AFC Bournemouth
Scott Parker sat down for his first press conference as AFC Bournemouth head coach – and we picked out five of the key talking points.
Parker joined the club just over a week ago, going straight into training with his new squad as they prepare for the 2021/22 Championship campaign.
Here are five of the key topics that Parker spoke about at Vitality Stadium during his first sit down with the local and national media.
Why he decided to join the club
I’m joining a football club here and I feel for me to be successful there are certain elements that I want and while I understand what the short-term goals are there’s also a long-term goal that fits to where I needed to be.
At this present moment in time in my career I feel that I’m coming to a football club with people around me and the vision, the processes which are in place give me and my staff and the team the chance to be successful.
That’s what’s key for me, it’s not about money or one player. I’ve been around football for a long time and I have some clear ideas of what a football club needs to be successful and I feel I’ve come to a place where I can implement that around people who also understand that.
I’m looking forward to that next challenge, looking forward to trying to develop and move on as a football club.
On his readiness to take on a new challenge
I’m more that ready. I’m ready for the next challenge, excited by it and with excitement comes energy. I invested, me and my staff, a huge amount emotionally and physically to our last job because that was the challenge we had in front of us.
Those energy levels and those energy bars have gone right up again since we came into this new environment, that's what it gives you. Anyone can relate to that when you’re going into a new job or a first day at school, that’s the feeling that I have here.
How well equipped the squad is
We have quality in the squad but there's one thing that I realise: there’s no one name on the team sheet. In this division what’s vitally important is that you have a group of players that are willing to do everything in their power for the team to be successful.
We’re going to need some additions, of course we are, there are six or seven players from last season who have left the club so in terms of the squad we’re light, but I think every football club at this present time will be saying the same thing.
Over the next few weeks and days we’ll be looking to add some more quality to the squad and then we’ll keep going from there.
The role of former Cherries midfielder Harry Arter in the move
He speaks really highly of the club and I’m not coming here blind. I had been around this club while Harry was playing, visited here and watched him play.
I have nothing but fond memories and everything he’s told me – I’ve been here now for eight or nine days – that’s exactly what I’ve found. It’s a good football club, there are good people from my initial reaction and it’s a friendly place as well.
Everything Harry has said to me has come true so far.
His expectations for the Championship
It’s a relentless league. Saturday-Wednesday, Saturday-Tuesday, the games come thick and fast so we need to be fully prepared for that physically.
That’s the work we’re going to do from now until the first game of the season to give us a platform to go into a hard season tactically, in terms of trying to implement a philosophy here which is new to the players.
I’ll expect it's a new way of playing for them, a clear way and it’s about how well we can pick that up. There are a lot of facets that you need to get out of this division and hopefully we’ll try and cover all those bases.
