English Premier League - Player Profile: Scott Parker
Scott Parker was born in Lambert which comes under the greater London territory in England. He presently plays for West Ham United, which is an English Premier League club based in Scott’s hometown London.
Parker usually plays as a midfielder and is known to be quite a tough tackler. After the young Englishman graduated from Lilleshall, he was signed up by Charlton Athletic as a trainee. He made his debut for Charlton against Bury on the 23rd of August, 2007. Impressed by his displays for the youth team, Charlton signed Parker up on a professional contract in October of 1997.
Over the course of next two years, Parker became a regular for Charlton and played consistent first team games. In 2000, Scott was loaned to Norwich City which was playing in division one of English football at that moment in time. Parker made some good appearances for Norwich as well but his loan spell was short lived because he was called back to his parent club, Charlton due to an injury to the club captain Kinsella.
The English midfielder slotted in perfectly and exceeded all expectations in replacing Kinsella. His performances at The Valley, which is Charlton’s home stadium, were so overwhelming that he became a regular in the lineup again even after Kinsella had recovered from injury. Parker’s displays would include aggressive tackling to win the ball back coupled with penetrating passes to his team mates. Soon other Premier League club’s started to inquire about Parker’s future at Charlton Athletic.
On 30th of January 2004, Chelsea successfully signed Scott Parker for 10 million pounds after a long and strenuous transfer English saga which preceded his transfer. Charlton were quite disappointed to lose their star midfielder for such a low price and their manager even criticized Chelsea F.C in their approach for the Englishman.
Parker’s initial role at Chelsea was of a squad player who was primarily bought to cover for any possible injuries to star players such as Makelele and Lampard, thus his starts for Chelsea in the first eleven were few and far between. His first and only goal for Chelsea came against Portsmouth at Fratton Park. In the summer of 2005, Parker parted ways with Chelsea due to the lack of first team appearances at the club. Chelsea agreed a deal with Newcastle United and Parker was transferred to Newcastle for a transfer fee of around 6.5 million pounds. Parker quickly regained his old form at Newcastle and became a first team regular at the Tyne side club. After a year of regularly impressive performances, Glenn Roeder named Scott as Newcastle United’s club captain. His first goal as the club captain came against Wigan Athletic in August of 2006.
In December of 2006, Scott was declared the best player in England after statistical analysis which was conducted by Sky Sports and Opta Index; his performances led Newcastle to an Intertoto Cup victory. However, his days at Newcastle appeared to be numbered because the club was going through a financial crisis, in the summer transfer window of 2007, West Ham United signed Parker from Newcastle United for a fee of around seven million pounds. Parker’s time at West Ham up till now has been blighted by injuries. He has found it hard to regain his electric form and has also struggled to make an impact during his time at the club.
Despite fitness problems, Parker helped the London club maintain their Premier League status for the 2010-2011 season after sensational performances for them in the 2009-2010 season. Parker will be looking to come back strong with West Ham as the club looks to rebuild itself in the upcoming season.
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