BestBettingSites.com’s Exclusive Interview With Paul Parker
Paul Parker is a former professional footballer famous for playing with Manchester United, Queens Park Rangers, Fulham, and England, before winding down his career at Derby, Sheffield United, and Chelsea. Here, our team from the Best Betting Sites sits down with him to ask him questions about Man Utd, the Premier League, and next season.
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Questions on Manchester United
Alejandro Garnacho looked really dangerous for Manchester United in the Europa League semi-final first leg last week. How impressed have you been by him working his way back into the side after losing his spot around the same time Marcus Rashford did?
I don’t think you can put the two together. There was a difference. Both of them in certain ways were left out, but they are different people. You look at Garnacho and it’s a difficult one around this one. I look at him and I do see him differently from a few people. I would say that you look at him and everything about him, he’s constantly around, you know he’s there, but he hasn’t got an end product.
His decision making is poor and it’s been too repetitive in that sense. He needs to fix that in his game. He really needs to step his game up and really concentrate on the bit he does at the end, because he doesn’t always end up the way he wants and, as we saw yesterday, he can score those kinds of goals, and that generally covers over the cracks of his game.
We saw one against Bournemouth where he got it wrong where you think, he wants to be Ronaldo. If you give his ball from the Bournemouth game to Ronaldo, he puts it over the top of the keeper. So there’s always near misses with him and it’s not consistent enough. His next game could be poor, really poor in that sense. I’m sure the manager’s playing it cool and he knows it but he would want more from him. But he’s young and that helps him, and so does the fact that he kind of came through at United.
He’s definitely got a lot of fanboys. It’s like the thing with Taylor Swift and her hardcore fanbase. There’s a lot of defence for Garnacho every single time. But for him to maybe be where he wants to be, or where he thinks he is, he’s got a lot of work still to do.
How impressed were you with Manchester United’s win last week in Bilbao?
I think I was more shocked with the scoreline, to be perfectly honest, because I wasn’t expecting that. First 10-15 minutes or so, I mean, it was a whirlwind at them, then they got the first goal and then all of a sudden everything just kind of fell apart for Bilbao in that sense and the way it worked out for them. I think you’d look for more when they went down to 10 men. I’m sure the manager would have wanted more from them, but the easiest thing to do there is take what you’ve got, and I think that’s what they’ve done, really.
They didn’t have to really go searching, but given how maybe a lot of United fans are about Manchester United, I think they’d rather have seen four or five, to be honest, because I think everyone’s going to be worried about that first 10-15 minutes at Old Trafford and how Bilbao are going to go about it, because I think everyone’s thinking that they feel hard done by,, so they’re thinking that if they don’t, if they’re not prepared for that little storm that’s going to arrive early, the whole tie could just maybe change. As anyone would, given the way Manchester United have played this season, you’re always going to be sceptical of what happens next.
United could make the Champions League if they win the Europa League. How important is that for Ruben Amorim to sign more new players in the summer and continue to style the team his way?
Everything says that they will get past Bilbao. We have to look at it that way, even though it’s Manchester United still. They get to the final, whoever they play in the final, Manchester United are expected to win despite that aforementioned form. If they go into the Champions League, which I know that there’s a lot of people still laughing at that point that Tottenham or Manchester United can be in the Champions League despite their form this season. But when people keep talking about players wanting to join a team because they’re in the Champions League… It worries me sometimes when players do come out and say that. “Oh, I want to play in this… I want to play in that…” Yeah, but you have to earn the right, you have to get there, you can’t just expect, you know, you can’t just say “I’m not going to go and play for them because they’re not in the Champions League.” You get out there and you prove yourself and you help that team towards it.
I think there’s players out there who would love to be at a club like Manchester United, it doesn’t make any sense if you don’t want to be one of the biggest clubs in the world and everything that goes with it. And if it means going there now, starting next season, I still think that if you go there and all of a sudden things start moving on, everything about you is bigger than being somewhere else, regardless of whether they’re in the Champions League. You’re at Manchester United. The team’s playing well. They’re trying to achieve something. Maybe on the peripheral or something, it lifts you that bit higher than any other club because you’re doing it for Man United. So, Champions League does help you to a point, but I think if you’re United, you want players who turn around and say they want to play for the football club, not for the fact of them being in the Champions League.
