Parker out. Burnley move on.

The end of the road

Parker departs with Burnley sitting on 23 points from 35 Premier League games — a number that tells most of the story without needing much editorial assistance. The defeat to City on April 22 was the one that made it official, but the writing had been on the wall long enough that it had started to fade.

Assistant coach Mike Jackson steps up on an interim basis for the final fixtures. Jackson has been here before — he steadied Burnley briefly during a previous managerial transition — so at least the dressing room knows the face walking through the door.

What comes next

The permanent job search is already underway in the background, and the bookmakers have made their early call: Steven Gerrard is the 4/7 favourite to take charge. That price suggests the market knows something, or at least thinks it does. Gerrard's last club job ended at Aston Villa in October 2022, so he's had time to think. Whether Burnley is the project that brings him back is another question entirely.

Parker, meanwhile, walks away from Turf Moor having never quite found the formula to keep the Clarets competitive at this level. He wasn't the first manager to find that gap between Championship promotion and Premier League survival brutally unforgiving — and he won't be the last.