Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After a crucial victory in the semi-finals of the Champions League, the entire Nottingham Forest team’s morale was high. Even though there were two games in the next week, everyone’s condition was well-maintained. Twain used rotation in the upcoming league game and replaced more than half of the starting lineup. Wood was given a break. Although he did not need to rest at all, Twain considered that he wanted to give the other players more opportunities, so he asked him to accompany his mum in the stands.
Sun Jihai replaced Wood as the defensive midfielder. The Chinese player had now fully realized his reputation as a “utility player.” In an interview with the Chinese journalists, he had joked that he was “like a tool of revolution, he’ll go wherever he’s needed.”
On the front line, Anelka, who rarely played, also received the chance to start. He formed a partnership with Bendtner. As the season drew to a close, rumors of Anelka’s transfer began to circulate daily, and a number of clubs had expressed a keen interest in Anelka. Reportedly, Juventus, said to be on the verge of returning to Serie A, was currently the front runner. After Trezeguet’s departure, the team lacked a strong and experienced striker.
Everyone believed that the French striker’s days at the City Ground stadium were dated.
As for the midfield, the Spanish midfielder, Arteta, partnered with Sun Jihai in the middle. The left midfielder was changed to Petrov, and Aaron Lennon was the only candidate for the right midfielder’ position for this period due to Ashley Young’s injury. Ribéry could cameo on occasions as well.
Wes Morgan, the center-back, also got the chance to start, while his partner was the veteran, Ayala. It was a little harsh for Ayala to not be able to play in the Champions League on behalf of the Forest team. He could only devote all his energy to the league tournament. Since his loan, he had been stable in the league tournament, using his own experience to help the Forest team stabilize the young defensive line.
Gareth Bale, who scored the winning goal in the semi-finals of the Champions League, replaced Leighton Baines.
Twain only made such a big rotation because the Forest team’s opponent in the league tournament was very weak and Twain did not want anyone to be injured before the crucial game.
The Forest team’s opponent in the thirty-sixth round was Watford, a team that was already relegated ahead of time. Not to mention that the Forest team was playing on their home ground. Twain had no fear that his team would lose the game at home. His tactics for the team in the game were offense and more offense, and to use offense to suppress their opponent.
It turned out that he was right.
Amid the shouts of nearly 30,000 fans at the City Ground stadium, Nottingham Forest crushed Watford by 4:0.
Poor Watford had wanted to show its indomitable fighting spirit. At the start of the game, several attacks created some threats to the distracted Forest team.
But their deathbed struggle infuriated Nottingham Forest. The initially distracted players suddenly seemed to wake up.
At the 27th minute, after Gareth Bale had broken through from the flank, Bendtner rushed to take the ball in the middle. He vigorously shot up to score with a powerful header into Watford’s goal.
The trailing Watford still did not give up. They wanted to make use the void behind the Forest team to counterattack.
Three minutes later, Watford, who had wanted to use defensive counterattack on the Forest team, was counterattacked by the Forest team, instead. While they were attacking, Arteta directly shot a long pass from the back to the front. After Anelka received the ball, he broke through alone. In the face of the attacking Watford goalkeeper, he even leisurely bypassed him before he struck the goal. The football rolled into the empty goal. The score was 2:0.
The goal completely destroyed Watford’s fighting spirit. After conceding two goals in three minutes, the Watford players no longer had the confidence to equalize the score. Now their thinking was to consider conceding fewer goals a win.
During halftime, Twain gave the team high praise, telling them to keep up the good work in the second half. He was not satisfied with score of 2:0. If they could score more goals, they should do so and not think about meaningless things like saving the opponent’s dignity. Anyway, the opponent was a relegated team.
The team carried out his instructions in the second half. They used profligate offensive to destroy Watford’s rear defensive line. Twain was happy to take advantage of the opportunity to get the team to practice all kinds of offensive routines, so his second-half substitutions were all offensive adjustments. Everyone on the defensive line stayed the same. He had no intention to adjust the rear defensive line.
