Position : Goalkeeper
Played : 2001-02 (on loan from Fulham)
Appearances : 5
Goals : 0
The last signing of Steve Parkin's first spell was his most exotic. Marcus was an American international with 3 caps and was signed by Fulham from Colorado Rapids for £80,000 in June 1999. He made 2 appearances for them in 2000-01 but the signing of Edwin Van der Sar made him third choice hence his availability for loan moves.
Marcus signed shortly after we'd played Fulham in the League Cup. It was a controversial move because Matt Gilks had been playing well and had kept a clean sheet at Swansea a couple of days earlier but Parkin said he needed a rest. Marcus put any criticism to bed by being very good indeed. In his 5 League games he only conceded 2 goals and we collected 13 points. It seemed like Marcus had an aversion to getting his shirt dirty and his preference for trapping shots with his instep was heart-stopping at first but we soon learned to trust him. He was excellent at taking crossses and really kept our fullbacks on their toes with his quick throw-outs. We probably couldn't afford to keep him for longer than a month but he'd been excellent.
Later that season Marcus had a month on loan at Reading with very similar results , three goals conceded, and four wins,two draws from his 6 games. He signed for them permanently in the summer of 2002 and went on to make 280 appearances for them over the next 7 years including 2 seasons in the Premiership. In the summer of 2009 he went to Wolves on a Bosman and has been featuring regularly in the Premiership since despite being now 38. He has also started appearing on TV as a pundit.
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