"I never thought I could coach in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley…": FFT speaks to Mark Parsons, the Netherlands women manager from Woking

England women may have a Dutch coach – but Netherlands women have an Englishman in charge.

Woking-born Mark Parsons began his coaching career at Chelsea before moving to America to coach women's sides over there. The Netherlands job came up in 2021 when Sarina Wiegman went to the Lionesses: now Parsons is tasked with keeping the Euros title in the Netherlands. 

FourFourTwo caught up with him to find out about his journey, his expectations of the Women's Euro 2022 and the possibility of ending the summer with a Wembley final…

How have you found adapting from working in USA club football, to moving into a national team job for the first time last year?

I’ve got two angles on this. The first is my own satisfaction, enjoyment and passion. From that angle, I’m enjoying every moment because I have to prepare a team to perform. International football is less time on the pitch, but it’s more time preparing; all of the scouting, working with staff, and I’m enjoying that. I’m fine not being on the pitch every day as long as I’m helping a team get better. The amount of time you have means you have to be efficient, and efficient means planning in a way that you have maximum impact with your group. Every second, every moment matters, and I have this mindset. I’m not perfect – it’s been a year of fine-tuning that art. You look at Jill Ellis or Sarina [Wiegman] and it takes time for everyone, but I have very experienced staff who’ve been part of a successful team. For me, that’s critical.

Is that what made you step away from club football to take on a new challenge?

If the Netherlands call had come two years before, it would have been a brutally hard thing for me to say, “Thank you, but keep my number for later” – because I was so settled and happy with everything. We started a bit of a rebuild with Portland in 2020 and 2021. But being closer to family became a higher priority last year. I knew we’d move back, but I never expected a call two months later from the KNVB. I have to be in a place where there’s ambition to win and to be the best. It’s difficult when a successful coach leaves a team [like Sarina Wiegman], but working with this elite group and some world-class players really attracted me.

What are your expectations this summer?

The level is going to be higher than we’ve ever seen. The excitement I get thinking about the level of women’s football right now… I think six teams all have the quality to win. Some teams are going to start the tournament in a better place than us: Spain and Sweden are very far along in their team process, in their cohesion; England, home nation, a coach who has had an instant impact. France have individual talent, and Germany are two years into their process with younger players than us. I think we’ll have an amazing blend of top, top players with younger ones coming through, and we’re a team that’s growing and evolving. We can win it, but it’ll be tough.

You have some superb technical players in Vivianne Miedema and Lieke Martens – but what have you learned about working with European players after your NWSL days?

Two things about Dutch footballers, and the second one was a surprise. This is specific to Dutch players – I think they have a really high level of game knowledge, insight and intelligence. That means you can achieve more tactically by saying less and doing less, because they have great game insight. The part that surprised me, and it shouldn’t have, but I’ve been so excited to see the technical level – the shooting and the passing. In club teams you might have a few specialists who can strike a shot, two or three who can strike a pass, but we have a lot. It’s a big quality of our players. I always argued in America that the top teams were the same tactically but just at a faster speed [than Europe], but you watch Barcelona vs Lyon and it reminded me of the top-end NWSL games in terms of its life or death [nature] – it’s all in.

Looking back over your coaching journey, you started very young at Chelsea. What was it like being involved with the club?

I have very fond and important memories there. I worked with the boys’ academy and the U16 girls. Neil Bath was rolling out the start of his identity, and I had Reece James and Mason Mount running around my ankles as little seven- and eight-year-olds. Michael Beale [QPR’s new manager] was in the boys’ academy as well. I saw Mourinho, Ancelotti, Hiddink, Scolari… I could watch them all out of my window. I got to see how you develop players, and saw top managers win, but I got to see how to treat people the correct way.

Did you play before going into coaching?

Well, I thought I’d be on Match of the Day – that was the dream! I joined Woking at 16, played in the academy, reserves, and joined the first team in pre-season but never got a game. At 18, I left when a couple of mates were stepping up, but it was a combination of not being good enough and falling in love with coaching too. It’s very strange to start coaching at 18, but I was putting everything into that and not really playing. When it was an easy game and we were 3-0 up, I was one of the best on the pitch. If we weren’t, I was a luxury player!

You went to America after that, in men’s football and then into the NWSL. Did you ever expect it to be so successful?

Since I joined Chelsea, I’m very present in everything, 100 per cent. I went to the US in 2010, in 2012 I was running a youth club, then the U20s… I gave it everything, always. I was 26 and thought I could coach, then I was head coach of a women’s team with World Cup winners. Looking back now, I was nowhere near ready, but you care and give it everything anyway. Then was I ready for Portland? No, probably not, but we won the Shield, we won the Championship. I never thought that I’d coach Washington Spirit, Portland Thorns and then the Netherlands’ senior team, and never thought that I could potentially coach in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley as an English person. It’s crazy.