Tom Parker (footballer, born 1897)

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Not to be confused with Tom Parker (footballer, born 1893).

Tom Parker
Personal information
Full name Thomas Robert Parker
Date of birth (1897-11-19)19 November 1897
Place of birth Woolston, Southampton, England
Date of death 1 November 1987(1987-11-01) (aged 89)
Place of death Southampton, England
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Position(s)
Right back
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1919–1926 Southampton 246 (11)
1926–1933 Arsenal 258 (17)
Total 504 (28)
International career
1925 England 1 (0)
Managerial career
1933–1937 Norwich City
1937–1943 Southampton
1955–1957 Norwich City
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Thomas Robert Parker (19 November 1897 – 1 November 1987)

Norwich City.[2]

Playing career

Southampton

Born in

right back, forming a successful full-back partnership with Fred Titmuss
.

Parker was described in Holley & Chalk's The Alphabet of the Saints as "never the fastest of players, he had wonderful positional sense and his tackling was always well-timed".[3]

Southampton became founder members of the Third Division for the start of the 1920–21 season and were promoted as champions to the Second Division in 1922.[4] Southampton reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1925 but in the match at Stamford Bridge on 28 March 1925 they were eliminated by Sheffield United when Parker had a dreadful afternoon, first scoring an own-goal, then suffering a rare miss from the penalty spot (shooting straight at the 'keeper) before a mix-up between him and goalkeeper Tommy Allen gave Sheffield their second goal.

During his time at Southampton, Parker also won a solitary cap for England, against France on 21 May 1925.

Eventually bigger clubs started making overtures towards Southampton for Parker's services. At first these were resisted, but with money needed to finance the purchase of

The Dell, Southampton reluctantly accepted an offer of £3,250 from Herbert Chapman's Arsenal in spring 1926, and he was on his way to Highbury
. In all he played 275 first-team matches for Southampton, scoring 12 goals (not including his wartime appearances).

Arsenal

Parker made his Arsenal debut against

1926–27 season, which they lost 1–0 to Cardiff City. Parker's luck was better with his next trip to Wembley in 1929–30 as Arsenal beat Huddersfield Town 2–0 and Parker became the first Arsenal captain to lift the FA Cup trophy.[5] He then played in Arsenal's 2–1 victory over Sheffield Wednesday in the Charity Shield at Stamford Bridge in October 1930.[6]

Parker went on to captain Arsenal to their

1931–32 Cup final (which they lost 2–1, controversially, to Newcastle United). Throughout all this time Parker was a near ever-present in the side, missing just six league games in seven seasons with the club. However, by 1932 Parker was nearly 35, and at the start of the 1932–33 season he was replaced at right back by George Male. He made his last appearance in an Arsenal shirt on 8 October 1932 against Derby County, and left the club in 1933 to become manager of Norwich City
.

In total, he played 294 matches for Arsenal, scoring 17 goals (the majority of them being

penalties, as he was the club's first-choice taker for much of his career). Despite being an FA Cup and League-winning captain, he never won any further England caps to add to the one he picked up at Southampton, with Roy Goodall and Tom Cooper
keeping him out of the national side.

Management career

Norwich City

With Parker as manager, Norwich City won the

1933–34
and thus promotion to the Second Division.

Southampton

Parker moved back to his old club Southampton in March 1937, taking over from

The Dell, with money available for new players, Parker set about building a side to push for promotion from Division 2. Over two seasons he spent £9,000 on new players, bringing in wingers Harry Osman and Billy Bevis, goalkeeper Sam Warhurst and centre-half Bill Dodgin. The most important signing, however, was when he signed Ted Bates
from his former club Norwich City. Bates was later to go on to transform Southampton into a First Division team.

By 1939, Parker had built a settled side but the

Second World War soon intervened and put a halt to competitive football, making all Parker's planning wasted. Parker continued as secretary-manager throughout the difficult initial years of the war, fielding sides made up mostly from guest players. In June 1943, after a row with the Saints' board, he resigned his position to take up employment outside football as a ship's surveyor in Southampton Docks with Lloyd's registry
.

Norwich City (second spell)

He later had a second, less successful spell at Norwich in the 1950s which saw the club finish at the bottom of the League.

After management

Parker returned to his job as a ship's surveyor until he retired in 1962. Soon after retirement, he was asked by Ted Bates (who by then was Saints' manager) to take on a part-time scouting role later becoming chief scout, a post he finally relinquished in 1975. He died aged 89 in 1987.

Honours

As a player

Southampton

Arsenal

As a manager

Norwich City

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-9926-8640-6
    .
  2. ^ a b c d "Tom Parker". Arsenal.com.
  3. ISBN 0-9514862-3-3
    .
  4. ^ a b c "Tom Parker". Spartacus Educational.com.
  5. ISBN 1-899429-03-4. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help
    )
  6. ^ "Fortune smiles on the Arsenal". Sheffield Independent. 8 October 1930. p. 10. Retrieved 22 March 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ^ a b c "Tom Parker". England Football Online.com.

External links

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