“He leaps like a salmon and tackles like a ferret.”
That was the famous description of Paul Parker given by England Manager Bobby Robson at the 1990 World Cup – one that those Fulham fans who watched the defender grow up at Craven Cottage would likely agree with.
Despite his small stature, Parker’s athleticism made him a formidable wall for even the burliest of opposition strikers, with Malcolm Macdonald’s decision to transition him from right to centre back quickly vindicated.
“I had a big patch where I never saw a full-back position for years and years,” Parker told fulhamfc.com. “I had to learn to become a full-back again when I went to Manchester United. At Fulham I did start as a right-back, but then played quite a lot of games as a centre-half with Roger Brown, I played a few with Tony Gale as well. When my time at Fulham finished and I went to QPR I was definitely a centre-half.”
Brown was exactly the sort of defender you would imagine when picturing English football in the 1980s; robust, imposing – the yin to Parker’s yang.
“Stature, everything was completely different,” he says when drawing comparisons to his late teammate. “But our way of defending was quite similar; we saw our primary job as limiting and destroying a team’s opportunities against us, making sure they didn’t take any liberties. The way we did it was different, though. Roger was always about attacking the ball in the air and being very aggressive in the way he defended. Me, my pace was always going to get me out of trouble. If anybody did get in behind me then I fancied my chances of getting back. That’s why I enjoyed playing in the centre of the park because I had such an area to cover.”
Parker joined Fulham as an enthusiastic 11-year-old, and went on to do his apprenticeship alongside a number of players who would go to become very popular in SW6.
“There was Jim Stannard, Jeff Hopkins, Dean Coney, John Marshall, Peter Scott, Dale Tempest, Leroy Rosenior, Clifford Carr who I was in the youth team with, and later went on to the First Team,” he recalled.
“We were all apprentices together and then about seven or eight of us played together in the First Team. We were all together from a young age and had been through all the trials and tribulations that came with being an apprentice footballer at that time; cleaning boots, painting stands, cleaning the toilets at the ground – everything that the modern day apprentice isn’t allowed to do. But it’s something that made us all better people.
“I’d leave my house with my mum about 6.30 in the morning and get the bus to Elm Park station which is a few stops from the end of the District Line on the east side, jump on a train and then meet Dean Coney, Jim Stannard and a few others. Once we got to the ground we’d be straight on cleaning boots and making sure all the kit was ready for the pros we were looking after. Then we’d jump in the minibus and head to the Bank of England training ground at Roehampton. Once we had put all the kit out for the pros, only then would we go out and train. We’d finish just before the senior players so that we’d be ready to put all their dirty kits in bags before heading back to put everything in the wash. Then we’d have more cleaning to do around the ground, until we were told we could go home. But they were good times, and we’ve now got a WhatsApp group with about 20 of us on it from different eras.”
Younger Fulham fans will likely know of Parker, but maybe not the significance of his departure.
With the Club in desperate need of funds and the grim possibility of 'Fulham Park Rangers' becoming a reality, Parker was sold to our local rivals in a joint move with Dean Coney, for the much needed sum of £500,000.
“I didn’t have a say in it, but I knew it was coming,” Parker recalled. “We’d been relegated the season before, and it wasn’t as enjoyable as it had been. It just worked out that the people at Fulham, Marler Estates, wanted to take me and Dean to Queens Park Rangers. I’ve been told on many occasions that if I’d have kicked up a fuss and not wanted to go, then that would have affected the actual sale of Fulham, and maybe Fulham wouldn’t have been anymore if I hadn’t gone to QPR.
“Marler Estates were buying into QPR and there was all the amalgamation stuff that was being talked about. I got on very well with the chairman David Bulstrode at that time and he made it obvious to me what his intentions were. From a career point of view, maybe I should have left a couple of years earlier, but it never crossed my mind that I would ever leave Fulham.
“It’s just a shame really that that happened at that given time because if you talk about favourite clubs, Fulham is always going to be one of those that people talk about. Craven Cottage is maybe the most iconic ground in the country. FFC, Friendly Football Club. That’s how it was when I was a kid and it’s something that’s absolutely never changed. Friends will always get you through when a situation is bad, so Fulham will always have that on their side.”
