Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Raúl González had some regrets – if he had retired a year later, he might have been able to use the club’s 10th European Champions Cup as a gift for his retirement. Now he is the manager of Real Madrid, mainly responsible for communication between the senior management and the players, hence many times he was still within the team, just like a player who wore a tuxedo.
When the team was training, he stood on the sidelines and watched with Coach Michels, he usually do not express his opinions unless Michels tells him to.
But today he had more things to say.
“Michels , for tomorrow’s game…” Raúl started to frown.
“Do you want to ask me how sure I am to win?” Michels smiled. “I don’t know. ”
“No, I was worried that Nottingham Forest’s style of play would restrain the style we were good at.” Raúl shook his head gently.
Michels heard what he said, and hesitated for a little, then said, “It’s a problem… But that was what Real Madrid’s football is all about, no matter what opponents we face, we would still use our usual style to contest. What suggestions do you have, Raúl?”
Raúl obviously had no good advice, as he shook his head and stopped talking.
“Our scouts had come up with the latest information about Nottingham Forest, they had also used all-out tactics in the first half of the FA Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur and I think that might have something to do with us.” Michels was still talking to himself. He suddenly turned his head and looked at Raúl, “Maybe Twain wants to fight offense with us in Bernabéu.”
Raúl, who was focusing on watching the team’s training, was taken aback by his claims.
“Fight in offense against us?” As soon as the remark repeated, he started laughing. “That’s crazy. ”
Yes, there are few teams in the world that dare to play against Real Madrid in Bernabéu, maybe Barcelona is one. But definitely not Nottingham Forest.
“I don’t think that is likely … Nottingham Forest’s playstyle is defensive counter-attack, and Coach Twain had always believed that championships are won from defense. He fight against us head on in an offensive battle in such an important game, a defensive counterattack has high odds though.”
Michels smiled at Raúl and said, “Why didn’t you choose to be the head coach after you retired, Raúl?”
“Me?” When asked upon suddenly, Raúl didn’t respond, “I don’t think I’m fit to coach.”
“Not as a head coach. You can be a youth training supervisor… If you want to do it, I can recommend it to the head manager.”
“It’s not the difference between a head coach or a coach.” Raúl thought about it before saying, “At Real Madrid, I think it’s too tiring to be a coach…”
He didn’t continue afterwards, but Michels already knew what he was trying to say. He nodded silently.
Raúl mentioned the key point. Do not look at the fact that Michels had done a good job at Real Madrid over the years, he had always been subjected to checks and balances at the top of the club, which was a tradition in most Spanish clubs, but in an elite team like Real Madrid, the restrictions on a head coach is especially high. For an introduction and transfer of a player, he had only the right to advise, but not the right to decide. There are too many factors for a club like Real Madrid to buy a person to consider, hence the competitive aspect did not feel as important.
In the management of the dressing room, the manager’s actions were also limited. Dressing room factions were inevitable for any big team, but in this aspect the Premier League manager were better than them, because the Premier League manager had absolute authority, the factions in the dressing room does not triumph over a head coach, the authority of the Premier League manager comes from their football tradition and the support of the club’s senior management. The players are in awe of the head coach like a bunch of kids under their captain. The coach of La Liga would have it worse, if they have a tiff with any faction in the training room, then his authority would be greatly challenged. Coupled with the small actions behind the backs of the top management group, the head coach is sandwiched between the higher management and the players, where both sides would be unhappy with him.
Michels was doing well at Real Madrid because he has met a good general manager, Valdano. Think of the former Mijatović, any head coach under him would be torture. Valdano knew fair authority delegation would be beneficial for the club, hence he would not pick on the transfer list that the head coach proposes. And hence came the revival of Real Madrid.
Otherwise, this team might be still be continuously stuck in the top 8 which would be the laughing stock of everyone.
