Scott Parker has vowed he will not “waver” despite bearing the brunt of Burnley fans’ frustrations during today’s defeat to West Ham.
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The Clarets slumped to a 2-0 defeat on home turf to make it 16 league games without a win – while remaining 11 points adrift of safety.
With relegation looking a certainty, fans turned on their manager with chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” and “we want Parker out”.
Scott Parker leaves the field following Burnley's defeat to West Ham United. Photo: Kelvin Lister-Stuttardplaceholder image
Scott Parker leaves the field following Burnley's defeat to West Ham United. Photo: Kelvin Lister-Stuttard
When asked if he feels like he’s still the right man to lead Burnley, an emotional Parker said afterwards: “At the start of this season, there was one humongous challenge. It was a humongous challenge.
"I said it the other day on Friday, regarding me, the players, everyone associated, the fans as well...if we’re all being honest, we knew the challenge what represented this year.
"At this present moment in time, like always, when you know the challenge and you know what's coming, what no one is ever prepared for, or what no one at times have a real understanding of, is when you're actually in the midst of a challenge.
“When you're in the midst of a challenge, like we're in the midst of a challenge right now, that's tough and it takes a certain type, a certain human being, a certain player to face up, fix up and give absolutely everything to get through that challenge. That's my constant message to this group.
"So I get in football now, it's easy to – maybe not just football – maybe it's just easy in general that during hard times at certain moments, that's what you do.
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“I'm a fighter and I've experienced a lot of things in my life and I've been through a lot of adversity and I've been through a lot of challenges.
"There's one thing that I hold firmly and I stand by, and is a foundation and an absolute rock, which is concrete, which is built on, is that in these moments of pure adversity, I will not waver. I will always stand up and I'll always represent that to this group.
“That's the message I'm constantly giving to this young group, which is starting out some of them in their careers. Whether it's about football or whether it's just about general life, that's exactly what it needs to be.
"So I'm really sorry at this present moment in time we're going through a tough time but what I'm not sorry for is that there's some, and there's a certain type, that in these moments don't face up to that.
"Whether we fail or whether we don't fail, we come through this for sure. I get that in this world we're in, people will only ever see the spotlight or the trophy or the success.
“Along the journey, there's many a times like this. And what do you want to be? Me sitting here in this position now, what do I want to be? Me sitting in this position delivering a message to a young group, an impressionable group, a young group that are just starting on their journey. That's exactly what I want to tell them.
“We face up and we front up and we keep working tirelessly. I repeat, I get that maybe at this present moment in time, people will be critical of my comments. People will post what they want to post and say: ‘oh really?’ But it's a fact. It's a cold hard fact.
"The cold hard fact is, along any journey in life, whether that's personal or whether that's professional, there's struggles and we're in that now.
“We're struggling now, but we'll be better for this. While I'm really sorry that I can't promise that we'll be better for it with a win or with staying in this division, the longer journey of it is, we'll be better for it.”
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