Management Theory

An extract from Dion Fanning in last week's Sunday Independent on Scottish football managers:

"Scotland and Ireland have many similarities. We are wedded together by a complex relationship with drink and England but Ireland has never managed to produce the great managers that were rolled out in Scotland.

Some say the Scottish accent provides its own authority whereas the Irish accent, to English ears, is associated with the arrival of a fun activity like all-night drinking or even all-day drinking.

The response, "I just love your accent", is all very well and can often be turned to our advantage, but it slightly undermines the point if you've just told the listener they're a worthless piece of shit who will never play for the club again.

Perhaps this is why Michael O' Leary irritates English people so much. As soon as they hear his voice, some involuntary neural reflex has them thinking, "I just love your accent", before they register that he, or one of his proxies, is telling them that they owe him £745 for a packet of Skittles."