Chapter 265: Wood Learned to Be A Star Player Part 2
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
What directly triggered it in that timeline was the fact that their gap between Chelsea and Arsenal in total points had not narrowed due to the 1:1 equalizer by Fulham. As a result, in the locker room after the match, Alan Smith, the one who had scored the goal, accused Ronaldo of playing too independently and not knowing how to cooperate with his teammates. The two men’s quarrel developed into a physical fight. Ferguson then announced that Ronaldo’s condition was not good enough and that he needed to return to his hometown in Portugal for a period of time.
There was a smirk on Twain’s face as he thought about this. Maybe the new trigger would be Nottingham Forest’s 2:2 draw against Manchester United.
Of the history that he was familiar with, how much had he personally changed, and how much more would he still change?
Because Ferguson had inadvertently diverted the attention of the media in the post-match press conference, Ronaldo became the focus of everyone’s discussion, and Twain was liberated. He watched the show happily from the sidelines and wondered if Ronaldo would be back in Portugal sooner than he remembered.
Twain, who fully understood the situation, felt that this was quite interesting compared to the history that he had experienced and remembered.
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The next day, a large photograph of Ronaldo’s face was published in The Sun. Everyone was discussing the internal problems of Manchester United, and ignored Nottingham Forest.
More and more hot news items were dug up by the loathsome reporters, things like the fact that Manchester United team had long put up with the Portuguese kid; that van Nistelrooy and Ronaldo did not get along; that Gary Neville had criticized Ronaldo for not considering his teammates while playing; and so on.
The British tabloids were as lively as festive celebrations these days.
However, Nottingham’s local media was completely disinterested in the drama between Ronaldo and Manchester United. Their focus was on the Forest team and George Wood, “the genius,””the prodigy,””the phenomenon.” All of those titles were put on him.
At first, a player like Wood had a limited number of fans, people like Fat John and his group, with no female fans in sight.
However, when the Forest team was back in Nottingham on the first day training, Twain saw several young female fans outside the training grounds holding pictures of Wood and hoping for their idol’s autograph.
The girls were young and full of youthful vigor. Whenever Wood was close to the wire fence on this side, they would shriek out his name.
As a result, the team whistled non-stop during training. Everyone was familiar with Wood after interacting with him for a long time, and knew that although this kid did not look friendly, his character was still good. He would not get mad at that kind of innocuous joking.
“George, you have female fans!” Wes Morgan was probably the player that Wood got along with the best, because they were from the Nottingham youth team and had partnered together before. Taking advantage of the break interval during training, the players sat around Wood and joked about him.
“Are you jealous, Wes?” Ribéry asked next to him.
“How is that possible? I already have a girlfriend…” Wes’s retort drew laughter from everyone.
In the video room, Twain and Kerslake had just finished analyzing the training. Dunn’s method of recording videos of the training on the youth team had produced excellent results. Because of that, Twain brought it to the First Team, and the results were equally good. When they came out, they saw that the players sat together, chatting and laughing. Twain and Kerslake smiled at each other.
The team was in a good mood. Even though their results were uneven, he did not have anything to worry about as the manager.
He went over and stood outside the crowd as he said to Wood, “Hey, George. Aren’t you going to sign your autographs for those pretty girls? Do you really have the heart to disappoint them?”
Upon hearing that, the players did not have to look back to know that their chief was there.
“I …” Wood had never dealt with any female fans, not to mention the keen female fans who were waving at him from a distance and screaming whenever they saw him look over.
“What are you hesitating for? George, you’re a star now, and you can’t do anything to disappoint the fans.” Twain was egging Wood on. “Go and sign autographs for them! That’s part of training!”
Wood turned to glance at the serious-looking Twain and got up from the ground. Then he walked towards the overjoyed female fans. He did not look like he was on his way to sign autographs for his fans. He looked more like he was going to meet his maker.
Then someone laughed.
Twain nodded and commented behind him, “Don’t laugh, boys. I bet those girls will like him even more now. These days, girls all like unfeeling, cool guys!”
The laughter became louder.
Indeed, as Twain expected, Wood had a stern expression all throughout the ordeal of signing the autographs for a few girls, and also gave in to their request for a group photo. In the end, he did not make them unhappy. He actually became even more wildly popular with them.
After that one game, George Wood truly became famous. Twain knew that such scenes would become commonplace in the future. For Wood, this might be a good chance to gradually change his personality. Of course, Tang En would have to be behind him to give a push from time to time.
Damn, Wood, you’re like a tube of toothpaste. Unless you’re squeezed, nothing comes out of you!
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In the next league match on December 4, Nottingham Forest won against Portsmouth in an away game by 3:2. The Forest team’s defense had become the focus of their attention. They had conceded two goals even though they were only facing Portsmouth. It was hair-raising for Twain to watch the game while he sat in the technical area.
At the start of the game, things were very smooth for the Forest team. They soon led by a goal. However, a mistake from their defensive line gave the opponents a chance to equalize the score. Then, in a spurt of energy, Portsmouth scored another goal. If Twain had not adjusted their tactics during the halftime interval, they might have lost the match.
After their eventual complete reversal, and turning of defeat into victory, Twain was not as excited as he had been at Old Trafford.
On December 11, in the 17th round of the league, in a match which all analysts were quite confident in before the game, Nottingham Forest lost to Charlton in the home game with a score of 1:2.
Fortunately, next, on the 15th, at the final game of the UEFA Europa League group stage, the Forest team defeated Partizan Belgrade on Forest’s home grounds by 3:0 and successfully advanced from the qualifying round group stage, which gave them a buffer.
However, just as they achieved their victory in the European tournament, when they returned to the league competition, the Forest team lost to Birmingham City F.C. by 0:2.
Twain knew it was time to make a change.