Both Michels and Raúl had put these problems behind them, as they do not need nor have the capacity to have such troubles now. Otherwise they would not have been able to reach the Champions League final. Tomorrow’s game was a good opportunity, a game to prove Real Madrid’s value to the world, an opportunity for Florentino to rebuild his Real Madrid empire. Such a game cannot never be lost.
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Twain did not have time to complain to others about the chores of a head coach, he was taking the team through the tactical drills of free kicks. In such an important game, free kick is definitely not something to be neglected. Twain had predicted that the match in Bernabéu with Real Madrid, the team would face tremendous pressure, perhaps free kicks would be the key to crack Real Madrid’s door.
After all, there was such an excellent free kicker in their team called Gareth Bale.
Chris Kerslake was explaining the coordination in a free kick on the field, the coaching team designed many variations of strategies behind a free kick, hoping it would be useful during the game.
The team was training on the Bernabéu stadium, which was a suitable training ground.
The turf in Bernabéu was a lot better than the City stadium, but there was no obvious difference. And Twain did not dare to guarantee that the workers would not pour too much water onto the field on the second day…
The reporters had been ousted by him, and the team’s training content must not be known to outsiders. For this, he also emphasized to Bernabéu in particular that he did not want Bernabéu to have any equipment to film their training content, he knew this was home ground for Real Madrid, it was difficult to ensure that Real Madrid would not play tricks. His repeated reminders and persistence had angered the staff at the Bernabéu , who in their eyes Twain was totally questioning their work ethic. Real Madrid, was a club that valued its reputation, has made it clear that the Club is dismissive of doing such a thing.
Twain then shamelessly and reluctantly gave up his persistent pursuit.
It’s a typical petty man’s heart – He would always do it in his own city’s stadium, there was no reason other clubs would not do the same.
But in fact Real Madrid really did not place any cameras nor spies in Bernabéu stadium, as what the staff member said, the great Real Madrid were dismissive of the despicable use of this vile means to help the team to victory.
Twain was still looking into the stands, searching for suspicious people.
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At the afternoon press conference, Twain was “besieged” by the Spanish media.
The Spanish and English media were clearly divided. The Spanish media were keen to ask questions that would embarrass Twain, such as, “The outside world is optimistic that Real Madrid will win the title, will you be affected by this prediction?” ”
Another example would be, “The outside criticism of Nottingham Forest’s football is conservative and utilitarian, will you consider changing that?” ”
The Spanish media have apparently studied Tony Twain, knowing that he was a man with a bad temper and an unobstructed mouth. So they deliberately stimulated him to be able to receive the unique effects, allowing them to obtain groundbreaking news.
But their research was not professional, they only wanted to stimulate Twain, but had forgotten that Twain himself was not a porcupine, which would roll up as self-defense against such a siege. He was a cunning wolf, and if you dare provoke him, you need to get ready to take his anger.
For the first question, Twain’s performance was very dismissive: “If the outside world is optimistic about Real Madrid, then Real Madrid must win the title? Then, we don’t have to play in the Champions League final, let the outside world announce that Real Madrid won the title, okay? ” Twain opened his hand and coldly stared at the Spanish journalists.
This rebuttal made Spanish journalists look difficult.
As for the second question, Twain was surprised: “Why should I change this situation?” I can win the championship now, why should I give up the championship in order to satisfy the wishes of the outside world? I think… No one with a normal brain would make that choice, wouldn’t they? ”
When he said this, he stared at the reporter asking the question with a smile, as if to say to him, “Only someone as abnormal as you can ask such a mentally r*tarded question, Mr. Reporter.”
The Spanish journalist, was embarrassed for a while, as he finally sat down.
“But you don’t have to play well to win a championship, Twain.” Another reporter stood up.
Where is the press conference? This is clearly the Champions League version of the debate wars.
“I don’t have to take a more risky approach to winning the championship. Besides, in my opinion, playing well is equal to the runner-up. ” Twain was intentionally provoking those Spanish who were arrogant because of their home ground advantage.
