If Rudyard Kipling was decided by Rudyard, it could go to someone who kept their heads when all around the loss and to trust when others threw a doubt.
At the very least on Saturday, Scott Parker was your man, my son.
Burnley de Parker struck the front with six to play in the long race of the Premier League, fighting from behind to emerge as winners in Coventry while others have vacillated.
Leeds drew in Luton and won only once in six games. It could be a cheap plan to claim that they collapse, but the favorite song of the championship is back in the charts.
Sheffield United, on the other hand, is still concerned about these two deducted points while slipping into an unusual defeat in Oxford.
The three teams were exceptional in nine months and yet one is intended for a dance of death in the playoffs, where endurance and mental resilience will be tested by those loaded on momentum.
Burnley de Scott Parker seated at the top of the championship after beating Coventry on Saturday
Jaidon Anthony scored the two goals while the Clarets have collected three points
“It is an emotional tension if you let it consume yourself,” said Parker after winning in Coventry. “Jump on the roller coaster mountains of, oh, they have won and that means that, all these things are going through your head, and it’s a drain and becomes very stressful.”
He jokes about the deactivation of his phone but admits that you need a commitment to avoid noise.
“Fifteen years of training my mind”, as he says. “I speak to someone on a weekly basis in terms of control of things and control my mind, and not to get emotionally involved.”
Respect for Burnley this season was reluctantly. Difficult to beat is the usual reference for the Parker team, rebuilt after losing Wilson Odobert, Sander Berge and Dara O’Shea.
Indeed, they are undefeated in 27 league games, conceded only 12 goals in 40 games and that scored by Coventry in a 2-1 victory was clearly offside.
It is a remarkable defensive record, the source of which extends far beyond the talent of James Trafford, the goalkeeper took a step for a move at the end of the Premier League this year.
Maxime Esteve and CJ Egan-Riley, both 22 years old, are excellent central halves ready for another Premier League test, and protected by a solid midfielder and full industry back.
Fanted house fans who filed the CBS arena estimated that visitors would not last long in the Premier League by playing this way, but Burnley went up two years ago by playing football under Vincent Kompany of the opposite end of the specter.
Parker had difficulties but has now established one of the best young coaches in England
This plan did not last at the next level, just as he did not do this season for Russell Martin in Southampton.
They were easily exposed by stronger teams with better players, even if it did not work too much for Kompany, who took his pure philosophy of passing into the richest club in Germany and is now at the top of the Bundesliga.
Parker will expect to add quality if his team goes back. He has already lived it and always carries the scars.
He rebounded from top to bottom with Fulham without finding a footer and spent an embarrassing summer after the promotion in Bournemouth while waiting in vain for an imminent takeover to finance reinforcements.
His decision to make public with the fears he had disseminated in private for weeks after losing 9-0 in Liverpool a few days before the transfer window in August 2022 turned spectacularly.
He was dismissed, Gary O’Neil intervened, the takeover was completed while Parker began 67 days in charge of Club Bruges. Bournemouth remained standing and did not look back.
Parker flirted with the management scrappheap. There is little tolerance for those who learn their job in modern English football.
But Burnley gave him another chance as an expert in clubs relegated to the Premier League and was rewarded.
Promotion next month would be three years in six years to Parker at the age of 44
Promotion next month would be three years in six years to Parker at the age of 44.
We must see it among the young emerging British coaches. He took the time to learn the strings of the Tottenham Academy and as an assistant of Slavisa Jokanovic and Claudio Ranieri in Fulham.
Just as he did as a player, he jumped in clubs leaving a good impression. Those who worked with him describe him as studious, determined and ambitious and just.
Some people seem to be more likely to throw sarcastic comments on his chief references and fashion errors, while sticking perceptions on charmed access to attractive jobs, with the advantage of parachute payments.
These things undoubtedly help the championship. But this is not a spring walk. Daniel Farke’s Leeds illustrate as much. With other evidence provided by Luton in the fall zone or Huddersfield in Ligue 1.
There is a lot of selective snobbery. This season, he tends to frown on Parker for his style of his football, but he will not listen to it while he goes for the line. Promotion, the largest of all.
Five things I learned this week
1 and 1 Unai Emery and Monchi resemble the most intelligent traders on the January market while Aston Villa takes on a winning role in the draw of the Champions League of this week against Paris Saint-Germain.
They know from time to time in Seville which is necessary to build a serious European campaign, and they brought it to Villa, although on a high psr thread. An incongruous defeat at Crystal Palace the only blow on a dozen games since the window closed.
Aston Villa d’Inai Emery benefits from what turned out to be a beautiful January window
2 Norwich’s mid-season swoop to sign Matej Jurasek for 5.8 million pounds Sterling by Slavia Prague has not proven an effective business.
Jurasek is an exciting Czech talent, but his arrival was delayed by the complications of post-Brexit work permit, which left him time to match the match and now the 21-year-old winger is injured.
3 and 3 The term “initiating contact” is integrated into the post-var lexicon of football. Often used to explain the not given penalties, but less common elsewhere in the field. Thus, when Moises Caicedo launches the contact through the challenge of Pape Matar Sarr and is launched, it is accepted without argument.
Players are used to going through and using their strength to protect the ball. Now they go through to start contact and claim a fault. Sometimes an important fault.
4 Not all clubs are equal when it comes to cherishing heritage and little is better in Coventry, with a former association of players of 340 people and, on Saturday, a wonderful parade of legends featuring Tommy Hutchison and Ian Wallace, a nostalgic solution for those who sway for admired kits and vintage sticker books.
5 Strange activities at the top of League two where Walsall went from 12 clear points at the top to third after the defeat of Port Vale.
While in the depths of the same division, it is no less strange. Former Andy Crosby boss relaunched Tranmere to win four of the six to mitigate fears of relegation.