Charlton are set to take on former player Scott Parker’s Fulham tomorrow lunchtime as it is the first time he will face his old team as a manager after leaving the club on bad-terms in 2004.
As we all know former Charlton man Scott Parker left the club for Chelsea in January of 2004 and most fans still hold that grudge to this very because we were flying high at the time with players such as Paolo Di Canio, Matt Holland and Hermann Heridersson as we were in pole position for a Champions League spot.
Scott decided to take the money all those years ago, but unfortunately for him, he fell out of favour at Chelsea and opted for a move to Newcastle United instead where he would link up once again with Lee Bowyer.
The Charlton manager has given his verdict on Scott Parker this morning
“Scotty is a nice fella. I’ve known him from when he was younger obviously, coming through the ranks we had a few battles and then we played together at West Ham and Newcastle. We formed a good partnership at Newcastle. I think he’s quite similar to me really, he’s just a winner, everything is about winning. He’ll have his lads up for it on Saturday, I have no doubt, just the same as I will with our lads. It will be good to come against him and have a different type of battle. I’m looking forward to seeing him, I haven’t seen him for a while, we drop the odd message to each other here and there. It will be good to see Scotty.”
Sounds like they are friends outside of football, despite the battles they had on the pitch and some of them were quite brutal as I remember Bowyer shoving Parker over the advertising board in 2002.
We will see what kind of battle they will have together tomorrow, but I think both of them have calmed down a lot since their days as players, especially Bowyer.