Even now, Parker is still contributing to the Fulham cause, playing a role in young Ben Davis signing for the Club.
“I lived in Singapore for eight years,” he explained. “I’d known Ben since he was a kid as I used to work for his Dad, who runs one of the best football schools outside of the UK. Ben came through there and I said the moment I arrived that he was by far the most standout player in Singapore – and that includes their national team players. Ben was far and away above them.
“Since I’ve known him, he’s always been a very, very quiet, unassuming lad. He wasn’t phased by anything, because he knew what he wanted to be. He wanted to be a footballer, and everything in his mind geared towards that. I was the same as a kid. Ben’s mind was focused on coming to the UK and becoming a professional footballer, and it was great to see him make his First Team debut this season.”
Football nostalgia has been a welcome release for fans during lockdown, and this summer marks 30 years since the iconic tournament that was Italia 90. Parker travelled as one of the least experienced members of the England squad, but ended up starting every game bar the opener.
“When I was growing up it was all about playing in a FA Cup Final, playing for the best team, and playing for your country. And, more than anything, playing at a World Cup,” Parker said. “To leave Third Division Fulham in 1987 and then three years later I’m playing in a World Cup Semi-Final, it’s the kind of thing that wouldn’t really happen in today’s football.
“I play 15 minutes of competitive football before I go to the World Cup. Prior to that I’d started two or three friendly matches, but 15 minutes against Albania in a 5-0 win was the only competitive football I’d had. And then, second game in, I’m playing. All of a sudden, I’ve played six out of the seven matches at the World Cup.”
With almost 40 caps under his belt, Rangers’ Gary Stevens had firmly established himself as England’s first choice right-back. But after Robson switched things up tactically for the meeting with the Netherlands in the Group Stage, Parker leapfrogged him in the pecking order.
“After drawing with Ireland, I think Bobby Robson looked at the next game against the Dutch and thought we needed something different,” he explained. “Bryan Robson said we needed to flood the midfield to stop them passing the ball, so Bobby decided - with my pace and tendency to dig in – to put me in as right wing-back. I think I was more back than wing, mind you! When it reverted to a back four, Bobby kept me at right-back in front of Gary Stevens, who had been the regular from the moment he got into that England squad. Gary Stevens was England’s right-back, but Bobby stuck with me. Never in a million years did I think I could get in front of Gary.”
One of the most famous moments from that infamous night in Turin was Paul Gascoigne breaking down when he picked up a booking which would have ruled him out of the Final.
“I think I was in the background of the picture when that happened,” Parker said. “You knew what Gazza was like – very, very emotional. He got sent off against me when I was at QPR – I was ushering the ball out for a goal kick and Gazza decided he wanted to kick the back of my legs. I’d stopped and let the ball go out, and he just kept kicking me! But that was Gazza. We saw it again in the FA Cup Final against Nottingham Forest. In that Germany game, he knew that whatever happened, he wasn’t going to play in the Final. But I think you have to hand it to him, how he accepted that and controlled himself. After that booking, he got himself sorted out, didn’t think about himself and just thought about the team.”
Parker is a regular on the punditry circuit these days, but he can also be spotted at the racetrack, having developed an interest in horses.
“A Fulham fan called Darren Dix is the main shareholder in one of the horses I’m involved in, called Marbles Are Blue – say that quickly and you’ll get it! It’s all part of a sports business network called Cross Channel Racing, who I’m the ambassador for. The horse racing aspect is just a small part of it. Everyone who knows me would wonder why I’m involved in horses, because I don’t even gamble. Going down to horse racing stables and seeing how they train them is just so interesting. It’s very similar to how they train the modern day footballer – it isn’t about quantity, it’s about quality. You give them their run, then take the pressure off and relax, water them down and stretch off. All that which goes on in the background is what intrigues me.”
Paul does in fact own a horse himself, too. The name? Tackles Like A Ferret. Naturally.