If you haven’t yet seen Steve McClaren speaking with a remarkable Dutch accent, then you’re missing out. The FC Twente coach has wasted no time trying to endear himself to the people of the Netherlands by adopting the accent of Martin Jol in interviews with TV stations in Holland.
The Daily Mail reports that the former England manager slipped into pidgin English again during yesterday’s press conference ahead of tonight’s match at the, how you say, Emirates. His team were unlucky to lose the first leg match against Arsenal, although the Gunners will now be supremely confident of finishing the job this evening.
That YouTube clip is almost unbearable and even yesterday, as he held court before FC Twente began training at The Emirates, he slipped into an affected, Dutch accent. How you say… Incredible.
‘Well at least I’m speaking English,’ he added. ‘Can you understand? It’s just the way it is. It’s so Dutch people can understand.’
Given that children in Holland simultaneously learn Dutch and English they might not need his assistance, but his new compatriots will learn to work round the idiosyncracies.
Perhaps McClaren should be applauded for trying to help the Dutch people understand his English, or maybe he should just go the whole hog and learn some Dutch! That’s unless he wasn’t planning to stick around for very long in Holland. Do you think Arsenal will beat the, how you say, big underdogs by a convincing margin tonight?