What do you think their priorities should be this summer in the transfer window? What areas should they be looking at?
Well, I’m glad you’re saying areas rather than names, because ‘names’ omes down to money and where they are at the moment. It’s not being talked about as such. Definitely, they need a centre-forward. I would look at two midfield players. I would still even contemplate, when you look at them now, maybe a wing-back, or even a centre-half. Somebody who is more… I don’t know, a more attacking-base centre-half as such. One who’s got a decent usage of the ball. One who knows how to set a tempo from the back and keep things moving. They’re very static at the back, very static. A goalkeeper is a priority, but it’s one area you don’t really want to be spending all your money on. You’d have to go and find somebody who would be moulded in and would come in and be that goalkeeper rather than going out again and spending a lot of money on somebody.
It seems like the whole team… Well, I think you have to say the squad has already proven it isn’t good enough. And then the manager is having to start again. Because that centre-forward, he’s going to make a difference in the way he goes about his game. Is he going to score enough goals? We’re not sure. Do United create enough opportunities? No, they don’t. So that’s why you look at midfield, someone who’s going to offer something different, you know, with Fernandes. You’re looking for more there.
You look at them defensively, they concede a lot of goals, generally through a lack of pace, a lack of defenders who sense danger. They haven’t got enough. The best defender they’ve got who senses danger is De Ligt. By a country mile, he is the best one who senses danger. Other than that, really, they’re not great on that side of things. When you look at them as a back three with the ball, they’re very, very slow and deliberate. That’s why they struggle. Tempo starts from the back. Attacks start from the back because the back three push onto the midfield that squeezes them forward and they don’t do that.
Ruben Amorim has been experimenting with both Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot in the right wing-back spot. Which of the two do you think is most suited for the role and why?
Mazraoui, because he’s the better defender. He’s mostly been, I would say, their player of the season. If you look at it, people will say Fernandes, but Mazraoui, every time he plays, his consistency is very, very good. Attacking-wise, he’s decent in the attacking third, but defensively, he can see danger and he’s a decent athlete as well to be able to get back. So Mazraoui, for me, is the one that you would have as your wing back on that right hand side. But yeah, he can cover all the other positions as well and be comfortable and do a decent job. But I think if you see him play as a right wing back, you would say that he is the better option. You put him as a right back in the back four, he would definitely be the option.
What have you made of Casemiro’s recent form? He was written off at the start of the season, but do you see him sticking around now?
I’ve always been a fan of Casemiro, to be perfectly honest. I look around and what he’s had to play with and the way they play. And they haven’t played in a fashion that suits him. His legs are gone, they say? Well, that means his legs were gone 10 years ago because pace-wise he hasn’t changed. His head is still sharper than anyone else’s. He knows when the pass is on before anything’s happened around him. And the way he nicks balls off of people’s toes.
And what happens is generally that because of the way United have a back three who are virtually forced into having to sit back and they leave a big gap. It doesn’t matter if you’re Billy Whiz or Usain Bolt in the middle, you can’t run around when the players are moving the ball. You can’t do it. So you see him always chasing and sometimes being late on challenges sliding because he’s frustrated. But if you remember, you watched them at Real Madrid and they moved. All three units moved. And he was always involved in things going forward as well as what he was defensively. So, I mean, it’s still a quality player there.
They tried to farm him off to Saudi Arabia. It’s easy, maybe, for him to turn around, put his hand up and say: “I’m gonna go”. But there’s a reason why he’s got so many Champions League medals, and he’s still a warrior. And when he goes, he knows when he’s done his time. And then he will go, rather than when people try to push him. So I’m a big fan of Casemiro and someone like him should be around for as long as possible.
There’s a reason why the manager brought him back as well, because the manager sees that in him. But the easy way for most of the people around when things ain’t going right for United, and I’m not on about United fans here, by the way. When it comes to other people who want to hate Manchester United, having a dig at Casemiro, it’s always “Oh, his legs are gone” and this and that. And it’s just like it becomes a cliche. It’s like virtually every time a manager’s having a bad time. “Oh, he’s lost the dressing room.” You know, these things that people throw out just to suit their narrative.
