parker

Scott Parker: West Ham United confirm ex-midfielder as head coach

Parker’s managerial career to date has seen three promotions followed by much leaner times in the Premier League.

His first taste of senior management was at Fulham, who he immediately guided back to the Premier League with a play-off final win over Brentford in 2020.

Parker could not keep them up again the following season and left by mutual consent in June 2021. He then became manager of Bournemouth and led them to promotion as runners-up, ironically behind Fulham.

A few weeks into the new Premier League season, the Cherries lost 9-0 at Liverpool and Parker departed three days later.

He briefly managed Belgian side Club Brugge in the 2022-23 season before replacing the Bayern Munich-bound Vincent Kompany as Burnley boss in 2024.

Parker guided the Clarets to the Premier League at the first attempt, with one of the best defensive records in English football history and a 31-match unbeaten streak.

However, he could not keep the team up last season and he departed Turf Moor after their relegation was confirmed.

Parker is highly regarded at West Ham from his four years as a player at the club.

Having emerged at Charlton Athletic, and endured an unsuccessful move to Chelsea in 2004, he joined the Hammers from Newcastle United in June 2007, for a fee of £7m.

Parker went on to make 129 appearances in claret and blue, scoring 12 goals. He also won the club’s player of the year award three seasons in a row.

In 2010-11, despite the Hammers’ relegation from the Premier League, Parker also won the Football Writers’ Association footballer of the year award and was nominated for the Professional Footballers’ Association player of the year.

He started the first four Championship matches of West Ham’s 2011–12 campaign, but handed in a transfer request after a bid came in from Tottenham Hotspur.

Parker completed a move to Spurs in order to further his England career, and he went on to be part of Roy Hodgson’s Euro 2012 squad.

He later played for Fulham, before retiring in June 2017.

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Death in Paradise sees Ralf Little return to screens as beloved DI Neville Parker

Death in Paradise will see the return of a beloved detective on Monday night as the BBC airs a repeat from series 12

Ralf Little will be back on screens as DI Neville Parker on Monday night.

The repeat from series 12 of Death in Paradise gives fans another chance to watch the show’s longest-serving detective tackle a puzzling case on Saint Marie.

The episode synopsis reads: “The team investigates a survivalist commune when one of its members is poisoned inside a locked bunker. However, with CCTV footage showing that no one went in or came out while he was in there, it seems likely that he has taken his own life – or has he? Meanwhile, Neville has a series of adventurous dates with Sophie.”

Joining Ralf in the episode are Tahj Miles as Officer Marlon Pryce, Ginny Holder as Officer Darlene Curtis, and Shantol Jackson as Naomi Thomas, giving viewers a chance to catch up with more familiar faces.

Neville first joined the Saint Marie police team back in 2020, stepping into the shoes of DI Jack Mooney (Ardal O’Hanlon).

During his four-year stint as Detective Inspector, he weathered countless challenges, conquering his allergies and aversion to the sun, and even surviving a plot to frame him for murder, cementing his status as the island’s longest-serving investigator.

Ralf ultimately departed Death in Paradise in 2024, with his character sailing off into the sunset alongside his love interest, Florence Cassell. Both he and the show’s producers agreed that Neville’s story had reached a fitting and natural conclusion, reports the Express.

Ralf was subsequently succeeded by another outstanding actor, Don Gilet, who portrays DI Mervin Wilson. Tim Key, Executive Producer for Red Planet Pictures, commented at the time: “Joining a successful show like Death in Paradise as the lead is a daunting and risky prospect, but Ralf’s confidence and talent shone through from day one, and the audience response to Neville and his journey has been amazing.”

He added, “I can’t thank Ralf enough for everything he has brought to the show, on and off screen, and wish him all the very best for the future.”

This marks not the first occasion the BBC has broadcast a repeat of Death in Paradise. Last month saw Kris Marshall and Ardal O’Hanlon return to screens as DI Humphrey Goodman and DI Jack Mooney, respectively.

Back in September, the show’s Instagram page revealed a watch-along of series six, episodes five and six, starring Kris Marshall opposite Josephine Jobert as DS Florence Cassell.

Fans can also catch Kris in the Death in Paradise spin-off, Beyond Paradise, which unfolds in the fictional town of Shipton Abbott.

Death in Paradise is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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Supreme Court refuses to toss out fees for lawyers who sought hand count in Arizona election

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to toss out $122,000 in legal costs that lawyers for former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake were ordered to pay for false and misleading statements they made in a lawsuit that sought to require a hand-count of all ballots in the 2022 midterm elections.

The nation’s highest court on Tuesday denied a request from Andrew D. Parker, an attorney who represented Lake in the lawsuit, to review a lower-court decision over the legal costs arising from the unsuccessful litigation.

The lawsuit by Lake and state lawmaker Mark Finchem sought to ban electronic tabulation devices. It was dismissed by a judge who found Lake and Finchem lacked standing to sue and that their lawsuit was filed too close to the election.

In 2022, Lake lost the governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs and Finchem was defeated in the secretary of state’s race by Democrat Andrian Fontes. Both Republicans had promoted the narrative that the 2020 election was marred by fraud.

Maricopa County had sought sanctions against Lake, Finchem and their lawyers, alleging they broke a court rule by making unfounded allegations and by not conducting the necessary research before filing the lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge John Tuchi later concluded the lawsuit’s claims lacked an adequate basis in fact, that the standard inquiry attorneys must make before pressing litigation hadn’t been done and that the lawyers acted recklessly in seeking a court order based on frivolous claims.

The requirement to pay the legal fees applies to the lawyers who pressed the lawsuit, not to Lake and Finchem.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected appeals over the lawsuit’s dismissal and the awarding of the legal fees.

The Associated Press left phone and email messages Tuesday for Parker, whose firm is based in Minneapolis.

Earlier this year, Parker asked the Supreme Court to throw out the requirement to pay Maricopa County’s legal fees in the case, arguing such sanctions would deter attorneys from bringing aggressive or novel legal claims.

Maricopa County said lawyers for Lake and Finchem had disregarded a letter that identified false allegations they had made in their lawsuit and relied on some of those claims in a later court filing. The county’s attorneys said those who brought the lawsuit failed to present evidence to support their allegations and falsely alleged that Arizona didn’t use paper ballots and that its electronic voting systems hadn’t been subjected to expert analysis.

Billeaud writes for the Associated Press.

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