Garry Parker (born 7 September 1965) is an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former professional player who is an assistant coach for Omonia. As a player, he was a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

from 1983 to 2001, notably in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

and

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

. He also played for

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

and

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

. He was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

by England at under-21 and B international level. After retiring from playing he has been a coach at several clubs, often working under manager

Neil Lennon Neil Francis Lennon (born 25 June 1971) is a Northern Irish football coach and former player. During his playing career he represented English clubs Manchester City, Crewe Alexandra and Leicester City. Lennon moved to Celtic in 2000, where he ...

. In 2001, he became caretaker manager of

. He has since worked on the coaching staff at

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

and Hibernian.

Club career

Parker initially played in the First Division for Luton Town. He made his debut aged 17 against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

in May 1983 and played in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

semi-final defeat to Everton in 1985 as a 19-year-old, before moving to Second Division Hull City, managed by his former Luton captain

Brian Horton Brian "Nobby" Horton (born 4 February 1949) is an English former footballer and manager. He spent 16 years as a professional player and 22 years as a manager, making 689 appearances and managing 1,098 matches. In addition to this he spent four ...

, the following season. He was a first-team regular at Hull and attracted the attention of

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Englis ...

's Nottingham Forest, who bought him for £260,000 in March 1988. Initially he struggled to make his mark, not debuting for Forest until the end of April 1988. The following season he was brought into the team in late December, and instantly became a regular on the left wing, scoring his fair share of goals, as Forest's slow start to the season gave way to flowing football and excellent results. He helped Forest to finish 3rd in the League, and won a

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

winners' medal with victory over his former club Luton Town. Forest also won the Simod Cup that season with a 4–3 win over Everton, with Parker scoring twice, the second of which involved running half the length of Wembley with the ball at his feet. Other important Cup goals that season came in the League Cup semi-final win over

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

and the only goal of Forest's

quarter-final victory over Manchester United at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

. Parker was in the Forest team at the

Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the ...

and also in the rescheduled semi-final at Old Trafford, which they lost to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. Forest sold

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

midfielder

Neil Webb Neil John Webb (born 30 July 1963) is an English football manager, former footballer and television pundit. He primarily played as a midfielder but also played as a defender between 1980 and 1997, notably in the top flight for Manchester Unit ...

to Manchester United in the summer of 1989, and despite buying

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

international John Sheridan, Parker was moved into his favoured central midfield position for the next season and Sheridan was quickly sold on. He received a second League Cup winners' medal as Forest retained the trophy with victory over

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic ...

in 1990, a team that included Parker's former Luton and Hull teammate

Frankie Bunn Frank Stephen Bunn (born 6 November 1962) is an English former professional footballer who is currently the U23 coach of League One club Wigan Athletic. He holds the Football League Cup record for the most goals (six) by a player in a single match ...

. After two losing FA Cup semi-finals in his career, Parker finally reached the final with Forest in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, where they faced

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

Forest eventually lost the game 2–1 after extra time via a

Des Walker Desmond Sinclair Walker (born 26 November 1965) is an English football coach and former player, who played as a defender. At club level he played in seven cup finals for Nottingham Forest at Wembley, winning five of them. He was Forest's play ...

own goal. In November 1991, Parker left Forest to join Aston Villa for £650,000. Villa won the League Cup in 1994 and Parker made three appearances during their cup run, but didn't play in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

itself. After falling out of favour with

Ron Atkinson Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939), commonly known as "Big Ron" or "Mr. Bojangles", is an English former football player and manager. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits. Nick ...

he then returned to Division Two football to join Leicester City, winning promotion via the play-offs in his first season. Parker scored Leicester's equaliser in the final against

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

and was named as Leicester's player of the season. He also played as they won the

in 1997, his third winners medal in the competition. Parker's last game for Leicester was on 30 January 1999 at

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

International career

Parker played for England at under 21 and B level, and was once put on standby for the senior squad by

Graham Taylor Graham Taylor (15 September 1944 – 12 January 2017) was an English football player, manager, pundit and chairman of Watford Football Club. He was the manager of the England national football team from 1990 to 1993, and also managed Lincoln C ...

in 1992, but never represented his country at full level.

Coaching career

On 1 July 2010, the new

manager

appointed Parker, a former teammate at

, as a first team coach at Celtic. On 12 October 2014, Parker joined

as a first team coach, again working with former Celtic colleagues Neil Lennon and

Johan Mjällby Karl Johan Siward Mjällby (; born 9 February 1971) is a Swedish football manager and former professional player who played as a centre back. He represented AIK, Celtic, and Levante during a career that spanned between 1989 and 2006. A full in ...

. On 14 April 2016, he left his position at Bolton along with

Steve Walford Stephen Joseph Walford (born 5 January 1958) is an English former football player and manager. He played as a defender for clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Norwich City, West Ham United, and West Bromwich Albion. After his playing c ...

following the club's relegation from the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. Parker was appointed assistant coach at Hibernian on 8 June 2016, again with Lennon. On 30 January 2019, Parker and Lennon left Hibernian by mutual consent. On 29 August 2019, Parker joined

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

as a performance analyst.

Honours

Nottingham Forest *

runner-up: 1990–91 *

: 1988–89, 1989–90 *

Full Members' Cup The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held in English football from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992. Th ...

: 1988–89 Leicester City * First Division play-offs: 1995–96 * League Cup: 1996–97 Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 1995–96 First Division * Leicester City Player of the year: 1995–96

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Garry 1965 births Living people English footballers England B international footballers England under-21 international footballers Luton Town F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Leicester City F.C. managers Premier League players Footballers from Oxford Celtic F.C. non-playing staff Bolton Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff Hibernian F.C. non-playing staff Oxford United F.C. non-playing staff Association football midfielders English football managers FA Cup Final players