LONDON, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Fulham coach Scott Parker has been left to lament what might have been after his side were relegated from the Premier League to the Championship after just one season in the top-flight on Tuesday night.
A 4-1 defeat to Watford sealed Fulham's fate, but their relegation had been a certainty before Parker was appointed as their third coach of a disastrous campaign in March.
The former England midfielder had overseen defeats to Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Leicester, before Tuesday's loss and it is hard to see how he could have changed the club's fortunes when faced with such a difficult fixture list.
"I'm just gutted for the fans. It was 12 months ago since we got into the division, and from the outset this year it's been bitterly disappointing for everyone," said Parker.
"The fans are the ones who pay their hard money to come and watch the team. There's certainly been times this year when the team haven't given back what they deserve. Personally, I'm really sorry for that," he said.
Although it is usual for newly promoted sides to suffer in their first season (or even their first two campaigns) in the Premier League, Fulham spent big on winning promotion, becoming the first even newly promoted team to spend over 100 million pounds (a little over 130 million US dollars) after sealing promotion.
Indeed, last summer Fulham were the third biggest spenders in England in the summer of 2018, but the spending only seemed to leave them with an unbalanced squad.
Slavisa Jokanovic, who had led Fulham to promotion with some swashbuckling football, was sacked in November and replaced by the experienced Claudio Ranieri, whose arrival was hailed as "risk free" by owner Shahid Khan.
Three wins from 17 games and 105 days later Ranieri was shown the door and Parker given the job on a caretaker basis with the club already 10 points adrift from safety.
"There have been problems and obviously some mistakes have been made. We'll sit down in the coming weeks and work out what they were and try and learn from them," said Parker, who was unable to confirm his own future at the club.
Fulham are the second team to be relegated this season after Huddersfield's return to the Championship was confirmed following their defeat to Crystal Palace last weekend.
