Premier League - Parker on West Ham woe

Eurosport - Thu, 09 Oct 09:06:00 2008

Former England star Paul Parker believes West Ham's current woes are an inevitable consequence of foreign ownership in the Premier League.

2008-2009 West Ham Luis Boa Morte - 0

I don't think we can be too surprised by what is going on at West Ham - it just shows what can happen when you get involved with big businessmen.

A wealthy foreign benefactor might sounds great to fans, but when they have money in shares, property or other investments, they are sometimes not as rich as you think. These people often don't have real money - it is always tied up in other things.

We have seen all too clearly that football is a business, and as we know businesses can go bust.

I sincerely hope it doesn't happen but it is only a matter of time until we see a big club in serious trouble - and by that I mean they could fold altogether.

I think the old style of ownership is the best way. You might not have had as much money, but you always knew where you stood.

Nowadays it is impossible to plan for the future when the club's finances are at the mercy of the financial markets.

No doubt it is a difficult situation for West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola.

He has walked into the job and seen circumstances beyond his control change everything. The shirt sponsors have gone out of business, the club has been fined over Carlos Tevez and now the owner's bank is on the brink of collapse.

I think Zola needs to bring in half a dozen new players but he will have to sell before he can do that.

He will have to ask himself whether it is worth cashing in on someone like Dean Ashton in order to bring in two or three players in other positions.

It is made harder because of all the money spent when Eggert Magnusson was there.

They overpaid for the likes of Luis Boa Morte, Craig Bellamy and Nigel Quashie, and are still shelling out massive wages.

It is like buying a fleet of cars knowing they won't fetch anything like as much when you flog them second hand.

That big spending spree might have kept them in the Premier League, but in the long-term it has left them with a timebomb.

The value of being in the top flight is so great that clubs will do almost anything to avoid relegation.

But you almost think it might have been better for West Ham to go down. That would have given them a chance to consolidate and reduce their spending - plus it would have got them out of this Tevez mess.

The FA has suggested a salary cap to curb spending, which appears good in theory, but I just don't think the clubs, the Premier League or the fans will stand for it.

If there are limits on how much players can be paid, they will simply go abroad.

It's all very well trying to control wages, but people won't be happy when they see all the top talent leaving this country.

Paul Parker returns on Friday, when he looks ahead to England's World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Belarus

Paul Parker was talking to Alex Chick / Eurosport

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  2. JAMES P - 50) Learn to use full stops and spell you Muppet! It`s frustrating enough having to read your cr*p, without trying to decipher what you are saying.
    I`d like to see "every club in the country sew" us too. Maybe they could make a patchwork quilt out of us, and wrap it around your retarded hands to stop you writing such drivel....

    From hammer_head@..., on Thu 9 Oct 10:00AM

  3. Parker is telling the truth teams must take stork of themselves other wise foreign owneship does not help english national team but promotes foreign talent than the locals.

    From donald, on Thu 9 Oct 9:30AM

  4. Parker is telling the truth teams must take stork of themselves other wise foreign owneship does not help english national team but promotes foreign talent than the locals.

    From donald, on Thu 9 Oct 9:10AM

  5. So English owners magic their money out of the ether do they? What an uneducated bufoon you are Parker. All owners are business men. Their money is invested somewhere in the markets. The more I read about what you think the more I am convinced you open your mouth & just let the dribble pour out. If ever anyone was in need of a reality check!!!!!

    From Mozsta, on Thu 9 Oct 7:30AM

  6. Who tf is Parker? As far as I am concerned he is getting 99% of the things wrong... I read this today just because there were no other articles... He is always warning about something and he is usually wrong. Even a blind monkey can find a banana more often.... geez

    From nrogi, on Thu 9 Oct 3:47AM

  7. Being foreign has nothing to do with it we live in a global economy and at the moment there is a big sh%t sandwhich and everyone is having to take a bite.

