Scott Parker’s Bournemouth sacking: Criticisms, transfers and a summer of tension

A year ago, Bournemouth appointed Scott Parker as the long-term successor to Eddie Howe. But after just four Premier League games, the club have parted ways with Parker in tense circumstances.

For some within Bournemouth, the writing has been on the wall.

The Athletic has been told that Parker’s dismissal was not a reaction to the 9-0 defeat to Liverpool on Saturday but rather a response to his negative comments towards the club’s hierarchy after matches.

There was clear concern in Parker’s words after Bournemouth lost 2-1 to Real Sociedad in their last pre-season game. That defeat prompted him to say the team were “way short of where we need to be” and “barely had any defenders”.

Parker’s post-match comments in pre-season, which would follow a similar pattern throughout the first month of the Premier League season, appeared to stem from frustrations that had been building over the summer.

It was no surprise to some staff, therefore, that Parker made such candid comments in regards to the competitiveness of his squad just days before the Premier League season started.

There was a clear attempt from the club’s hierarchy to get Parker to tone down the defeatist nature of his post-match comments. It is thought that came in the form of direct messages from the owner Maxim Demin to Parker after the defeat to Real Sociedad. But the losses to Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool, combined with the club’s seemingly stagnant transfer business, meant Parker’s frustrations boiled over once again.

“I feel sorry for the fans,” Parker said after the Liverpool loss. “I feel sorry for the players because we are just a bit under-equipped at this level from where we’ve come from and what we have. It has been difficult.

“(The result) doesn’t shine a light on it (what’s going wrong) for me because throughout the summer that’s exactly where I’ve seen it. There are players playing in this team with huge quality but this is the first time they are experiencing Premier League and we are where we are.

“This is the toughest day as a player and certainly as a coach, this is the most painful day that I have experienced. I could sense it was painful for the players on the pitch as well. I felt for every single one of them because they need some help and the levels were just too great.”

Asked whether the 9-0 defeat would be the lowest point of the season, Parker replied: “Where we currently are, I can see some more, to be honest with you.”

Yet there was at least some legitimacy to Parker’s concerns. With Nathaniel Phillips, Todd Cantwell, Ethan Laird and Leif Davis all returning to their parent clubs and Gary Cahill and Zeno Ibsen Rossi departing as well, Bournemouth’s squad was always going to need some significant surgery heading into the Premier League.

Since the end of last season, nine players in total have left the club and, at the time of writing, only five have been signed — three of whom were on free transfers.

Sizeable transfer fees do not always equate to good signings but only Leicester City, who are yet to pay a transfer fee for a player so far this summer, have spent less money than Bournemouth in the market. Though the club’s financial position means they cannot compete with other top-flight teams, it is easy to understand how Bournemouth’s transfer business frustrated Parker’s ambitions.

One source close to Bournemouth’s coaching staff said they felt at the beginning of the season that the squad was very light and that quality additions were needed in all areas.

It is also worth remembering that Parker’s time at Bournemouth was not without success. With as many as nine first-team players unavailable when he took charge last season, Parker led the team to a historic 15-game unbeaten league start to the campaign. He was instrumental in the development of several key players, such as Jaidon Anthony and Jordan Zemura, while Lloyd Kelly, Dominic Solanke and Philip Billing all impressed under him.

Though Bournemouth lost 9-0 at Anfield, some staff members inside the club insist Parker has still managed to preserve his reputation. For them, there is a sense he had been handed a deeply difficult job. The fact that Jurgen Klopp put an arm around his shoulder before the full-time whistle and backed up Parker’s words afterwards added to that feeling.

Following the match against Liverpool, it is understood several players took exception to Parker’s post-match comments, finding his recent efforts to be a strange way of motivating them. The players could not understand his attitude. It was deemed to be in contrast to his approach last season, where he was seen as caring and close to players, previously described as being exceptional tactically.

There was a feeling among some players that he no longer had confidence in them and a fear at the club that Parker’s comments were beginning to have a negative effect on the dressing room. It is understood Parker has cut an insular figure in recent times, reluctant to talk to his players off the pitch, and has been described as being in a bad mood.

These are similar sentiments which were also held by some Fulham players towards the end of Parker’s tenure at Craven Cottage. After achieving promotion via the play-offs in 2020, Fulham players worked well with Parker but after a poor start in the Premier League and new signings were brought in to bolster Parker’s squad, they found themselves pushed to one side, and thereafter felt to have little communication. After relegation, Fulham’s loan signings departed and the club wanted to call upon those disenfranchised players again, but this would have been a challenge as relationships with Parker had worn thin. Later, Denis Odoi would call that year the toughest season of his career.

At Bournemouth, owner Demin issued a rare statement in the wake of Parker’s dismissal that also alluded to the discontent behind Parker’s recent comments. This is only Demin’s second public statement as owner, with the first coming just days after Bournemouth’s relegation in 2020 to assert his ambitions of a quick return to the Premier League.

“To keep progressing as a team and a club as a whole, it is unconditional that we are aligned in our strategy to run the club sustainably,” Demin’s statement read. “We must also show belief in and respect for one another. That is the approach that has brought this club so much success in recent history, and one that we will not veer from now.”

With the summer transfer window about to close and Parker’s thirst for new signings far from being quenched, there was growing friction between him and technical director Richard Hughes.

Parker was told the club could only bring in more signings once players were sold. As a result, many peripheral figures felt Parker was trying to force them out to free up space for acquisitions.

The Athletic understands Bournemouth’s board have long felt they did well to keep Jefferson Lerma, David Brooks and Billing through the club’s two seasons in the second tier. In holding on to some of their biggest names, there was a feeling the squad was much more capable of surviving the rigours of the Premier League than when they were first promoted in 2015-16 and that a squad overhaul would not be necessary upon a return to the top flight.

That Parker constantly referred to Bournemouth being under-equipped for the Premier League — despite having players such as Adam Smith, Lewis Cook and Lerma among others with top-flight experience in his squad — annoyed the club’s owner and directors.

The atmosphere around Bournemouth was pessimistic before the start of the season and Parker’s impression of what the summer would look like in May, when promotion was won, was very different to the landscape three months later. He thought there would be more funds available to him.

There is a thought that his shift in approach over pre-season did not come as a surprise but did contradict the principles of play established last year, when the side largely played 4-3-3. In a more defensive 3-5-2 shape, some players were viewed to be handicapped when in possession, due to a lack of options ahead of the ball. This played in with the growing notion that Bournemouth were playing for damage limitation almost immediately.

With Parker gone, first-team coach Gary O’Neil will take interim charge of the team and will be assisted by under-21 coaches Shaun Cooper and Tommy Elphick.

The Athletic understands Bournemouth are hopeful of appointing a manager with a progressive playing style in the coming weeks. They want the new manager to employ the kind of philosophy that suits Bournemouth’s players and would attract talent from around the world to the club.

The club resisted going down the route of appointing an interim manager for the rest of the season, a role they gave to Jonathan Woodgate when Jason Tindall was sacked in February 2021. There is a belief the current situation is different as Bournemouth have virtually the whole season in front of them.

With regards to transfer business, those close to the recruitment team do not foresee a total derailment of transfer plans — especially with just one day of the window left. Given the squad is still light, there is an expectation that players will still be brought in and some fringe players may have to move elsewhere.

Parker took Bournemouth back to the Premier League but with 34 games of the season remaining, it will be down to his successor that they stay there.

(Other contributors: Jacob Tanswell and Peter Rutzler)

(Top photo: Visionhaus/Getty Images)