Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After the Forest team decided to participate in the plans for the talent show, a coach from the youth department was selected to go to China. He was not assigned to the older group as Nottingham Forest did not send a coach for the entire recording and broadcast of the older group,. This coach was mainly assigned for the younger age group, which would not be involved with the television broadcast and commercial show. The group was purely for the selection of good young players to be brought to the United Kingdom for training. There would be four lucky candidates at the end, who would be assigned to the three clubs for two years of training. Everton would receive two and Bolton Wanderers and Nottingham Forest each got one.
In China, advertising was in full swing. Auditions had already started in six major cities: Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Changsha, Chengdu. Fourteen divisional winners would be selected in late September to head to Changsha to participate in the final general training camp and get ready for the grand finale. Then next January, during the Chinese Lunar New Year, the final would be broadcasted live on television. Two professional football coaches from the United Kingdom and one from China would elect the final two lucky winners.
The difference between this talent show and any previous talent shows held by Hunan Television was that there was no audience vote. This was a request from the British side, because it was necessary to ensure the professionalism and authority of the show. If they had done it like the previous shows where voting was done through text, who would know if someone would purchase SMS at a high price in order to support and push a candidate he liked but whose ability was really not enough. This kind of incident had to be nipped in the bud. Besides joining in the excitement, the audience had no other participation rights. The final selection of the title holder and runners-up was absolutely based on the football coaches’ judgement and evaluation.
There were no behind-the-scenes dealings, because the contestants were ordinary youth who were passionate about football and had no special background and status. Football was “a sport for the masses” and “a civilian sport.” These fourteen to nineteen year olds came to sign up just to fulfill their own professional football dreams.
This was not the same as the dream for acting stardom. Being a professional footballer required more professionalism. If someone was an acting star, they could be terrible at singing and dancing, but if they looked beautiful, that person could be a star. A variety of advanced studio equipment and selection of unique songs could be used to solve singing out of tune. They could do away with dancing if their dancing was terrible. If the person could not act, then they could just put on a performance as themself. As long as the person was good-looking, they could still succeed as “a pretty face.” How else would there be the two categories “the idols” and “the thespians” in the show business.
A professional player could not do that. Even with Beckham’s looks, they would be of no use if he could not play. The football circle was also a vanity fair, but to be able to enter professional football, he had to first become a qualified professional player before he was qualified to pursue or envision the teeming world of fame and fortune.
For Beckham, if he did not have the ability for precise free kicks and long passes, passing ability, dedicated spirit, and tireless stamina, without his seventy-yard long-range lob into the goal, even if he was handsome, would Victoria have taken a fancy to him? Would advertisers be interested in him? Would the England national team give him a place? Would he still be the captain of the Three Lions? Would he be a main player in the world’s top teams like Manchester United and Real Madrid? Would an arrogant manager like Capello change his mind and put him back in the main lineup from the substitutes’ bench? No, none of it would have happened, and he might have been discovered on the street by an entertainment agent after a few years of quietly playing football, and then switched to the acting industry. From then on, he might have be a second-rate star in the show business world, while the world of football remained the same. The people who chose to enter and leave every day were innumerable, and there were no shortage of star talents who fell prematurely.
As Twain said, professional football was a practical and utilitarian place where only strength was valued. Only one’s own strength could be depended upon and nothing else. So what if a player had the backing of a big corporate sponsorship? Without any real ability, he would only be put to play a little during garbage time and be uploaded onto the official website to show his face to fool sponsors. When Hidetoshi Nakata originally landed in Serie A, he had the support of the Japanese corporations. But he was really capable, so he managed to gain a foothold in Italy and won the Serie A title. How about a player who was the son of a certain country leader and a princeling? Without strength, he could only join the team to have his face in the papers and then sit alone in the stands to cheer for his teammates during the game, like the son of Libyan leader, Gaddafi, Gaddafi Junior when he played for Perugia.
In other words, the world was cruel and harsh. Only strength could be relied on and nothing else. Tears? Stirring emotions? To gain sympathy points by having one’s parents and friends tell the stories of family poverty and the dream to change? To kneel down and kowtow in gratitude to God? To involve the audience in text voting to determine the winner? Not even a chance. During a game, the opponent would not let a player break through to score a goal just because he cried and wailed. Nor would FIFA agree to a vote by SMS from the football fans to determine the winner of any future competition. FIFA would never do that.
Twain was well aware of that. Therefore, whether or not the talent show could pick a truly brilliant genius, at least there would be no a “Mr. Nanguo” player who was there to make up the numbers. Because even if he could get through the talent show, when he arrived in Britain, he would immediately be unmasked and if his strength was not enough, he would return to where he came from a year later. What about the sponsors? Nothing they could do about it. This was a professional football club, not a dream factory.
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“All right, let’s toss aside this Football Kid talent show to Timbuktu! It’s not for me to worry about. Business is business; football is football. I don’t care if a genius or good-for-nothing is picked in the end. I’m not going to give him any special care just because he’s a Chinese kid. I’m just going to send him to the youth team when he arrives.” Twain jabbered on in front of Dunn.
Dunn looked at him and said nothing.
However, Twain could see what he wanted to say in his eyes. “Don’t you worry. I will not give him special treatment. I’ll treat him normally. I never thought it would be possible to pick a real professional player on a draft like this. Those boring fantasy fiction on the Chinese websites like Do you care if I play football or We’re not the runner-up simply can’t happen. The past top player in the Philips-sponsored China University Football League went to the Netherlands for a trial. Who was that and where was he now? Singapore Premier League!” Twain scoffed.
