Moron

Reuters reports the following inanity from English coach Steve McClaren on the eve of the match with Croatia.

"We are looking for an English performance, one of pride, passion, attitude and character," he is quoted as saying

Jesus. H. CHRIST!

I mean - fuck!

What about skill? Passing? Intelligent use of possession? A "plan B" that consists of something other than lumping it forward, looking for the big fella's head?

Now, admittedly, we shouldn't expect that much from this guy. His ideas of tactical savvy is, when a goal down with 20 minutes to go in a UEFA cup final....(drum roll please)....take off a defender and a defensive midfielder, replace them with big strikers, and lump the ball forward! Cue a hugely embarassing 4-0 loss to Sevilla...

Why, why, why do the English persist in believing that a coach's most important attribute is to be able to do a passable imitation of Churchill's "fight them on the beaches" speech? It's been 60 years, but their necrophilic obsession with the war still makes them think in these terms. It's unbelievable.

OK, as a Canadian I probably shouldn't get too self-righteous about this, since we have some of this attitude when it comes to hockey. Think Don Cherry.

But at least we don't make him coach of the freakin' national team.