He was football’s greatest caretaker. If only football would take care of him now.
Tony Parkes is Mr Blackburn Rovers, someone who played, captained, scouted and coached for the Lancashire club.
Six times he kept the hot-seat warm between 1986 and 2004 — never letting them down — and in 1995 he helped Sir Kenny Dalglish win the Premier League with Chris Sutton in attack.
Sutton caught up with Tony’s daughter Natalie who explains that Ewood Park was Tony’s happy place. Now in his £850-a-week care home, not far from Ewood, the tears are flowing.