Fulham: Parker joins AFC Bournemouth but has Wilder jumped ahead of Cooper?

News came yesterday that former Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder has jumped ahead of Steve Cooper in the race to be the new Fulham manager, or at least that is the view of the bookmakers who had him odds on favourite yesterday.

One of football’s worst kept secrets finally played through yesterday evening when Fulham announced the departure of Scott Parker and his backroom staff with Bournemouth confirming the appointment of the (then) former Fulham manager just a few hours later.

Parker was clearly a happy man to have his future sorted and, upon his appointment, told the BBC “The ethos, the reputation, the journey and the challenge here is something that’s very exciting.

“I believe this is the perfect fit for both parties. We want to build a team the fans can be proud of and one they feel represents them. We can’t wait to get started.”

This move has been coming for a few weeks now with Parker seemingly unhappy at Fulham and Bournemouth in the search for a new manager given that Jonathan Woodgate was only ever there until the end of the season and it was always believed that it would only be promotion that would extend that.

That means Fulham have had several weeks to think of potential replacements and the name of Cooper has always been strongly linked.  As of yesterday, Wales Online said there was no approach to the Swans for Cooper and yesterday afternoon former Blades boss Chris Wilder was instilled as the bookmakers favourites for the job amidst further rumours that link him with the vacancy at Barnsley.

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Wilder left Sheffield United last season as the Blades headed towards a spectacular relegation from the Premier League and Fulham’s ideal view for a manager was explained by Chairman Shahid Khan who said “We will hire a new head coach who is capable of achieving our goal of promotion and will be committed to Fulham and its supporters.

“And we will field a squad that will respond, compete and win. Onward.”

Parker left Fulham with most of his backroom staff  – Matt Wells (First Team Coach), Rob Burch (Goalkeeping Coach), Alastair Harris (Head of Sports Science), Jonathan Hill (First Team Match Analyst) and Charlie Moore (Lead Physical Performance Coach) which paves the way for any new manager at Fulham to bring/appoint his own team to work with which could create additional complications as far as Cooper is concerned.