Before Friday night's game Slavi re-affirmed Scott Parker as captain. He said, "What I know is Scott Parker is still captain in my team. And whether I am going to use him or not we are in a new project here and we try something different from what Fulham tried before, and we believe Tom Cairney can be one of the leaders in this team," he said. "It is not a problems using Scott Parker or whether a player is 16 or 36. It is a question of who can help us or not." We believe Scott Parker is going to help us with the season that is in front of us with his quality, experience and leadership. He is a very important part of my squad, at the training ground, outside the training ground and in the games he is very important for the team." please log in to view this image So basically, Scotty will be the Club Captain. A role that was around in older times - before Sky, social media and all that stuff. Nonetheless a good move and a job, as the front-facing ambassador for the Club that Scotty will fill excellently. At the same time Slavi appears to have appointed Tom Cairney as vice captain. So basically, he will be skipper on the field (recognising that Scotty won't start all that many games). I'm less convinced about this one. There's no questioning that Cairney led by example with his performance against Newcastle (less so against Palace, when he first took on the mantle). A personal opinion, but I don't believe the match day captain should be your best player or your top scorer (MCormack is a prime example here) or an all round nice guy (Hangeland?). Rather he should be the man who can read how the game is going; passing out instructions, ordering players on who to mark, keeping players focused/concentrating and generally bossing things. A bit of a bully even but with enough respect from the others to get away with it. You can probably see where I'm going by way of illustration - yup, Danny Murphy. And I just can't see his attributes in Tom. The one most likely is Kevin MacDonald but guess he's too much of a newbie. So for now I'll put my faith in Slavi and wish Tom all the best.
I think this is a good move. The flip side is that we have played Parker at the start of games and taken him off, I never thought that was a good thing either. Working with someone day in day out gives you a chance to really see if that person has it. Parker would have been consulted I think too. It could be the making of Cairney.
