Scott Parker burdened by Tony Khan as Fulham scramble to avoid embarrassment

It’s never a good sign for a manager when an owner feels compelled to come out and apologise for a performance. When it comes so early in the season, it feels even more unedifying, like a parent apologising for the mess their child has made.

But here Scott Parker is, already being circumvented by Fulham owner and director of football Tony Khan after just three matches. The 0-3 home defeat to Aston Villa, leaving the west London side bottom with no points to their name, led to an evening of activity from Khan’s official account.

"I apologize to @FulhamFC supporters for our performance tonight," he began, before going through the issues he has had in bringing in defensive reinforcements.

“We’ve looked to add centre-backs since Wembley, I’m sorry we haven’t yet as 2 got COVID + we lost a Free we thought was close + had another issue with a 4th CB. I promise players in + better efforts from this squad.”

Parker had not seen Khan’s social media posts by the time he sat down for his Zoom press conference. There were plenty more by the time it had concluded as Khan replied to disgruntled Fulham fans quizzing him on both the wisdom of getting in a fifth choice signing and, well, tweeting.

“It’s the world we live in, isn’t it?” huffed Parker when the tweets were put to him, the parent-child dynamic flipping in front of us. “People have the platform to tweet what they want to tweet. He’s the owner of the football club and a director of football and feels it's his responsibility.”

Most demoralising for Parker was that Khan is right. Not so much in how he has expressed his dismay, but certainly what he was apologising for. The season started just over a fortnight ago and it already has the hallmarks of a rough slog for Fulham.

Straight after the play-off final win over Brentford, the pair discussed what they would need to avoid this situation. The lessons from a disastrous 2018/19 season, finishing 19th with just 26 points after £105 million spent on recruits to avoid that very situation, were to be learned. After an unspectacular yet successful promotion campaign, investment was to be focussed on solidifying the backline.

Yet with the transfer window closing on 5 October, no central defender has been signed. The desperation to bring some in was heightened after three of those on Fulham’s books – Denis Odoi, Tim Ream and Michael Hector – spent Monday evening casting perplexed glances at each other.

“The first time they’re in our box they score a goal,” Parker bemoaned on this latest defeat to an accomplished Aston Villa. “The second time they’re in our box they score a goal. We got up to their goal very well… but they defended it.”

Fulham are a reminder of the predicament of modern football: where the reward for success in promotion is to be introduced to the existential crisis of trying to survive at a cost. Whatever happens in the next week, the £25m they have already spent has already shown to be insufficient.

A dart at Marlon Santos of Sassuolo was going well before a failed medical, though Parker did not confirm if Santos was one of the options that had tested positive for Covid-19, as per Khan’s tweets. But new faces will not automatically yield new results, certainly not straight away. And it will worry all at the club that they have conceded three goals in the last two games against fellow promoted side Leeds United and the 17th-best Premier League side last season through a lack of structure as well as quality.

That, in particular, is on Parker. After a season in the Championship where he seemed to get by on the superiority of his squad, he must find a way to make this side more able and durable. Otherwise, this could get embarrassing.

Three rounds in, it is clear goals are very much on the agenda in the Premier League. And it does not take a great leap of mathematics to extrapolate 3-0, 4-3 and 0-3 losses into relegation of record-busting proportions.

They conceded 81 goals when they went down in 2018/19 and currently have 10 goals against their name with 35 matches to go. At this rate, they won’t just “better” that tally, but also replace Derby County as the worst of the worst when they shipped 89 in a 38-game season.

“This team needs to evolve and to do that we need players in. If not, we’ll work as we have worked and we’ll try and improve things and keep pushing along," Parker added.

“It was the same last time we were in this division and I certainly learned from that.”

With that, a downtrodden Parker left his seat to comprehend the week ahead. As well as dealing with a team in disarray and finding value in a transfer market unsettled by the pandemic, he must do so with a boss who already has itchy fingers.