Bendtner and Petrov each scored another goal in the second half for the Forest team, which eventually locked in the score at 4:0.
At the end of the game, the City Ground stadium exploded in loud cheers, hailing their heroes. After each home win, this was all “keeping with the show,” making no difference in terms of the score and the strength of the opponents. In the eyes of the fans, it was worth celebrating as long as it was a victory. They had been bottled up for twenty-four years. That desire for victory was not something that could be released with one or two victories.
The Forest players ran hand-in-hand toward the stands to thank the fans. It was also the team “keeping with the show,” which Twain had set out as a rule for the team and had to be carried out after each home game. When the team had a good rapport with the fans, he had no worries.
The players thanked the fans under the stands, and Twain also held his arms up to applaud the stands. He walked to the tunnel as he clapped. At the entrance, Fat John called out to him.
“Tony, another victory!” John bent over the grandstand railing and leaned out to wave to Twain. “Will there be another victory in four days?”
“You’re talking nonsense, John.” Twain grinned. “We…”
“Will certainly win!!” The fans in the stands continued the sentence in unison.
“That’s right!” Twain pointed to the lovely group of fans with a laugh.
“Bye, folks. We’ll see you in Athens.” Twain waved as he walked toward the mixed zone, with the fans behind him repeatedly shouting “Athens! Athens! Athens!”
Amidst the roar of the fans, Twain went to the mixed zone to give an interview.
“Manager Twain, you hold a really high position in the fans’ hearts.” Tang Jing, who had a press card pinned on her chest, appeared in front of Twain.
With regards to the compliment, Twain was not modest about it. He nodded. “It’s because my team is doing well. There’s no free lunch in this world. There must be a reason for them like me.”
Tang Jing, who was also used to his crowing, laughed. “Everyone says Nottingham Forest is a team that supports the ‘1:0 doctrine.’ They all say Tony Twain is a conservative manager, but we saw a Forest team with its relentless attacks in this game.”
“I don’t care what tactics we use, as long as they let the team win. It doesn’t matter to me whether we use defensive counterattack or all-out offensive.”
“With regards to Anelka, there are currently a lot of rumors about his transfer…”
“Ah… Well, I still say the same, as long as there is a team that is able to offer us a satisfactory price, that is not a problem.”
“In that case, is it convenient to reveal the price you will accept?”
“It depends on my mood.” Twain smiled knowingly. “All right, I have to go. We’ll see each other in Athens, Reporter Tang.”
“There’s another round in the semifinals!” Tang Jing shouted in the back.
Twain looked back at her. “Do you want to bet?”
Tang Jing thought for a moment and shook her head.
Twain walked away with a laugh.
※※※
Soon after the end of the game, the news of the other two arenas came in. Because of the Champions League, Chelsea and Manchester United’s thirty-fifth round of the league tournament was delayed until May 10th. Therefore, the two teams had one fewer game than Forest. In the 36th round, both teams were forced to a draw by their respective rivals.
“A draw?!” When Twain heard the news from Kerslake, he could not believe it.
“That’s right, a draw!” Kerslake nodded excitedly. “Chelsea’s away game was tied 0:0 with Newcastle United and Manchester United’s home game was forced into a draw at 1:1 by Middlesbrough! Neither team had sent all their main players and made major rotations like we did.”
After he got the exact answer, Twain frowned tightly.
Was this good or bad news for him? He could not be certain.
Why Kerslake was so excited?
After they beat Manchester United in the 33rd round with a score of 2:0, Nottingham Forest had seventy points, Chelsea seventy-six points and Manchester United seventy-eight points.
It was precisely that game that made Manchester United feel the precariousness of the league title and also gave Chelsea the hope of defending their league title, which tugged at Abramovich’s heartstrings.
That was the situation that Twain strove to set up to get Chelsea and Manchester United to fight it out for a league title, so they would be too occupied to attend to the Champions League. While the two opponents fought, they would lose out to the third party.
Judging by the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals, he had succeeded.
