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Scott Parker

Top 5 sports items this week 24/4/25: Rodney Childers’ shock departure at Spire, Scott Parker’s links with Tottenham after PL promotion with Burnley, Super Rugby Round 11/16, Max Verstappen and Western Bears in NRL

by Sports Benches April 24, 2025

Bummer Rodney Childers won’t be back in the No.7 pit box but Spire ain’t backing down nonetheless with all three cars in & out of Top 16 to 20 drivers’ points.

There’s always time with the win and Playoffs still a possibility as long as it’s before September where Spire has the full backing of three talented and experienced drivers in McDowell, Haley and Hocevar.

Parker back to Tottenham?

While Burnley now back to the PL, Scott Parker might not be there because of Tottenham who could get rid of Aussie Ange even if he wins the Europa final.

Maybe it’s best if Scott helps Burnley win it all and see Leeds bottle it at the same time, then he can go considering he hasn’t been successful so far at this top level.

There’s even talk about Leeds wanting to sack Farke in order to avoid his curse record at PL level – looks like it will be advantage Parker for the title then.

Super Rugby: another golden week from the Aussie sides v NZ?

Super Rugby back for another week going the Australian teams away we hope after a few brilliant games including one that ended in a draw, although not so much for the Waratahs unfortunately v Fijian Drua away in Suva.

Yet, things could get even better if Reds, Brumbies and Force all beat their respective NZ teams in Blues, Hurricanes and Chiefs this weekend.

Perfect timing (mark that down) and as of Week 11 out of 16, still no NZ side win recorded yet at least on Australian soil.

Max Verstappen wants out of Red Bull?

Also, Max frustrated behind the scenes being the cut lone figure at Red Bull when McLaren in a Mercedes customer engine are leading the way via Oscar and Lando.

Would love to see him end up at Aston Martin with Honda engines + Adrian Newey again & Franco C. be the ideal one when RB have no other choice post-Max.

NRL finally has a Perth team with assistance of the North Sydney Bears

And last but not least, Perth will finally get a NRL team in a long time with credit to the North Sydney Bears.

That means, the Bears will be expected to play top-level Rugby League once again but looks like half of the games will be played at in Perth with other still going to be at the spiritual North Sydney Oval.

National footprint is important for all of our Aussie sports including rugby despite losing a team in Melbourne but gotta accept it’s the best fight right now in the bid for championships and series trophies.

The big weekend other than the off-weekend of F1 starts tomorrow on ANZAC day Friday before the second last round’s matches is on a bright Saturday night at 9pm and we round it off with the shuffling decks of Talladega come Monday AM.

April 24, 2025 0 comment

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2024-25 EFL Championship Round 40 of 46: Burnley now back on top of the table with six more games to go following their 2-1 comeback win over Coventry City

by Sports Benches April 6, 2025

Look who is first on the English Championship table with six games to go?

It’s none other than Burnley thanks to their 2-1 rebound win over fellow Play-Off contenders Coventry City thanks to a Jaidon Anthony double goal on the left wing.

Not only that, their weekend has gone to an all-time high because Oxford United defeated Sheffield United 1-0 while Leeds United were stranded by relegation battlers Luton Town with a 1-1 draw.

All Burnley has to do now is win all next six games and not boring draws or even losing it out if they possibly can since they are a point ahead of The Blades (Sheffield United) and two clear up against Leeds.

That way, they could regain Premier League status straight up as the first team to do so ahead of anyone else.

Scrambled defense being led by the starting goalkeeper James Trafford?

Yes, but making the most out of attack?

It has to stay that way & Scott Parker could win all of Championship’s finest of promotions from Play-Off winners to runner-up but has yet to win a Championship trophy from 1st place.

That’s something he should be looking at right this minute and then time will tell if he is able to prove himself at the top flight.

For now, they got another game v another relegation battled side Derby County on Wednesday Morning from 4.45am AEST.