    From david w, on Thu 9 Oct 3:40AM

  8. West Ham is just the thin end of the wedge. Many of the larger clubs are running their business (and that's what it is) irresponsibly, caught up in the rat race of paying ridiculous wages and crippling themselves with major debt. No business can keep doing this. The situation is not financially sustainable and sooner or later the bubble will burst. Football is not exempt from the global credit crisis - and just maybe it will come out better for it.

    From Peter, on Thu 9 Oct 2:19AM

  9. what a crock of @#$%, west spam shouldnt even be in the premier league only a dejected player who didnt earn millions would say this and west spam should be out of league for cheating full stop, but the have trevor brooking on FA i actually went watching west spam for 2 seasons and loved it they played great footballl but after the whole tevez affair no way i hope every club in the country sews em and wins and they go into liquidation, sorry west HAM fans just how i feel

    From JAMES P, on Thu 9 Oct 1:49AM

  10. Parker is not a very good or clever writer; just have not enjoyed any of his pieces. Some of his points just sink badly.

    From ispurs, on Thu 9 Oct 1:06AM

  11. thank god i support a team not owned by people who have only ever seen their team on a computer game or on extra terrestrial TV. I don't live in london where most foreign investors want to be but there are clubs where i live who do the right thing and have shirt sponsors who are charities(i don'd like them but fair play to the man and the club that he has invested in). If this country is going to improve the england team then they need to have a salary cap because the amount of players and the quality of players that we have in this country is becoming a joke. Emile Heskey (no 1 England striker)!!! Donkey even at Birmingham and hasn't scored a goal for Wigan this year. Leave West Ham alone... its the FA's fault they should have dealt with the situation at the time and sorry to Sheffield United fans but Neil Warncock as your manager.. you deserved to get relegated. He suits Jordan at @#$% Place.

    From littlemoz_69, on Thu 9 Oct 12:08AM

  12. Paul Parker..................S**t Player, even worse pundit
    We at Villa are more than satisfied with Randy Lerner
    Parker............Just stick to running down every other Premier club except United
    A club owned by grubby American/Canadian people

    From stephenjones272@..., on Wed 8 Oct 11:53PM

  13. LONG LIVE ABRAMOVICH. TRUE GOD.

    From robbo, on Wed 8 Oct 11:06PM

  14. "If there are limits on how much players can be paid, they will simply go abroad."

    In case Paul Parker hasn't noticed, there is a global financial disaster playing out which footballers will not be able to avoid simply by moving to other countries.

    From Harry St. George, on Wed 8 Oct 10:51PM

  15. Shove it parker you @#$%

    From Tony K, on Wed 8 Oct 10:42PM

  16. @#$%

    From steven_churchouse, on Wed 8 Oct 10:06PM

  17. Paul Parker it must be easy money to talk @#$%,PP 'WHO R U'

    From Terry, on Wed 8 Oct 8:26PM

  18. "Former England star Paul Parker believes West Ham's current woes are an inevitable consequence of foreign ownership in the Premier League."

    What does all these have to do with FOREIGN OWNERSHIP?? So no LOCAL OWNERSHIP will go bankrupt?? WONDERFUL!! God bless the Queen, the British economy and our tax money. The government can save the 50,000,000,000 pounds.

    From Rexy, on Wed 8 Oct 8:22PM

  19. Once again, utter nonsense from this guy. Who is he for a start? I mean his purely football related comments are bad enough, but at least he was actually a football player (allegedly), so can have some claim to being an 'expert', however, he has no obvious qualification for talking about the financial side of things (as evidenced by the infantile brainlessness of his comments on salary caps) and really IMHO should be got rid of. His comments aren't even controversial - they're just the typically banal, insipid excuses for 21stC journalism we read everywhere else.

    From sergeisdiary, on Wed 8 Oct 7:52PM

  20. M·$scaerahhnwero&% and Tezawevez should indeed have been checked for legibility.

    From Thomas, on Wed 8 Oct 7:40PM
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