Given Rasmus Hojlund’s recent performances, such as against Bournemouth and Bilbao, do you think Ruben Amorim keeps him now? Or will he leave, as widely expected?
Well, first of all, you’ve got to find someone who’s going to want him. But I think he knows already, and the manager knows what he needs. He needs a centre-forward. He definitely needs somebody. But when you look at Hojlund at the moment, you have to say that they’re going to need two centre-forwards as such. So you think he might turn around and say he’s going to keep him and he’s going to have to look to improve his game while he’s there, do it in training, prove a point, and then work off the back of the person in front and maybe watch him and see what they do. But then he’s got the young lad, Obi, who’s coming through and maybe you might look at him and say, he can be my number two striker.
Seems odd, really. I was used to two up front. But that makes sense for him. How much is that going to lift him, knowing that the fact that he was sitting there as a young lad at Arsenal, decided he wanted to move for reasons I can only guess, and all of a sudden there he sees himself getting on that platform and being close to getting a run. I mean, when you see Obi coming through and you see the two young players at Arsenal coming through at the same time, maybe Arsenal couldn’t promise him first-team football. I think there’s also the wages situation when Arsenal turn players professional, they can only pay them so much and I think Man United came and outbid them, as they did with Heaven as well, and they both have fantastic signings for Man United going forwards.
It’s amazing how Arsenal now are producing the younger ones now, aren’t they? Where before they weren’t renowned for it, Arsenal, but now it seems like somebody has mandated a push for Academy products and all of a sudden they’re doing it, and to be honest, they wouldn’t have spent all that money on an Italian left-back, which they don’t need now, do they? Because they’ve got an incredible left-back coming through at this moment in time. And the funny thing is he’s coming through as a midfielder and he’s playing out of position and being this good. Well, that’s, I mean, you’ve got to think about it as well though, Ashley Cole was a winger once.
Do you think there’s any way back to Man United for Marcus Rashford?
I think someone might come in and decide who wants to buy him, someone might take him on loan. I don’t think he can do it for Manchester United, because from what I saw, when I watched him at Villa, and there wasn’t much difference there, to be honest.
I have to say, if you’re someone like Jacob Ramsey, you’d be a little bit disappointed. He played in front of you. If you were Watkins as well, you’d be gutted that you were left off the PSG games for him to play in your role. Did he do enough to shake enough trees for people to say, we want him? I personally don’t think so. But PR-wise it was very good for him because he was being sold well on PR about how he’d done, but everything was always little points.
So on that side of it people were trying to make the best of it, really. So I don’t know how he’s feeling, but I think the last thing he would want to be doing was coming back to Manchester United. And if Villa don’t sign him, I’ve got no idea who would be interested.
Do you think Jim Ratcliffe’s first year at the club has seen him actually take the club backwards or do you think he’s taken them in the right direction?
Well, I would say they haven’t moved forward. There’s been no great difference. When you look at what’s happened on the pitch, it’s definitely gone backwards football-wise, we have to say, because their league position tells you that. You can’t lie about that. It’s a fact. There’s been the odd few performances, little bits that have been decent, but football performance-wise, it’s gone backwards.
When you look at things off the pitch, it’s gone backwards as well, what’s happened there within the club. As well, with the people going and what they’ve gone and done. So, no, it hasn’t been a forward step so far, sometimes, as the saying goes, you have to go backwards to go forwards. So I’m hoping that follows through.
There have been reports linking United to Victor Osimhen and Matheus Cunha. Do you think either (or both) would be good fits for United?
I mean, I don’t believe anything I read or hear. I don’t. But I’m not sure about Osimhen. I don’t know enough about him. I haven’t seen him play enough. But I’d prefer a centre-forward who works the line rather than constantly running forward all the time. And that’s the kind of centre-forward he is. You’re virtually working with someone, maybe like in a Haaland situation where you have to keep finding him all the time, rather than him trying to find you and the ball. So I don’t know if they’re going to go that way.
I like Cunha, the way he works. I don’t know if that report is true or what’s going on at this moment in time. Someone could just, someone can just pull the rug away on that one, couldn’t they, and it could go somewhere else, you know. And if United could sign any striker and money was no object? I would go with somebody who you could nurture to a point, someone who’s hungry, someone who wants to prove a point, and somebody who’s shown in a lesser team how competitive how honest he is, and he has scored goals. So I would go for Liam Delap. And plus, he spent his youth in Manchester as well.
