Fulham boss Parker reacts to Tony Khan tweets and adds: We need defenders with personality

BY DANIEL MARSH

Fulham boss Scott Parker refused to be drawn on comments from director of football Tony Khan following the conclusion of tonight’s 3-0 loss to Aston Villa.

The Whites were undone by three strikes from the visitors, with Khan tweeting out an apology to the club’s fans immediately after the final whistle. He went on to state the team would be better and that additions would be made, while highlighting some of the recruitment issues the club have had recently, including some coronavirus issues.

When questioned on Khan’s tweet, Parker said he hadn’t seen the comments.

I apologize to @FulhamFC supporters for our performance tonight. We’ve looked to add centre-backs since Wembley, I’m sorry we haven’t yet as 2 got COVID + we lost a Free we thought was close + had another issue with a 4th CB. I promise players in + better efforts from this squad.

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) September 28, 2020

“I don’t know what’s really been said [by Khan]. I’ve got some sort of idea but that’s the modern day world – people have the forum and the platform to tweet what they want to tweet.

“I suppose like us as a group, it’s [about] actions. Of course, Tony’s the owner of the football club, he’s the director of football and obviously he feels it’s his responsibility and it is in terms of bringing players in so that’s obviously where it is. Helpful? I’m not sure, but that’s up to Tony really.”

Parker stated that his side’s defensive performance was “not good enough” as their tally for goals conceded moved into double figures (10) just three league games into the new campaign.

He admitted he and the club were keen to add defensive reinforcements, but remained coy on naming certain individuals.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t know [on who the individual targets are]. I honestly wouldn’t know. I think people in the places here at the football club make those decisions. I highlight where I feel where we need to improve, I highlighted that after Wembley – not just defenders. Just where we need to improve in this team if we want to compete at this level. If we want to try and compete and be successful this year then there’s areas. In terms of names and who they are, I don’t know that, I don’t know the real details.

“I think we need to bring some defenders in with personality, with a real experience about them. Like I said, it’s not new. None of us are sitting here [thinking we don’t need to bring defenders in].

I should + will apologize repeatedly for that performance. I’m sorry everybody. We all need to do a better job. Everyone at the club for the past year worked really hard to get the team up, & now we need to work significantly harder to stay up. I promise better efforts than today

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) September 28, 2020

“Other than Michael Hector it’s the same [defensive group]. I don’t want to be over critical of the boys, they’ve been first class for me. But these boys need help as well. It’s like anything. When you move up from the Championship to the Premier League, the team evolves and you need to bring players in who can make the squad better, push other players on to improve and be alongside them. That’s where it is really and I think we all recognise that, you haven’t got to know the game inside out to know that.

“I go back to what I said, we need to work out whether we [add to] compete this year or otherwise it’ll be a tough year.

“This team needs to evolve, to get better and get stronger and to do that you need players in. That’s going to give us the chance to be successful. If not, we’ll work like we have worked and we’ll try and improve things and try and keep pushing along, but it was the same the last time we were in this division.

“I certainly learnt from that, I’ve stated that and I completely understand that so hopefully we [the team] can as well.”