That 2019-20 play-off final ramble – “we live in a world”, thanks Scott – dubbed to The Street’s Dry Your Eyes. Relegation with a Fulham side including Ademola Lookman, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ola Aina and Joachim Andersen – “f**k off Scotty Parker” still starts one of their fans’ most common chants.
Twelve games and two wins at Club Bruges having described the club’s “No Sweat, No Glory” mantra as “one million per cent” his own. Ongoing questions around his competence appeared to have been answered.
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Read MoreSince the 2004 rebrand, only Daniel Farke and Marcelo Bielsa have earned more points per match than Parker’s 1.88 of all managers to have spent more than a season in the second tier, having got both Fulham and Bournemouth promoted.
And now his Burnley side are on the best defensive run in Championship history having not conceded a goal since 21 December – 12 consecutive clean sheets and 25 for the season. Nine conceded in 34 games is 0.26 per match – the current English record is 0.38, from Liverpool’s 1978-79 campaign.
This cannot be luck, or just down to his players. Parker has always been defensive-minded, but something has changed.
Always a risk-averse manager, he has become risk-obsessed, determined never to return to that touchline, to that loneliness. The logic you cannot lose 9-0 if you never concede is pretty solid.
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Read MoreThey even average 56.2 per cent possession, fourth in the Championship, so this isn’t a Sean Dyche special. At its core, Parkerball is probably most similar in philosophy, if not execution, to early Jose Mourinho. Run more than the opposition, defend as a unit from striker to goalkeeper, attack hard and fast, but with precision and intent.
“It just can be very, very slow, and we don’t move the ball quick enough. That’s where all these 0-0s have come from. We can’t break down teams that come to Turf Moor and sit in two banks for four.
“Defensively, it’s a mixture of everything. As individuals, they are all very good. Maxime Esteve is the best defender in the Championship. James Trafford has been fantastic. Conor Roberts drops a seven or eight out of 10 every week, he’s probably the most underrated player in our team.”
Centre-backs Esteve and CJ Egan-Riley live in the same apartment block in Manchester and commute in together. The whole squad have organised games based on The Traitors. But perhaps the biggest beneficiary has been Trafford, still remarkably young for a goalkeeper at 22.
The recent addition of Marcus Edwards – the product of Parker’s prior relationship with him from Tottenham Hotspur and another testament to his man-management – and return to fitness of Manuel Benson should help goals come in the final weeks of the season.
For Parker, that would be his third attempt at the top flight. Get it wrong, and it is hard to imagine another chance. But if he can translate his new brand of miserable brilliance into survival, prove he has genuinely learned and developed, then one-time talk of his England credentials will re-emerge. Neither he nor his Burnley side appear easy targets anymore.
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