Steve McClaren’s Enschede Win First Eredivisie Title

By: Jan | May 2nd, 2010

FC Twente protected their one point lead at the top of the table and held off the challenge from an Ajax side on a 14 match win streak, to clinch their first ever Dutch Eredivisie title with a 2-0 win over NAC Breda today. It was only the sixth time that a club outside of the big three (Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord) could win the title.

And Steve McClaren turned from a coach with a fake Dutch accent, into one with a real Dutch championship to his name.

Dutch TV hired Goldmember to do the post-match interview, and when he asks McClaren whether he has been rehabilitated as a coach, McClaren ducks the question.

So, I’ll pass it on to you to answer instead.

In many ways the achievement certainly speaks for itself. Twente aren’t anywhere near the top of the Dutch money and power pyramid. But then again, the ones who are may also not be at the top of their game at the moment. Feyenoord are struggling financially. PSV may start to feel that Fred Rutten’s poor season at Schalke wasn’t entirely down to the chaos in Gelsenkirchen. Martin Jol’s Ajax side certainly looks like having some potential for the future, and they proved that in the run-in of the season, but it probably took them too long to click. Meanwhile, defending champions AZ Alkmaar had the hideous idea to replace Louis van Gaal with Ronald Koeman.

I guess you can try to continue to find faults with his success. And maybe he didn’t win the title in the best Eredivisie ever, but maybe he also really isn’t that bad of a coach after all either.

Video via: 101GreatGoals