They’ve been winning quite a few games up until today where Derby lost 1-0 to Swansea but there’s a good head coach out there in John Eustace, who wants to keep this club at bay away from the bottom three, having made the sacrifice to leave top-half Blackburn following a difficult January transfer activity.

But no doubt Burnley will have to fire it up like they’ve done over these past few games if they really want to keep their top players as going back to the PL helps than having to spend another year in the 2nd tier. Also, Scott Parker has yet to have last beyond his 2nd season so far as head coach from Fulham to Bournemouth – both stable PL clubs without him for years now.

Not even the 67 days he spent in Belgium that was unfortunately cut short at Club Brugge back in early 2023 & they’re sitting third in the Champions Play-Off fight.

So up to Scott now to make things count starting next week.

April 6, 2025 0 comment

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EFL Championship 24/25: Burnley continues to draw again this time against Preston North End from the weekend 0-0

by Sports Benches February 17, 2025

Another week, another draw other than the win last week v one of the relegation contenders Hull City via their own goal and Burnley hasn’t scored one in a while.

This goes on from the weekend following a 0-0 draw against fellow Lancashire and North side Preston North End at Deepdale.

Now they are five points behind Sheffield United who continued to keep on winning on 70 if not eight points if Leeds United go on to beat Sunderland come tomorrow morning, who has been in free-scoring form over the past 2-3 weeks, and there they are now keeping up with the Championship table after Round 32 of 46.

Although do understand how much Burnley wants to hold on their rock-solid backline that is built around star keeper James Trafford despite starting to slip away from the Top 2 automatic spots.

Maybe they want to keep that good build up base after all & not bother about the Championship table but if Burnley do miss out Top 2 & go into Play-Offs, this could turn out to be a dangerous game that could see them miss out on a last-chance promotion back to the Premier League.

However, Leeds and Sheffield United haven’t been consistent though when being tested in the top flight. So this could be one reason as to why Scott Parker (Head Coach) would may as well look to play it safe going into the 2025/26 season.

That is when his biggest test will come into play having only last two full seasons at Fulham back in 2019-21 as well as a season and a bit (2021-22) with Bournemouth – all of which were Premier League promotions during his first year in charge before things came to a crashing end. Don’t forget he did have a spell over in Belgium with Club Brugge but then his time was sadly short lived after 67 days.

It would be great if he can find a way to get them scoring again but I guess he wants to look at something long-term when it comes to stability just like Sean Dyche did throughout the past decade, even though his tactics are dull just like Parker and somehow this could pay off – both getting out of the second tier at first before going on to become a consistent Top 10-15 side in the Premier League.

For now, Burnley’s next game will be against Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday morning not far within the North at their home ground (Turf Moor).

February 17, 2025 0 comment

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2024/25 EFL Championship Soccer: Burnley off to a red-hot start under new head coach Scott Parker with the 4-1 win v Luton Town

by Sports Benches August 13, 2024

Looks like Burnley is off to a terrific start under new coach Scott Parker with the huge 4-1 win v fellow Premier League relegation team Luton Town at Kenilworth Road. The first half was easy to say Burnley with two goals out in front ahead of half-time. Yes, Luton may have found one back a few minutes at the restart thanks to Tanith Chong in the 55th minute.

But Burnley went all the way though to extend their lead with another two goals that put themselves right up within the Top 2 promotion spots alongside Sheffield Wednesday after Round 1 of 46 in the new 2024/25 EFL Championship season.

Yeah, it’s not the same for Burnley when they returned straight to the 2nd tier after their poor Premier League term campaign last season under previous head coach Vincent Kompany (now managing Bayern Munich). But at least retaining most of the crop would help Scott Parker get up and running for the huge task that proved to be the real real where goals were shared amongst the whole team, while playing possession-based attacking football was a huge plus too in the way Burnley wanted to play their soccer from here where they last topped the Championship table under Kompany two seasons ago (2022/23 term).

