Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Following a great event at the Emirates on Sunday – hosted by Arsenal’s partner Europcar – we managed to grab a few minutes with former Arsenal midfielder and ‘Invincible’ Ray Parlour.
Given Calum Chambers’ relative inexperience, have you been surprised with how well he has settled in?
He has done brilliantly; he has been one of the signings of the summer, given the age and the money spent.
He has come in at centre-half, and can do a job there and we’ve seen him at right-back, as well. I’m delighted for him and I think he has really enjoyed training with some top players, Arsene Wenger, himself and he is going to be a top player, hopefully for Arsenal and England in the future.
I’d love to see him defensive midfield but I think he might be a little bit young to put him in there; the problem he has is similar to Phil Jones (at Manchester United); he has played centre back, centre midfield, you’ve got to learn a position – one day he’s playing centre half, one day centre midfield, I think as a youngster you’ve got to take control and say boss this is the position I want to learn.
For me, his position is right-back, at the moment but you don’t what the future holds.
Pepsi or Coke?
Pepsi
Which current Arsenal player would you have loved to have played alongside?
Sanchez, his work-rate is brilliant. He’s the sort of player that if you are playing behind him – which I would’ve done – it makes it easier for you to close down your man; he is the nearest I’ve seen to (Luis) Suarez.
A very important player at the moment, scoring goals. There’s a lot of talent in Arsenal’s team but it’s maybe a case of getting the organisation a little better. But certainly, Sanchez has been a revelation.
Nando’s or McDonalds?
Nando’s, my little daughter took me there the other day; it’s quite nice.
Three things you miss about football since retirement
The most important thing was the banter, day-to-day.
I loved training every day, I mean, I always thought it was like having a kickabout with your mates over the park – it wasn’t, it was a lot more serious than that.
And probably the hotels you stay at, you can still stay at nice hotels but you know what I mean. Also, the food was amazing, I love my food.
Facebook or Twitter?
What was the secret to the ‘Invincibles’?
A lot of winners in the team, we never knew when we were beaten. We had some really poor games that season but we still managed to draw them.
I think the mentality thing is so important, we’d go a goal down but we knew we could nick a goal somewhere. We had so much quality going forward that we never gave up.
Arsene Wenger used to do an eight vs eight on a Friday, everyone was steaming in, no one wanted to lose.
