- Born
- Birth nameRaymond Parlour
- Nickname
- The Romford Pelé
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- Ray Parlour was born on March 7, 1973 in Romford, Essex, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Baby Juice Express (2004), Arsenal - Arsène's Eleven (2007) and Match of the Day 2 (2004). He was previously married to Karen.
- SpouseKaren(1998 - 2004) (divorced, 3 children)
- Former footballer; who played for Arsenal (1992-2004), Middlesbrough (2004-2007), and Hull City (2007). With Arsenal, Parlour won three Premier League titles (1998, 2002 & 2004), four FA Cups (1993, 1998, 2002 & 2003), one League Cup (1993), and one Cup Winners Cup (1994).
- Won 10 caps for England between 1999-2000.
- The other question that is almost as hard is when people ask who is the crème de la crème of Arsenal players, the best ever? The favourites are Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry, but who to pick? It's too hard. It's a toss of a coin. Thierry is a great lad and very intelligent, which is why I think he can make a manager one day. He is not short of opinions. There was a spell when he was unmarkable. The only thing Dennis did differently for me is he transformed the nature of the club with his professionalism. Of course, Dennis was also special to play with. He could read your mind.
- Arsène's [Arsène Wenger] ways helped me to change as a footballer and a person. He is a very genuine man. He didn't want to hold anyone back. Go out and play. You had to be organised and know what you were doing, but he did want you to express yourself, without worrying about mistakes. He stressed how he wanted us to be positive and trust our own ability. He was an extraordinary character. I loved him to bits.
- He [Gilles Grimandi] loved the atmosphere [at Arsenal]. He explained that in France it is totally different. It's a job, they all come in, do their work, and don't necessarily speak to each other. They would go and train, have a shower and then that's it, go home. So we were trying to get it across to the French lads that we're all mates, we can all have a laugh. Manu Petit [Emmanuel Petit] didn't get it to start with. I'm sure it was just that he wasn't used to it rather than arrogance, but when we would come in we would say, 'Morning' and not get much of a response. Once he had more or less ignored a lot of the lads, we told him we might want to cut his ponytail off if he kept blanking people. After that he was good as gold. 'Good mornings' all round to everyone every day!
- Thierry [Henry] took me to Nike Town once. I was happy to go along. I was after a couple of golf clubs. Tiger Woods was sponsored by Nike and they had some great gear. When we got there, they had roped it all off. Thierry Henry was coming so they closed this massive store. He was with his mum and I was with my missus, Jo. We walked in and he told us to go around and pick out some stuff. Anything we want. Thanks, Thierry! [...] As we got to the reception area, there was Thierry and his mum with one pair of trainers each. That was it. My trolley was overflowing with gear. The man from Nike packed it all in my car and I thought: "This is unbelievable, about £3,000's worth of Nike gear. What a service!" As I drove past Thierry's car I wound the window down and said: "Thierry, what are you doing next week?" - "I'm not coming here with you!"
- It has been well documented that Arsène [Wenger] introduced a lot of changes about diet and how we were refuelling. I didn't mind vegetables and all that, so I liked it. I didn't eat chocolate anyway, but Nigel Winterburn and some of the others wanted their treats. They'd still get chocolate and put it in their bag. Those guys were 30 years old. It's harder to change your habits when you're that age. But we were coming out of a different era. We had an eating competition once on the way back from Newcastle. It was a six-hour journey so we were like: "What should we do today? Let's have an eating contest." No reason, really, it was just something to do. We must have had about eight dinners. Bouldy [Steve Bould] won by a mile: he had nine. In the end we had to stop, a few of the players were being sick outside the coach. But under Arsène those days were becoming history.
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