PL121: Paul Parker, Manchester United, Corinthian Premier League Collection

Mat Jolin-Beech delves into the toy box for this week’s post on a fantastic footballer whose peak years came before his immortalisation in plastic. The Corinthian figures of the late 1990s were as much a part of football fan culture as the sticker books we owe our blog to so it’s nice to finally commit one to our pages. Thanks to the excellent Premiership Years account for providing today’s visuals and apologies to any figure aficionados for its present state but he’s become one of my son’s favourite things to play with. Over to Mat.

This post is going to deviate slightly from the sticker premise you’ve all come to know and love. Well, at least know. This has been a forum for us all to go on nostalgia trips, so indulge me with this one.

I have two points to start with. The first is a clue as to who this is about – although the title of the post will probably have informed you. So here we go: English. Manchester United. Fullback. Title winner. Gary Neville? No. Want another go? And no, it’s not Phil. You got it football nerds. One Mr Paul Parker.

But why are you writing about United’s second most famous English fullback I can’t hear any of you crying. Well, Eggheads. That’s why. Not the BBC quiz show, but the small football models. I remember having to make the tough decision to split my pocket money on eggheads and sticker packs. In doing so, I never got a full set of either. 

The eggheads I have (they are still floating around somewhere), included a mix of 1996 and 1997 United players (and associated kits). Cantona – with collar up; Brian McClair; long brown-haired David Beckham wearing the number 10 shirt, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, and one Paul Parker.

At this time, he was in the twilight of his United career and backup to his more famous countryman and fellow right back. Much like Choccy, his exploits are more on paper than in my memory, with my memory being of a slightly underwhelming backup player. This is probably signified by the fact that on the 1995/96 season, he was part of the title winning team, but failed to play enough to warrant a winner’s medal. He also didn’t feature in the 1996 FA Cup winning squad – again missing out on a medal.

After leaving Old Trafford at the end of that campaign, he had short stints at Derby County, Sheffield United, Fulham, unbelievably Chelsea, before rounding off his playing career with non-league Heybridge Swifts and Farnborough Town. It’s the early United career and his time before at Queen’s Park Rangers where he made his name and broke into the England 1990 World Cup squad – making his way in the team only five caps into his international career. Bobby Robson was a fan. And that helped him come away from Italia 90 as a success story. Not one that Graham Taylor agreed with at Euro ’92 and the USA ’94 qualification debacle. Although he did feature in the infamous 2-0 defeat to the Netherlands. Mirroring his United career, injuries and the emergence of Gary Neville effectively ended his Three Lions career, with a total of only nineteen caps.

I also had no idea of his coaching career, that involved being the manager of Chelmsford City from 2001 to 2003, and then Welling United from 2003 to 2005. A stint as assistant at Folkestone Invicta came and went in the 2005/06 season. Then his sideline career also came to an end, and he picked up the microphone for EPSN and Sky Sports.

What does all of this mean? That Parker was a much better player that he probably gets credit for, both from the wider football public, and certainly from me. He did make a great egghead though.