“You really care so much about and constantly talk about it. How can you say that you will treat it normally?” Dunn expressed a different opinion. “If you are truly indifferent to it, you will not talk about it at all.”
Twain froze for a moment. He thought Dunn made a reasonable point, so he mimed throwing it away. “All right, let us completely forget about it. And discuss our opponent for next round of the league tournament, Reading…”
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Nottingham Forest already had a five-game winning streak in the league. This was their best start in history, and everyone expected Twain to continue to break the winning record. Nottingham Forest had been in good form recently. It was a good time to make a new record.
However, the Forest team disappointed once again. In the away game, the Forest team tied with Reading with a score of 2:2.
As the incident with Gerrard became a thing of the past, as well as Sidwell’s transfer, the main reason was that with the passing of time, the hatred between the two teams was clearly not as serious as it was last season.
Although Coppell and Twain still had a personal feud, this game itself was close to normal.
The Reading team had a fierce battle with the Forest team at home. Coppell was quite capable. Even though he had allowed the Forest team to score two goals, Reading also scored two goals against the Forest team.
In the end, the six-game winning streak that everyone anticipated came to a halt. Nottingham Forest was still at the top with six games of five wins, one draw and sixteen points. The second-ranked team the league had quietly changed. With one game short, Arsenal came in second with four wins, one draw, and thirteen points, while the third place was occupied by Manchester City with four wins, two defeats, and twelve points.They were followed by Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea. Each of the three teams had eleven points.
Chelsea was the unluckiest team. They went from being in the second place at the start of the league tournament to sixth. Their results declined quickly. The rumors of a rift between Mourinho and Abramovich swirled everywhere. It looked like the team’s performance had also been affected by the discord.
Twain did not think it was a rumor. He believed it was the truth. Given Mourinho’s character, it would have been surprising for him to be able to work with Abramovich for the past few years without the slightest contradiction. The basis of their cooperation was previously based on results. Their relationship was good when results were good. After a decline in the results, any hidden contradictions would be exposed. Was it not the case now? Abramovich forcefully bought Shevchenko a season ago despite Mourinho’s opposition. This summer, he blamed Mourinho for ending up empty-handed after last season. They did not win the league title or the English FA Cup. The Champions League title which was promised to him had ended in the semi-finals. They only won the EFL Cup which was of little value.
Could such an achievement satisfy Abramovich?
No.
Consequently, Mourinho did not even have a single cent for transfer fees this summer. It was rumored that Abramovich had a showdown with Mourinho — Because you did not lead the team well, we have to tighten the money this season to maintain our cash flow balance.
To the outside world, Mourinho said, “some people thought that Chelsea’s league titles in the previous seasons were bought with money and were unconvincing. So, before the start of the season, I was happy to see Arsenal and Manchester United plundered the transfer market.”
Twain did not know when Mourinho would leave Chelsea. Although it looked like the temperamental manager’s position was stable and that he enjoyed unparallel prestige in the Chelsea team, that was because everyone imperceptibly ignored the real emperor of this team — Abramovich. Based on Twain’s knowledge of the Russian oligarch, he was a very stubborn character and advocated “strong-arm” tactics. Once he had decided on a matter, he could not be held back by even ten horses. He would swift and decisive in his execution. He would never give others the opportunity to turn the tables. Shevchenko was an example. Before the Ukrainian nuclear warhead came to London, several people believed that Chelsea really wanted to buy Shevchenko. Even if Mourinho opposed it, he was not able to change Abramovich’s resolve. As a result, Shevchenko announced that he would join Chelsea ahead of the World Cup, and Abramovich got his coveted striker.
It was also around this time that the rift between Mourinho and Abramovich grew wider and deeper. It would be irreconcilable one day.
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The tie with Reading did not put Twain in a bad mood, and he could not spare the energy to compete with Reading. For Nottingham Forest, Reading was just an ant under its feet. Had anyone ever seen a man setting himself against an ant for a long time? The reason for the tied game was due to Twain holding back a portion of the main players. He had already set his goal on the Champions League group away game against Porto.
Porto was where Mourinho started. A former European champion, it was not doing as well as before, but they still had some prestige left. Nottingham Forest had played against both Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon and Benfica. It was Porto’s turn.
Twain would not underestimate the opponent, and the facts proved that his careful preparation was useful.
Nottingham Forest, which sent its strongest lineup to Portugal, was met with a tenacious resistance at Estádio do Dragão in Porto. After ninety minutes of intense competition, neither team scored and the game was tied at 0:0. By all accounts, getting one point in an away game was considered a good result. However, Twain once again carried out his annoying “tradition.” At a post-match press conference, he said, “we should have left with three points and I’m very unhappy with the result.”
This was not the first time Twain acted arrogantly on another team’s turf. The Portuguese media were well aware of the English manager’s lack of shame and did not make a fuss about his behavior. Now the media knew that the best way to deal with Twain was not to quarrel with him, but to ignore him.
Nottingham Forest returned to Nottingham with one point, and Twain had to start preparing for the league tournament again without a break.
He also carefully prepared for it but this time it was to welcome an old friend.
Nottingham Forest would host the newly promoted team, Sunderland, in the seventh round of the Premier League on September 22nd.