If things were to continue like that, it would not be long before Nottingham Forest, the “third party,” could jst sit back and reap the rewards.
However…
Looking at the results of these two games, Twain murmured, “did Mourinho and Ferguson have an agreement?”
After the 36th round, Chelsea and Manchester United were short of one game, with eighty points and eighty-two points each respectively, while Nottingham Forest had seventy-nine points after their successive victories over Charlton, West Ham United and Watford.
Was The Tale of Two Cities becoming Romance of the Three Kingdoms?
Originally after the victory, the fourth-placed Liverpool and fifth-ranked Arsenal were nine points and eleven points away from the Forest team. Twain was ready to use all substitutes in the final two rounds, giving the main players a break to fully prepare for the Champions League. In that case, even if he wanted to give the team a break, would the club’s top echelon, coaching staff, and the players themselves agree to it?
Next to him, Kerslake excitedly discussed the two games that had just ended with the other coaches sitting next to him. Then the phone in Twain’s pocket rang.
Looking at the caller ID, Twain sighed and answered the call.
“Mr. Chairman.”
“What’s the matter? You don’t sound very happy, Tony. Haha!” Evan Doughty’s excited voice came from the other end. “Do you know the latest result of the matches?”
Twain certainly was aware of which game he was referring to. “Yes, Chelsea and Manchester United both had a tie game.” He tried to keep his voice down as he did not want to attract other people’s attention.
“We are only two points away from the top team in the league. This is an unexpected and wonderful development!”
“But Manchester United and Chelsea still have one game less than us, Mr. Chairman.”
“Of course, I know that, but that game is a mutual fight. Chelsea at home versus Manchester United. This season is finally starting to be interesting at the end. Do you know what my first thought was after I knew about the situation with the points?”
“The League title.” Twain stated calmly.
He heard Evan snap his fingers loudly. “That’s right! Tony, it has been four seasons and we’ve never been this close to the league title as we are today. Don’t you want to do something about it?”
Twain looked at the people around him. Everyone was excitedly discussing the two games. Even the players knew. Every one of them was radiant with delight.
“It’s not convenient to talk now, Mr. Chairman. I will come look for you when I get back to Nottingham.”
“Good, come to my house tomorrow morning, 9:30 sharp. I’ll ask the driver to pick you up.”
After he hung up, Twain discovered that Dunn was seated by his side.
“The chairman wants to get the league title, right?” he asked.
Twain nodded.
“What do you think? I can tell you’re not in a good mood. Don’t you want to win the title?”
“Of course I want to. I dream about it. But it’s just terribly timing now for this come about. I don’t want to be distracted before the crucial Champions League,” Twain said in a low voice.
“I thought you were going to arrogantly promise to take down all the championship titles.” Dunn said.
“Are you praising or insulting me?”
“I’m just a little surprised, that’s all.”
“Dunn, you know very well that even if we win the last two rounds, as long as the opponents win all their games, we will still be trailing behind them when they are still short of one game.” Twain did not know which teams would be the opponents in the last two rounds for Manchester United and Chelsea. However, he thought the probability of the two teams losing in the final two rounds were low. After all, this was a crucial moment that Chelsea and Manchester United would take seriously. “For that one game they had to make up, Chelsea versus Manchester United, no matter what the outcome is, we will not get the title in the end. If Chelsea wins, Chelsea gets the title; if Manchester United wins, Manchester United is the champion; If it is a draw for both, Manchester United is the champion and Chelsea is the runner-up. Nothing will change.”
Dunn nodded and did not speak. He felt that Twain had a point. The prospect looked good, but the matter is not as simple as the prospect.
“If that’s the case… it’s such a shame.” Out of the blue, Kerslake piped up. He leaned over the back of the seat and smacked his lips. “The championship title is so close and yet so far.”
Dunn shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing is perfect.”
The players were still excitedly discussing how likely the team was to take the league title, while the coaching staff were silent. Twain’s analysis had poured cold water on them.
If that was truly the case, why would they put all their effort in…