Do you agree with Roy Keane that Bruno Fernandes should not be United captain?
I do agree. But as for who should be the captain? I really don’t know at this moment. I mean, what the captain does now in today’s game, there’s not many around who are actually captains as such. When you see football now, the way it is, and the people that are coming through, there are people appointed as captains, a lot of them, because they sell shirts or they’re just a big name in that kind of way, rather than actually being leaders.
When you look at Ipswich Town’s captain, Sam Morsy, now he’s the captain, just by the way he plays. You can see that in the way he plays and the way the players around him, how he talks to his players. I look at what Fernandes says when it isn’t going right for him, he’s the first one waving his arms at people things like that. And there’s a way of waving your arms and demanding from your team-mates without actually offering a solution, or offering a way forward. Putting them down and making it out that it’s their fault. And that’s what he’s like, Bruno Fernandes.
I don’t think you have to be a rocket scientist to know he isn’t a captain. He’s a good player, but he’s one of those ones that will dig deep and try to get you out of trouble. Something very, in the sense of, he’ll try and do it on his own. And there’s nothing wrong with that. He’s committed. And he’s got those bits of him that make him what he is at Manchester United. And he’s got him out of so many holes, it’s been incredible. But when it comes to leading, he’s not that person. He’s not that person to do that.
But there aren’t many around now because they’re not being created anymore because football’s changed. Those kinds of players come from working-class backgrounds. They were born with a football in their arms. And everything was about it. Those players aren’t around anymore. Football is very middle class.
Questions on the Premier League
Looking forward to next season, who will be the biggest threat to Liverpool in their attempt to go back-to-back in the Premier League?
I think it’s obvious. I think we have to say that everyone wants Liverpool as their favourites, so they are going to be favourites. It’s that way. You win a league and everyone would expect it, especially being Liverpool. I think their biggest threat is going to be Arsenal. Arsenal have to go and compete again. I don’t know how they’re going to do it, how they’re going to improve on that. Maybe be a little bit more attack-minded, maybe shift the ball quicker, maybe buy a striker, but unless you’re going to have that player in midfield who’s going to be able to work with him, because I don’t think Martin Odegaard’s the one, in my opinion. I think his game has changed. I think somehow the manager has changed his game. And I think it’s come about really because of Declan Rice.
He needs to find the best position for Declan Rice. I think Declan Rice’s best position is sitting in front of the back four. They’re trying to rave about Partey and Partey is nowhere near as good as him in that role because Declan can run with the ball and score a goal. He’s more dangerous in that role there than where Arsenal are playing him, to be perfectly honest. Even though, you know, he’s done well, but he’s better in that role. And I think Odegaard has struggled with Declan Rice being there. I think his nose might be out of joint.
I don’t think Arteta’s brave in the way he attacks. He keeps everything defensively tight and everything’s about conceding. Man City are always vulnerable, always vulnerable, but he says, you’re a defender, you’ve got to defend. But he looks at how many goals they can score versus how many are they going to concede. He’s trying to do both at the moment. He’s got everyone going back and forth. It’s too much.
So I think he’s got to be brave, Arteta, if he’s going to want to go on and win that little bit more. And you are going to lose some, you are going to maybe relinquish. Manchester City are also going to be competing next season, without a doubt. Pep signed a new contract, you give them a pre-season getting close to these players, I think they’ve got to be competing next season. There’s no reason why Pep signed a new contract just to go through what it’s going through this season. It’s going to be a more competitive league next season than what it was this season. Liverpool have won it easily without really being tested. And when they’ve been tested, they’ve been found a bit wanting, to be honest.
Who has been the biggest flop of the Premier League season? Team, player or manager?
Well, we have to say, if we’re talking about a team that has expectations, we have to look at Man City. How they’re in big decline. And they’ve had to edge their way back very slowly and there’s been so many downs, but they’ve got to lift themselves back. And all of a sudden, the way the season’s gone, it could change because they could win an FA Cup and finish second in the league.
