o/t Chatting with Steve McLaren in Enschede

[SimplyRed MFC]

Bizarrely, I happened to have an jnteresting & totally unexpected meeting last week in eastern Holland which I thought I'd share with you lot if you are a bit bored !

Deciding at the last minute to accompany my wife on a business trip to Enschede near the German border, I found myself with a couple of free days to explore a city & country I have never visited.

My only knowledge of the city was of Dutch Premier side FC Twente Enschede and their manager, ex-England & Middlesbrough boss Steve McLaren.

Interestingly, McLaren is treated as a soccer genius in these parts with a second place finish last season behind AZ Alkmaar. No mean feat as it is their highest ever League finish and above other quality sides like Ajax & PSV.

Our hotel was a mere kilometre away from the Grolsch Stadion, home of Twente and after a quick 9am visit inside the ground and to the club shop, decided to attend their open trainng day in nearby Hengolo at 10am. This could only be reached by my newly hired sit-up-and-beg bike ( Think Wicked Witch of the west in a Morecambe away shirt ! )

No matter, arriving in glorious 38 degree sunshine at the Fanny Blankers-Kohn Stadion ( Dutch Olympic champ many moons ago ), sure enough, Steve and his team trot out in preparation for their imminent Europa Cup tie against FC Garabach from WestAsiaIsNotYetReallyEuropeiStan

Spotting probably the only other Englishman within 20 kilometres I cheerfully chipped in wuth a friendly " Up The Boro" which was met with a wry laugh and a look of bemusement as Steve and his Dutch assistants trained their very useful looking squad of Bulgarians, Iranians, Germans & Dutch players.

Some two very enjoyable hours later the session was over and the players seemed to really take to McLarens style and his comments such as " if that shot went any higher jt'll land in Scotland "

After taking all the time to sign autographs and take photo's for the 40 or so youngsters ( and yes, he has aquired a slight Dutch accent, strangely for a guy born in York ) I had time to have a 15 minute chat with him about various topics, such as why I was there ( I think he might have initially thought I was UK media ) and was quite surprised to find I was a match-day announcer from Morecambe !

Unfortunatly, we were unable ro go to the Garabach game as we were flying back from Amsterdam that evening - they were to win the first leg 3-1. and also currently sit joint top of the League

All in all, quite a surreal morning and I came away with the impression that Steve McLaren remains a very good coach/manager who perhaps was over-promoted to the International scene but when/if he leaves Holland ( less pressure, great lifestyle) may yet do a good job for one of the middle-ranking UK Prem sides.

Seems a nice guy, good luck to him

[shrimpnsave]

yeh,he is a nice bloke,met him once many a year ago

his he still talking broken englisk

[George Dawes]

very good story to share


top class coach but he was probably thrown into the England job 10yrs to soon

[SimplyRed MFC]

Yep, it was funny really, when chatting to a couple of adoring fans and having also a photo with their dad - He was saying to them "OK Boysh" instead of "OK Boys" and lots of Ja's instead of Yes - so much so I thought he had become Martin Jol for a moment !

But however he speaks, he's definately getting his job done efficiently

[Mark S]

More media tart nowadays arent you?

Right! Who won the sweepstake? I had Sunday afternoon!

[SimplyRed MFC]

Ooh unlucky swiz, if my broadband hadn't conked you'd have won !

Nice funny people the Dutch, one guy in a city centre shop gave me an FC Twente home programme that I was reading in his shop, after thanking him he said " it's my pleasure, after the two gifts that Rio & Gareth Barry gave us in the Arena last week, it's the least I can do !"

[Mark S]

Ooh unlucky swiz, if my broadband hadn't conked you'd have won !

Nice funny people the Dutch, one guy in a city centre shop gave me an FC Twente home programme that I was reading in his shop, after thanking him he said " it's my pleasure, after the two gifts that Rio & Gareth Barry gave us in the Arena last week, it's the least I can do !"

And of course you brought it in for 'show and tell'

Who is Rio Barry?

Thanks for confirming. I was begining to think you were going to keep this fascinating story to yourself. That would have been a travesty!

[P/T Indie]

I believe he has Tewente playing "total football" and the dutch love him. He had a hard act to follow as they loved their previous manager who they finished 3rd or 4th with and got them to Europe before going off to Schalke. Mclaren has done an amazing job to go on and improve on that. He also got them to the cup final but lost on pens.

I think as he is a more of a"coach" and quite a technical one at that his methods are probably a lot more suited to Holland.

You know who it was that told him to go over there and re build his career because he would love it there, yes the legend that is Sir Bobby.

[PUNKISDEAD]

Soz steve

YERMISTOUTAGEN!!


Whist swanning around in belgium pretending to be mark s, you lost the oportunity to meet my duo of celebs at christie, willmott brown and DC, SOZ NOT YOU DANNY, DAVID CALDER