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[Football] Will Still Reims Manager



Normandy seagull

Well-known member
Jul 16, 2003
2,394
Orne 61 France



This guys story is incredible. Learnt how to manage from playing Football and Championship Manager. I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone speak English and French so fluently. Even with my fluent French I’ve still got an accent. Wonder if he’s on Uncle Tones and Barbers succession planning list- godforbid RDZ ever leaves!
 


5Ways Gull

È quello che è
Feb 2, 2009
922
Fiveways, Brighton



This guys story is incredible. Learnt how to manage from playing Football and Championship Manager. I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone speak English and French so fluently. Even with my fluent French I’ve still got an accent. Wonder if he’s on Uncle Tones and Barbers succession planning list- godforbid RDZ ever leaves!

If that happens will he be our first manager whose surname rhymes with his first name?
 


RM-Taylor

He's Magic.... You Know
Jan 7, 2006
15,267



This guys story is incredible. Learnt how to manage from playing Football and Championship Manager. I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone speak English and French so fluently. Even with my fluent French I’ve still got an accent. Wonder if he’s on Uncle Tones and Barbers succession planning list- godforbid RDZ ever leaves!

Born in Belgium and schooled in France until the age of 14. So English is his second language
 


US Seagull

Well-known member
Jul 17, 2003
3,231
Cleveland, OH



This guys story is incredible. Learnt how to manage from playing Football and Championship Manager. I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone speak English and French so fluently. Even with my fluent French I’ve still got an accent. Wonder if he’s on Uncle Tones and Barbers succession planning list- godforbid RDZ ever leaves!

Doesn't even have a pro coaching license. Apparently Reims are fined $27k per match he's in charge.
 


US Seagull

Well-known member
Jul 17, 2003
3,231
Cleveland, OH
I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone speak English and French so fluently.
I certainly have. Where I used to work, my boss was a French woman. She spoke flawless English but with a heavy French accent despite living and working in the States as long as I have. I also still have a noticeable accent, or so I'm told, but maybe less frequently that I used to.

But there was another French girl and she spoke flawless English with a completely undetectable accent despite only having been in the states a few years. She'd come over to go to grad school in Wisconsin or some such and you absolutely wouldn't guess she was French unless somebody told you. Well, unless you were tipped off by her very French name.

It's weird. Some people pick up accents really easily. Others never do.
 






Badger Boy

Mr Badger
Jan 28, 2016
3,655
In all seriousness, this guy will be our manager within the next 10 years. He's definitely on the list and he's doing really, really well. I remember the night Ostersunds won at the Emirates because I told a friend of mine that Potter would be our manager at some point. I was excited by that prospect at the time so I'm disappointed how I ultimately think of his tenure as manager - whilst acknowledging he was ultimately very successful.
 


kojak

Well-known member
Jan 17, 2022
752
Didn't he score the late late equaliser at PSG the other night
Don't suppose he was moaning too much about his accent after that
 




arkan

Active member
Jan 26, 2010
387
Sittingbourne
I read somewhere that the club are fined £22,000 for each game played with Still as manager as he does not have all the required coaching badges. But 11 games unbeaten since him being manager/head coach it seems the club quite rightly doesnt care one bit about that.
 




Sirnormangall

Well-known member
Sep 21, 2017
2,937
Latest 442 mag has a feature on him. He’s only 30 something but has done well when thrown into the deep end at Lierse and then stepping in for Oscar Garcia at Reims. Has aspirations of managing in EFL or higher.
 




Austrian Gull

Well-known member
Feb 5, 2009
2,461
Linz, Austria
He's a world-class swearer in both languages if you watch the clips. Doing a brilliant job at Reims - keep this up and he will be in the EPL within the next twelve months.
 




edna krabappel

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 7, 2003
47,228



This guys story is incredible. Learnt how to manage from playing Football and Championship Manager. I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone speak English and French so fluently. Even with my fluent French I’ve still got an accent.

That kind of thing is very common if you speak one language at home but go to school where a different language is spoken. No different to kids born and bred here with parents from, say, Pakistan, who speak flawlessly accented Punjabi and English, because they hear one from birth at home, and the other from a very young age at school and outside.

Will Still grew up in Belgium to English parents, so would have heard both French and Dutch at school, and probably had German lessons too. Eric Dier is fluent in Portuguese, having lived there for much of his childhood: I'd be interested to know what his accent sounds like to a native Portuguese speaker. Probably pretty good.
 




nwgull

Well-known member
Jul 25, 2003
13,653
Manchester
If that happens will he be our first manager whose surname rhymes with his first name?
Would he be our first ginger manager?

As for the language, he certainly sounds bilingual. The best example of an English coach learning the lingo from scratch as an adult I can think of is Shaun Edwards. His French is outstanding - you’d barely know he was born and bred in Wigan.
 


Ali_rrr

Well-known member
Feb 4, 2011
2,670
Utrecht, NL
That kind of thing is very common if you speak one language at home but go to school where a different language is spoken. No different to kids born and bred here with parents from, say, Pakistan, who speak flawlessly accented Punjabi and English, because they hear one from birth at home, and the other from a very young age at school and outside.

Will Still grew up in Belgium to English parents, so would have heard both French and Dutch at school, and probably had German lessons too. Eric Dier is fluent in Portuguese, having lived there for much of his childhood: I'd be interested to know what his accent sounds like to a native Portuguese speaker. Probably pretty good.
Will speaks Dutch, but it's quite heavily accented. He grew up in a French school and it's very rare that someone in the French speaking areas of Belgium speaks Dutch/Flemish, despite the majority in the country speaking it. Whilst the Flemish side often know French.

Will only learnt Dutch as he played for Flemish clubs in his youth. I'd be very surprised if he spoke conversational German.


In terms of Eric Dier, my girlfriend is Portuguese and she says he speaks it exactly like someone from Lisbon. He also speaks Spanish like someone from Portugal too!
 


dejavuatbtn

Well-known member
Aug 4, 2010
7,128
Henfield
It does raise the issue of FIFA’s insistence that managers at this level have a case full of qualifications. It got like this before I retired from work. Whilst I agree that coaches for kids football should have a level of competence, at senior level surely it should be down to the club owner to decide who they want to employ.
 


Jim in the West

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Sep 13, 2003
4,530
Way out West



This guys story is incredible. Learnt how to manage from playing Football and Championship Manager. I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone speak English and French so fluently. Even with my fluent French I’ve still got an accent. Wonder if he’s on Uncle Tones and Barbers succession planning list- godforbid RDZ ever leaves!

Yes - that French accent is incredible. Or, if we're saying French is his mother tongue, his English accent is incredible!! We lived in France for 18 months, and I've worked (in the UK) for a French company for several years. I have NEVER come across anyone from either England or France who could speak the other language with such a good accent.
 






Swansman

Pro-peace
May 13, 2019
22,320
Sweden
In all seriousness, this guy will be our manager within the next 10 years. He's definitely on the list and he's doing really, really well. I remember the night Ostersunds won at the Emirates because I told a friend of mine that Potter would be our manager at some point. I was excited by that prospect at the time so I'm disappointed how I ultimately think of his tenure as manager - whilst acknowledging he was ultimately very successful.
I had a similar feeling when I heard about him, but they really don't play any sort of football Tony Bloom would like Brighton to play. Might be out of necessity though.
 



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