Fortunately, Michels had finished his press conference beforehand, otherwise if the two people sat together, there might be another conflict brewing.
“So do you mean your tactics tomorrow would be defensive counter-attacks?” A middle-aged bald man stood up and asked, his face slightly pale. He was trying to link the question to the Nottingham Forest’s second day’s tactics.
Of course Twain knew what he was trying, no way he was trying to get information on his strategies for the next days during this chaos! “That’s not certain, maybe tomorrow I’m going for a full-on attack or defence?” Twain showed his hands again. “Don’t you just think I’m going to do defensive counter-attack? Oh my, I think it’ll be interesting to fight offense with Real Madrid…”
“Don’t you want a championship, Mr. Twain?” The middle-aged man, without changing his face, continued to argue with Twain.
“Of course I want to. Why wouldn’t I? ”
“Then you said that playing well was the runner-up…” the man who thought he triumphed over Twain in this discussion, started to laugh. Around him, many people started to laugh as well, those were all Spanish reporters.
In their minds, it was a dead cycle – Twain thinks he cannot win a championship if he plays well, but he also wants to win the title, so he is definitely playing conservative football, but he does not want to admit to playing conservative football and says he’s going to play offense against Real Madrid. So let’s see how he talks this out!
They did not think that Twain would suddenly relax and said without hestitation, “Playing offense against Real Madrid, I still have confidence of winning.”
As soon as that was said, the journalists present, whether if they were from Spain or England, were taken aback.
A reporter wanted to continue asking, but Twain stood up and signaled the press conference to the end.
“Mr. Twain…”
“Mr. Twain, please wait! ”
“Coach Twain…”
“Hey, Tony! ”
A group of reporters panicked, so what were they doing before? Arguing with Twain, in the end what they gotten was only some useless information.
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David Kerslake was sitting in his room, sipping the fragrant coffee and flipping through the newspaper with his glasses. He knew nothing about Spanish but luckily there were several pictures, it was better than nothing to pass time.
“Half football, half bullfighting, Spaniards’ hobbies are really limited…”
The assistant coach muttered, as he suddenly heard a soft noise from the lock, and he looked up alertly, staring at the door. He only saw the door slowly slide, which opened a gap, and then a hand reached in, its fingers displayed a few stances, which followed by a quick shake, magically throwing out a scarlet cloak.
The door opened, Twain proudly raised his head, as he danced rumba on the way into the room, the mouth also humming “one dada two dada” in rhythm, the strong and firm body spun on the same spot for two rounds before ending with an aggressive pose, “Ah! Come! Madrid Bull!”
The poor assistant coach pounced forward, the coffee from his mouth flew into the newspapers and tables in his hands, while others flowed down the corners of his mouth and chin, dripping and splashing on the newspapers in his hands. The newspaper’s Ribery was opening his mouth to Chris Kerslake, as a drop of black coffee fell on his white teeth, it made his picture seemed like he was missing a tooth…
Chris Kerslake scrambled to wipe the coffee off the side of his mouth and his chin, as he used the newspaper to wipe the table, whilst asking Twain, “You went to watch bullfighting this afternoon?”
“No, I went to the press conference and bought this on the way back. ” Twain shook the cloak in his hand as it made a loud noise.
“Tourist souvenirs …huh? ”
Twain shook his head and smiled, “Isn’t the souvenir the Champions League trophy? This cloth has its special use.” After saying that, he did another signature move of a bullfighter. He waved to his left and his right as he elegantly spun a round, mimicking an angry bull just passing by him. The wind created by his waves blew Kerslake’s hair. “How do you feel about my learning progress?”
“I’ve never seen such an old bullfighter. ” Chris Kerslake finally cleared himself of the mess, and he looked at Twain and laughed. “What the hell are you going to do with it?” ”
“Secret, secret.” Twain blinked at him, as he chuckled again.
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