Fulham have rewarded manager Scott Parker with a new three-year deal following promotion back to the Premier League.
The 39-year-old former England international was named caretaker boss following the sacking of Claudio Ranieri in February 2019 and given the job on a permanent basis despite the west London club’s relegation.
Parker led Fulham out of the Championship at the first attempt via the play-offs and has now been given a new deal until 2023.
Parker made 128 appearance for Fulham and was club captain by the time he retired in 2017, with the former midfielder returning to the club as a coach the following summer.
Parker’s deal is a further boost to the Craven Cottage club’s Premier League preparations. Anthony Knockaert and Harrison Reed have signed permanent deals with the club after impressing on loan, while Antonee Robinson and Mario Lemina have also arrived at the club.
Fulham are in the hunt for more signings, with Parker understood to be more engaged in the recruitment process overseen by sporting director Tony Khan than previous coaches.
Khan manages the Whites’ transfer business and is working remotely in the United States due to coronavirus travel restrictions, but the director of football and manager are understood to be in regular contact over conference calls.
Fulham FC statement
The Club is delighted to announce that Scott Parker has put pen to paper on a new contract.
Our Head Coach has agreed a three-year deal, keeping him at Craven Cottage until the summer of 2023.
Upon signing, Parker said: “I’m delighted to have signed a new deal which shows mutual faith and commitment, on both my side and the Club’s.
“I’m pleased with the hard work we have all carried out behind the scenes which resulted in achieving our objective of promotion to the Premier League last month. This has been a huge effort involving many people, and has continued in our preparations for the new season.
“Signing a new deal provides stability and an opportunity to keep on developing the team. There is still a lot of hard work ahead of us, and we’ll always be striving to improve and progress every day.”
Shahid Khan also commented: “We believed in Scott Parker when we signed him as a player in 2013, and we believed in him as our Caretaker Manager at the end of our most recent season in the Premier League.
“Our belief and confidence in Scott is stronger than ever today and is evident in this new three-year contract, which is fully deserved, and I’m thoroughly honoured to offer as we return next week to top-flight football.”
Parker’s relationship with Fulham began in August 2013 when he arrived as a player from Tottenham Hotspur. By his retirement, he had been appointed Club captain and racked up 128 appearances.
He returned to SW6 as a coach in the summer of 2018, and was later promoted to the role of Caretaker Head Coach following the departure of Claudio Ranieri.
An improvement in performances and results soon followed, and he was handed the reins on a full-time basis prior to our final Premier League fixture in 2018/19.
The task the next year was not an easy one, with sides often struggling to return to the top flight at the first time of asking, but Parker succeeded in leading Fulham to a second promotion in as many Championship campaigns.
The Whites were in with a shout of the top-two right until the final game, but it ended up being another famous day at Wembley that secured our place back amongst England’s elite.
Parker rightly secured plaudits aplenty for the job he’d done in his first year in full-time charge, with our opening goal in the Play-Off Final an example of his attention to detail.
Now we look ahead to the 2020/21 season which kicks off on Saturday week against Arsenal at Craven Cottage, the same fixture in which Parker made his debut for the Whites seven years earlier.