If automatic promotion was decided by Rudyard Kipling it might go to someone keeping his head when all around lose theirs and trusting himself when others cast doubt.
On Saturday at the very least, Scott Parker was your man, my son.
Parker’s Burnley hit the front with six to play in the long race for the Premier League, fighting back from behind to emerge as winners at Coventry as others faltered.
Leeds drew at Luton and have won only once in six games. It might be a cheap shot to claim they’re falling apart but the Championship’s favourite song is back in the charts.
Sheffield United, meanwhile, are still fretting about those two deducted points while slipping to uncharacteristic defeat at Oxford.
All three teams have been exceptional across nine months and yet one is destined for a death dance in the playoffs, where stamina and mental resilience will be tested by those charged up on momentum.
Scott Parker’s Burnley sit top of the Championship after beating Coventry on Saturday
Jaidon Anthony scored both goals as the Clarets picked up a huge three points
‘It’s an emotional strain if you let it consume you,’ said Parker after winning at Coventry. ‘Jump on the rollercoaster of, oh, they’ve won and that means this, all these things go through your head, and it’s a drain and becomes very stressful.’
He jokes about turning off his phone but admits it takes commitment to avoid the noise.
‘Fifteen years of training my mind,’ as he puts it. ‘I speak to someone on a weekly basis in terms of controlling things and controlling my mind, and not getting emotionally involved.’
Respect for Burnley this season has been grudging. Difficult to beat, is the usual reference for Parker’s team, rebuilt after losing Wilson Odobert, Sander Berge and Dara O’Shea.
Indeed, they are unbeaten in 27 league games, have conceded only 12 goals in 40 matches and the one scored by Coventry in a 2-1 win was clearly offside.
It is a remarkable defensive record, the source of which stretches far beyond the talent of James Trafford, the goalkeeper tipped for a move to top end of the Premier League this year.
Maxime Esteve and CJ Egan-Riley, both only 22, are excellent centre halves ready for another Premier League test, and protected by a strong midfield shield and industrious full backs.
Frustrated home fans filing out of the CBS Arena reckoned the visitors wouldn’t last long in the Premier League playing that way, but Burnley went up two years ago playing football under Vincent Kompany from the opposite end of the spectrum.
Parker has had struggles but has now established as one of England’s best young coaches
That plan did not endure at the next level up, just as it didn’t this season for Russell Martin at Southampton.
They were easily exposed by stronger teams with better players, although it did not work out too badly for Kompany, who took his pure passing philosophy into the richest club in Germany and now sits top of the Bundesliga.
Parker will expect to add quality if his team go up again. He has been through it before and still carries the scars.
He bounced up and down with Fulham without finding a foothold and spent an awkward summer after promotion at Bournemouth waiting in vain for an imminent takeover to fund reinforcements.
His decision to go public with the fears he had been airing in private for weeks after losing 9-0 at Liverpool days before the transfer window in August 2022 backfired spectacularly.
He was sacked, Gary O’Neil stepped in, the takeover was completed as Parker began a sobering 67 days in charge of Club Bruges. Bournemouth stayed up and have not looked back.
Parker flirted with the managerial scrapheap. There is little tolerance for those learning their trade in modern English football.
But Burnley threw him another chance as an expert in leading relegated clubs back to the Premier League and have been rewarded.
Promotion next month would make it three in six years for Parker by the age of 44
Promotion next month would make it three in six years for Parker by the age of 44.
We should view him among the emerging young British coaches. He took time to learn the ropes in Tottenham’s academy and as an assistant to Slavisa Jokanovic and Claudio Ranieri at Fulham.
Just as he did as a player, he hopped through clubs leaving a good impression. Those who have worked with him describe him as studious, determined and ambitious, and fair.
Still some people seem more likely to cast snide comments about his head boy credentials and fashion mistakes, while peddling perceptions about charmed access into attractive jobs, blessed with the benefit of parachute payments.
These things help in the Championship, no doubt. But it is no springtime stroll. Daniel Farke’s Leeds illustrate as much. With further evidence supplied by Luton in the drop zone or Huddersfield in League One.
There is a fair bit of selective snobbery about. This season it tends to frown upon Parker for his style of his football, but he won’t be listening as he goes for the line. Promotion, the biggest if of all.
FIVE THINGS I LEARNED THIS WEEK
1. Unai Emery and Monchi are looking like the January market’s smartest traders as Aston Villa take a winning roll into this week’s Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain.
They know from time together at Sevilla what is required to build a serious European campaign, and they have brought it to Villa albeit on a PSR high wire. One incongruous defeat at Crystal Palace the only blot on a dozen games since the window closed.
Unai Emery’s Aston Villa are benefitting from what has proved to be a fine January window
2. Norwich’s mid-season swoop to sign Matej Jurasek for £5.8million from Slavia Prague has not proved effective business.
Jurasek is an exciting Czech talent, but his arrival was delayed by post-Brexit work permit complications, which left him needing time to get match fit and now the 21-year-old winger is injured.
3. The term ‘initiating contact’ is embedded in the post-VAR lexicon of football. Often used to explain penalties not given, but less common elsewhere on the pitch. So when Moises Caicedo initiates contact by stepping across Pape Matar Sarr’s challenge and gets kicked, it is accepted without argument.
Players used to step across and use their strength to shield the ball. Now they step across to initiate contact and claim a foul. Sometimes an important foul.
4. Not all clubs are equal when it comes to cherishing heritage and few are better at present than Coventry, with a 340-strong former players association and, on Saturday, a wonderful parade of legends featuring Tommy Hutchison and Ian Wallace, a nostalgic fix for those who pine for Admiral kits and vintage sticker books.
5. Strange goings on at the top of League Two where Walsall have slipped from 12 points clear at the top to third after defeat by Port Vale.
While in the depths of the same division, it is no less strange. Ex Vale boss Andy Crosby has revived Tranmere to win four of six to ease relegation fears.
