Injury-hit Parker finally has chance to impress
The Spurs midfielders season has only just begun as he faces Leeds in the fourth round of the FA Cup today
John Aizlewood The Sunday Times Published: 27 January 2013
Par ker expects a tough test for Tottenham at Elland Road (Mike Egerton)
NICO CLAESEN arrived at Tottenham Hotspur with a reputation as one of Europes more potent strikers but his career in north London and England was undistinguished. Even so, one young Spurs fan was enthralled by the diminutive Belgian and when Spurs reached the 1987 FA Cup final six-year-old Scott Parker was devastated to find his hero on the bench. He came on, but not for long, sighs Parker, for whom the memory of Claesens too-brief cameo still lingers. That match marked the beginning of a love affair with the Cup that persists to this day. Id like to see everyone give it their best attention and play full teams in every round, he says. It was fading away when Manchester United went off to Brazil and took away the specialness of it, but in the last few years its built up a bit. Its still brilliant when you see lower teams playing the bigger sides. Alas, the passion has remained unrequited. Although the boy has become a man and captained both Spurs and England, the sands of time are running low and Parker has never played in an FA Cup final. He has never even attended one. As a club your objective is top four in the league but as a kid you dream of Wembley. I love the competition but I havent had much joy: last years semi was the closest Ive come. That day Tottenham lost 5-1 to Chelsea, though a seemingly comprehensive scoreline hides a highly dubious Juan Mata goal and Petr Cech remaining on the field after
felling Emmanuel Adebayor in the penalty area. It took a while for us to get over it, Parker admits. Today redemption beckons when Tottenham visit Leeds Uniteds Elland Road, where he scored a 90th-minute winner for Charlton Athletic in 2002. Sometimes in the early rounds you can be at 70% and still get through but not here, he cautions. Theyre a massive, massive club, so we need to go there and be bang on it and you can imagine what Neil Warnock will be saying. A few people in our dressing room might not remember who Leeds are but when they run out at Elland Road theyll be reminded. Parker himself is just glad to be playing again. He missed last seasons Premier League climax with an Achilles tendon tear. An injection enabled him to start all of Englands games at Euro 2012 but it flared again during extra-time in the quarterfinal against Italy. It felt quite good until the Italy game when I began to struggle. I just needed to get it sorted and we have. Even so, I thought Id be back a lot sooner. Wed moved into a new training ground, there was a new manager and so I really needed to hit the ground running. It wasnt meant to be but being out for that long did remind me how much I love football so Im just happy to be back among things. Initially scheduled to be out for weeks, Parker took months to recover, not returning to the Tottenham first team until last month and even then the surprising renaissance of Sandro restricted him to substitute appearances until a knee injury against Queen Park Rangers a fortnight ago finished the Brazilians season. One mans loss is anothers gain and Parker made his first league start since April in last weekends draw with Manchester United. Today the FA Cup will stir the soul of a man whose parents bought him Chas & Daves Hot Shot Tottenham!, the song that accompanied their trek to Wembley in 1987 (I could still sing a bit of it but lets not go there.) You know Parker means every word when he says: A club such as this should be there. Id love to get to a final and Id love a winners medal.