There’s still a long way to go so Scott can achieve yet another promotion back in the PL but this time it would have to be the 1st place, having achieved 2nd place before with Bournemouth & Play-Offs for Fulham in the past. Other than that, it was good seeing Burnley function as a whole unit with more to come going into this weekend v Cardiff City as it progresses.

Looking at Luton, they simply just couldn’t handle the dominant Burnley side on their first game back in the 2nd tier. They went with five defenders and a narrow front attacking three; Although they had a good moment or two after half-time, it’s been disappointing to hear that the Luton are not up to the task needed to fight off a side that already has Premier League experience. There’s still 45 odd matches left with League 1 champions Portsmouth next up, but time will tell if Luton can at least be challenging Top 6 between now and season’s end come May. A play-offs isn’t bad having been won that path before last season in the 2022/23 term but a straight promotion would mean a lot to this small team under coach Rob Edwards.

August 13, 2024 0 comment

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Thoughts on Scott Parker returning to management now with Burnley after 2 x Championship promotions but also underwhelming spells in the EPL & Belgium

by Sports Benches July 5, 2024

And just before the weekend, Burnley FC have finally got a replacement onboard to replace the now Bayern Munich head coach Vincent Kompany in none other than ex-England midfielder Scott Parker. He’s the man who guided both Fulham via the Play-Offs in 2019-20 and Bournemouth as runner-up in 2021-22 to also Fulham to Premier League promotions over the last couple of years in the EFL Championship but has yet to cut it in the top flight, having experienced one full season relegation in West London while being sacked only a few matches into the new season with Bournemouth.

Then things went from bad to worse when he took the chance to cut his teeth abroad at Club Brugge in Belgium’s Pro League but he only won just 2 games out of 12 that only lasted 67 days en route towards yet another sacking as he’s been out of management a little over a year until he’s now back at Turf Moor to try and get this club straight back into the Premier League. The new season will start in early August on Tuesday 13th at 5am AEST against fellow Premier League relegation side Luton Town in the hope of topping this table once again throughout the 2024/25 season, would look pretty nice for him to guide a 3rd Championship promotion to the PL but this time with the finish for 1st.

Burnley has been there before back in 2022/23 with Kompany before they struggled to keep up with the Premier League table following another relegation finish in 19th and sure they’ll do it again this time under Parker.

Yes, there will be some people who will criticise him for not being good in the Premier League when he complained of Bournemouth not being backed to succeed there upon his 2nd head coach firing after Bournemouth lost too much v Liverpool 9-0 nearly two years ago and yet they did well in 13th under Gary O’Neil – who is very good with the coaching side of things rather than him feeling like he has the responsibility of what a traditional old-fashioned manager does in English soccer- which is now predominantly redundant nowadays. Although O’Neil wasn’t kept on when Bournemouth wanted to do things differently with really good football under Androni Irola, he didn’t do bad though at Wolves last season in 14th.

Don’t forget Scott witnessed the same thing when Fulham spent 100 million pounds of players upon their return into the Premier League at the first attempt back in 2020-21 & unfortunately, that didn’t go well for him despite winning a couple of games on what has been a mostly underwhelming season where they returned straight to the 2nd tier in 18th place.

However, he has some qualities that is relevant to the modern game such as playing possession-based/attacking football, knows how to get the best out of young players and can be expansive on how he coaches them too with a back four for the majority and sometimes back three/five on occasions if required. Not only that, he will be sorely be responsible of the coaching since he will take over the head coach title while Burnley will continue to buy players soon enough to help Scott dominate this Championship table that suits his tactics. The club have already began their transfer activity with right-back Shurandy Sambo from PSV for free the other day when they were still managerless at the time not long before Parker’s arrival.

Now he will soon get back to work to coach the players starting next week under a three-year deal as time will tell if he can finally do better in the Premier League at some point should Burnley be promoted once again, so clubs like West Ham (his old playing club) can give him a chance to try and compete in the Top 6-7 every season alongside some deep domestic cup runs.

July 5, 2024 0 comment