Word: thai
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...also a world full of stronger footballing nations. As he prepares his young squad, Reid might remember that there is not one Thai smile but many. They range from yim thang nam taa (I'm so happy I'm crying) to yim soo (I am smiling in the face of an impossible struggle). Reid should practice both, just in case...
...blazing afternoon sun for a warm-up. "I'll be knackered," he grins. "I'll be on me knees after that, though." The players arrive. "Is this the boys?" says Reid, jumping to his feet. "Brilliant." Thirty young men file in, subdued and unsmiling. Reid greets them in both Thai ("Sawadee khrap!") and his native Liverpudlian ("All right, boys?"). They bow their heads and clasp their hands together in a wai, the traditional Thai gesture of respect. "Even though training will be hard, I like enjoying it," Reid tells them. "I like smiling." The players look unconvinced...
...motivational style has inclined toward shouting and swearing, usually at the same time. But he has promised a new approach in Thailand. "I want to get the best out of these players and you can't do that shouting at anyone," he told reporters. Instead, Reid puts his primitive Thai to comic effect on the training ground. "Despite the language problem, you can have laughs," he says, before gamely - if not entirely successfully - attempting to count to five in Thai...
...were played in Phuket due to political unrest in Bangkok. Reid knows that only three of the tournament's eight national teams are coached by nationals. A Russian manages Laos, while Vietnam has just signed a Portuguese. There's a Serbian in Singapore and a Brazilian in Burma. While Thai players have found it hard to adjust to England, English managers seem to fare better in Thailand. A journalist once asked Peter Withe if he missed home, and his pithy reply said more about globalization than a stack of doctoral theses: "Not really. You can get a pint of Tetley...
...continue. For now, some may take solace in the crowning of Tia Roberts, a third year law student, as Miss King's 2008. On stage, she spoke of her ambitions to become a human rights lawyer, made references to the works of Jane Austen and dispelled myths about her Thai background. "Before you ask," Roberts told the judges, "I'm not a ladyboy or a mail-order bride." In that sense, the pageant just might have slayed some stereotypes after...