele off but instead of leaving the pitch quickly he decided to make his feelings known and went slowly, making the home and away crowd go nuts considering that the game could still be won by someone. Parker was our captain that day and he sprinted to Dembele, took him by the arm and ran him off the pitch. He wasn’t waiting for some kid to throw his toys out of his pram, he was focused on the game and trying to give Fulham a chance to gain all three points. There is no messing around with Parker, and that is the sort of thing we need going into a very difficult Championship campaign.

 However, I think we need to have our realistic heads on next season. We don’t know how the squad will look come August and we know that there are a lot of areas where we need strengthening. The Championship is probably the most difficult league in the world to get out of, even for managers and coaches who have a tonne of experience. Without knowing what our squad will look like it’s hard to really say what our target should be next year, but I’d imagine that the Khan’s are focused on promotion. Obviously that’s what we would like, but I think we have to back a long-term project. If it doesn’t happen next season it’s not the end of the world. The Khan’s have acted swiftly, giving Parker a full summer and pre-season which is great news. This is a new chapter in our history, and I can’t wait to see what it brings.

#COYW