Earlier this month England’s 2004 young footballer of the year changed hands between the country’s clubs for £6,5-million, bringing the total spent on one of the brightest prospects Charlton have ever produced to £16,5-million in 17 months. In that time Scott Parker has played in two England friendlies, one Champions League semi-final, and made eight Premiership starts.
As much as Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry or Steven Gerrard might represent the dash and verve of Premiership football, Parker’s story highlights the darker side of a cash-driven game. Through no fault of his own, it should be said, though one does wonder about the wisdom of trying to resurrect a promising career with a move to Newcastle.
”This is a massive, massive club,” Parker said when signing in at St James’ Park. After his wasted year at Chelsea, no one would wish Parker anything other than a successful career in the north-east, though all the goodwill in the world cannot disguise a gaping hole in the logic.
”I had a driving ambition to win trophies at Chelsea,” Parker said. ”I’ve still got that, and that’s why Newcastle is the only club for me.” Trophies? Newcastle?
Parker seems not to realise that he is the trophy. Newcastle have not won any significant silverware for half a century, and though they have reached FA Cup finals and finished Premiership runners-up within more recent memory, they never packed a champions’ punch and have spent the past couple of seasons fighting themselves. What they do is win smaller battles for prestige, using the income from their mighty fan base to beat mid-ranking clubs to midmarket players.
That was how Patrick Kluivert ended up on Tyneside on £60 000 a week. The fans were supposed to be impressed with such a marquee name, and they were until they saw him play. Celestine Babayaro and Nicky Butt are two other players tempted to the north-east by the money on offer who have been slow to convince supporters. Parker is not in that category — at 24 he is bursting to prove his undoubted worth — but as his massive new club buckle down to the InterToto Cup it is tempting to speculate what might have been the crucial factor in his decision to choose Newcastle.
Parker could have joined Everton, who are in the Champions League and have the manager of the year in David Moyes. Or he could have gone to Spurs, the club he supported as a boy, who seem to be making progress under Martin Jol and who desperately wanted him. Instead he chose to revive his career at a club that spent last season in the news for all the wrong reasons. A club with more problems than most, and certainly more problem players. A club who have developed a habit of sacking their managers within weeks of the start of a new season and where Graeme Souness has yet to win over sections of support. It doesn’t seem to make sense, unless Souness has hitherto unsuspected powers of salesmanship or Parker simply wants to get as far away from London as possible.
Of course, though, it makes financial sense. Newcastle outbid everyone else, to the extent that the £55 000 a week, five-year deal that Parker has just signed is marginally more generous than the one he was on at Chelsea. Spurs and Everton could not match that, while Birmingham and Wigan were dismissed out of hand.
”We are not in the Champions League, but we have proved a point,” Souness crowed.
If a point has been proved, it is a moot one. Yes, Newcastle have demonstrated ambition and determination. On the other hand, if they value Parker so highly why were they not offering these terms 18 months ago when he was still at Charlton?
Parker could have had his big-money move and played in all the games, and Newcastle would have had one of the best young players in the Premiership.
One fears the only point that has just been proved is that Newcastle have more money to splash around than most mid-table clubs. As Middlesbrough proved a few years ago, you can attract just about any player if you throw enough money at him, but you tend to end up with a gang of mercenaries rather than a football team. If Newcastle end up with Luis Figo, as has been touted, it will be like winding back the clock 10 years to when Boro signed Fabrizio Ravanelli for the then unheard of wages of £40 000 a week.
Wanting to maximise his earning potential does not make Parker a mercenary — how many of us would turn down a pay rise of £10 000 or £15 000 a week? — though it is possible he has just made the same mistake twice. No one blamed him for going to Chelsea, even though Alan Curbishley and many others accurately predicted the pitfalls. You have to have belief in yourself, and if young players always took the cautious line and backed away from challenges football would be much the poorer.
Parker has made sure he will not be any poorer over the next five years, and after his chastening experience at Chelsea, where he was sidelined by injury as well as a surfeit of midfielders, who can say he is wrong? Perhaps, giving him the full benefit of the doubt, he is a tenacious midfielder like Souness who particularly enjoys a challenge. If so, he has gone to the right place. — Â