Soccer World: Curbs thinks Parker talented has been wasted by England

Former Charlton and West Ham manager Alan Curbishley believes England have failed to utlise the talents of midfielder Scott Parker during his career.

The 31-year-old has only just begun to play for England regular after winning his first four caps while with four different clubs across eight years.

However, he has finally found a niche in Fabio Capello’s line-up, acting as a holding midfielder in front of the back four.

It is a position that is ‘en vogue’ given the success of Claude Makelele at Chelsea and the adoption of the 4-1-3-2 formation at international level, finally giving Parker the chance to gain a foot hold in the England set-up.

He also seems to have found a new home at Tottenham Hotspur. After battling, unsuccessfully against relegation with West Ham last season it was always clear he would leave. But after failing to truly find his best form in spells at Newcastle and Chelsea Parker knew it was a big move.

Thankfully for him and Spurs it has worked and the club are currently third in the table and well fancied in the champions league betting stakes.

They are even considered dark horses for the title after winning ten games out of 11, though their premier league odds did drift after their controversial 2-1 defeat at Stoke last Sunday.

Switching back to Parker and when asked if he thought England had wasted the midfielder's ability, Curbishley told BBC Radio 5 live: "I think so.

"If you define his role as a holding midfielder, there's nobody better."

"We saw the advent of Makelele as a holding midfield player, [Nigel] De Jong is in there for Manchester City, and Scott Parker is up there with them all because he is so quick over the ground, he makes tackles and wins the ball.

"We have been crying out for somebody in the England set-up to do that when you have the likes of [Steven] Gerrard and [Frank] Lampard either side.

"Parker would have been the ideal foil for them and I can't understand that [why he was not used more often in the past].

"He went off with the [extended] England squad to the World Cup in South Africa, before it got whittled down to the squad that went, and he didn't get in.

"That was a massive surprise to everybody because the way he played and trained in that week, everyone thought he was an absolute cert to be going and, if you look at the best countries around the world, especially at that World Cup in South Africa, Spain had two holding players, so did Brazil.

"Everyone had holding midfield players except us.”