Scott Parker is back as West Ham head coach, replacing Nuno Espirito Santo; Parker not only played and captained the Hammers but also got Championship promotion with Fulham, Bournemouth and Burnley; Sky Sports' Sam Blitz analyses whether that is enough for Parker to be a success...
As soon as news of Nuno Espirito Santo's departure was announced, only one name seemed to make sense for West Ham.
The Hammers want to get out of the Championship. They need someone who has taken a relegated Premier League side back into the top flight in style. Scott Parker has done both on several occasions.
At Fulham, Bournemouth and Burnley, the former England international achieved tickets to the promised land with all three. Parker dealt with the high expectations of all three clubs and delivered on his promises.
While his credentials at Premier League level can be fairly scrutinised, Parker knows the Championship. He knows West Ham, being named the club's player of the year three seasons in a row and won the Football Writers' Player of the Year during his time at the Hammers.
On top of that, he is tactically proven at this level. In Parker's most recent promotion campaign with Burnley in 2025, he made the Clarets incredibly hard to beat during their 100-point season.
Conceding just 16 goals at a rate of 0.33 per game, they broke the record for the best defensive season in an English league campaign. They went 12 consecutive league games and over 1,000 minutes without conceding a goal. They became the first team in English league history to not concede more than one goal in a game all season.
Given West Ham are leaking goals for fun at the moment, especially at home, that's exactly the type of defensive solidity needed to balance out their free-scoring nature. West Ham are the Championship's top goalscorers this season despite their eighth-place position.
But on top of this, Parker - like he needs to do at West Ham - guided that season after a tricky start to the campaign.
Not only was there the early-season challenge of trying to pick up a relegated squad, but results weren't always there right from the off. Parker's Burnley went on a run of just four wins in 12 between August and November. While that period saw the Clarets defensively secure, it also included four goalless draws.
"It was challenges at first, a lot of challenges," recalled Parker to Sky Sports in August 2025. But what helped was Parker's desire to build strong characters in the dressing room.
"What is the most important thing for me as a coach, first and foremost, is culture - trying to create that environment," Parker added.
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"And early on there were some challenges and we needed get through them little bumps in the road, which we did, and then you try and set an environment. One of honesty, one of real clarity. Try and set an environment which is very clear for the players.
"That's what I believe in, that's what I've always believed in. I believed in it when I was playing, and now I believe in it as a coach."
There is proof to Parker's claims - and it goes back to his playing days at West Ham. During their relegation season in 2011, West Ham were 3-0 down to West Brom at half-time - when captain Parker gave a dressing-room speech.
"We were diabolical but at half-time Scott was inspirational," said Carlton Cole after the game.
"Scott was in the zone - I've never seen him like that. If you were there you would have had a tear in your eye.
"He showed a lot of passion in the dressing room and it spurred us on. We did not want to disappoint ourselves, the manager, our families and the fans.
"I know you could say that if you are a professional footballer then you should have that in you anyway, but sometimes you need your captain to step up like that."
That same motivational management has carried on through to Parker's coaching days. After Fulham beat Brentford in the Championship play-off final, Parker was mocked for his passionate interview to Sky Sports . But again, that same level of encouragement to his players was seen at Burnley.
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"First and foremost, what you will see is a committed team," said Parker to Sky Sports last year about his Burnley team.
"Whether there's a style, a philosophy, a certain way you need to play, you're going to see a group of men and us as a football club that are fundamentally committed through good, through bad. That's been a mantra for us.
"This was a committed squad [when it won the Championship]. A squad with unbelievable cohesion, real quality in certain moments, and that it gave us an unbelievable grounding for us to do what we did. That needs to be an ultimate underpin for us.
"And if anyone was to watch this team, it comes shining out - whether that was the culture, the environment, the players togetherness, the brotherhood. I know too well how much, how important that was."
While Burnley were relegated from the Premier League last season, there were brief moments of that togetherness. In February of this year, Burnley went from 2-0 down at Crystal Palace to claim a 3-2 win. Then a few days later, they rescued a draw away at Chelsea.
"As long as I sit in this chair, it will never be in question," Parker said after the game at Stamford Bridge about Burnley's togetherness. "It will never be in question in any of my teams, really.
"We've had a big challenge this year, of course we have, and at times we've fallen a little bit short in terms of levels or in terms of the quality. We've come into a big league and at times we've just fallen a little bit short on that.
"The one thing we have not fallen short on is the resilience that this group has shown tirelessly, tirelessly and tirelessly. This pressure has increased tenfold at times where it's come on top, and for such a young group, they bounce back.
"And that's down to, we seem to be able to dust ourselves off, we keep fighting, we keep coming. I'm immensely proud of the boys."
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The Championship is a crazy, unpredictable league - with intense schedules, regular midweeks and a wide variety of teams. You need character on top of quality, which is what Parker will bring to a West Ham environment where the fans were clearly unhappy with the whole regime.
"You can never get to that point, or you can't get to the Premier League as quick as we did [when Burnley got promoted from the Championship], without a group of men and staff around the building that, actually engage and take it on," said Parker.
"It's something that obviously has become a bit of a mantra for us, and that's what we stand for."
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Source: Sports
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