If you’re looking at an individual, we have to say Hojlund. No disrespect to him, but he had a price put on him which he never asked for. I don’t think that’s the true price of him as a player. I think everyone’s had a few drinks off the back of him coming to Manchester United. But for his price, he’s been a massive flop. You know, if you talk about Manchester United, everyone would talk about Garry Birtles, wouldn’t they, from many years ago? So you look at that and you look at Hojlund, and media wasn’t nowhere near the levels of what it is now. But even then, you know, he had that, Garry Birtles. Hojlund has been, you know, it’s not just about the goals. It’s been about performances because just hasn’t touched the ball.
Which right-backs have stood out to you in the Premier League this season?
Wow, top right backs. Yeah, what is a right back? A right back now is a winger. Every decent fullback must get at least double figures in assists and maybe half a dozen goals. So, not right backs as I know them, or I know myself.
It’s now official that Trent Alexander-Arnold will join Real Madrid. Do you think he’ll be able to cut it there and do you think he’ll have to change anything to adapt to their style of play?
Unless he wants white handkerchiefs waved at him, I think he has to decide that he needs to defend. The game isn’t about a Hollywood pass, especially in Spain. It’s about, can you defend them? And the right back is idolized there as well. Carvajal is tenacious. Everything about him is just hard work, commitment, in and out the box. And committed to his defending. And as well, Trent must already know who the manager is, because at the moment, everyone thinks that Carlo Ancelotti’s going, it seems like he’s going, so he’s going there with a new manager. And Real Madrid, the owners buy the players. Whoever’s in charge, he’s got hope that they like him, I should think. That’s my take on it.
They talked about Carlo going after the Copa de Rey final, I think. Because he’s very heavily linked to the Brazil job, isn’t he? They all want him over there, so he’ll have like a year and a bit for the World Cup. So he’s put himself in a precarious position of going there because the demands there, I think he’s going to understand the demands at Real Madrid are a bit more than what they are at Liverpool because he was a local boy. So he’s going to go into a threshold where he’s got to start from scratch. So that would be interesting.
Your cousin, Ben Johnson, currently plays for Ipswich. Do you think he will sign for another club following their relegation?
I’d be very surprised if he was to move on from Ipswich. He’s got himself a house there now. He’s getting married this month. So everything seems to be falling in that way, and I think he’s very content and I think anyone who goes to Suffolk or Norfolk, A lot of them end up living there because it’s only 40 minutes up the road to me, Ipswich, but it’s a lovely place to go and live in that part of the country and I think he’s quite content at the moment. I think Ipswich will definitely be… at least near the playoffs. I mean, they’ll think more than that, they’ll almost be coming straight back up, which I’d be very shocked if they didn’t.
Ipswich’s manager, Kieran McKenna, could also attract offers. Do you think he will leave in the summer?
Yeah, I don’t know where he’s going to go, to be honest, really, that’s going to be better than where he is, because he could put himself in a position. He could get a Premier League club, but it could be a club that’s threatening to go down. And I don’t know if he’d want to put himself in that position again at this moment in time. But for me, go back to that, go back or be at Ipswich, you go back to the championship and you come back up again. And then you’re hoping that you’re going maybe back or you’ll be better at what you do in bringing in the personnel to keep you in the league.
I know it’s a difficult thing to do now because of the monetary systems, the sides coming up, Ipswich haven’t got the, say, supporters all over the world. And they’re not going to get the big shirt sponsors either, so that makes it more difficult for them, Ipswich are one of those clubs, like Nottingham Forest, where there’s an appeal about them, isn’t there, from the people, because of their two great managers.
Kevin De Bruyne has been told he can leave Manchester City. Which team do you think he should look to join?
Whichever team is going to allow him to be his own person. That’s what I think he wants to do. He wants to go somewhere where they’re going to allow him to enjoy his football. He’s playing a system which he has done. You can see he’s a bit of a maverick. He’s got his way of playing maverick and I think he’s maverick in what he says and the way he plays sometimes and I think we’ve seen that little bit now a little bit partner of the ways between him and the managers in a good nature in a way both of them know they need a break from each other and I think he just wants to enjoy that little bit. Kevin De Bruyne, without any reins on he would definitely be an interesting one to watch, because I think then you’ll see the full catalogue of the player.
