Wood did not talk about his plans to retire in front of the temporary manager, Greenwood, and the club chairman, Evan Doughty. In the face of the numerous reporters' questions on this issue, he did not say a word, as if nothing had happened.
This made Evan heave a sigh of relief.
In any case, the current crisis was over. However, Evan Doughty did not feel relieved because of this. The continuous failures, the change of managers, and the rumors of Wood's retirement were so rampant that the Arabian consortium suddenly changed their minds. They did not say that they would completely stop the negotiations to buy Nottingham Forest Football Club, but they obviously slowed down the pace of the acquisition and revealed that they wanted to buy the club at a lower price.
This was obviously not what Evan Doughty wanted to see. During this period, Allan Adams was scolded by the increasingly bad-tempered club chairman. Although they had a friendship from when they started their business together, decades had passed and that friendship had long faded. Moreover, as Evan's most trusted person, he could not handle such a big matter. How could Evan not be angry?
Ever since Tony Twain left, the only person Evan Doughty could rely on in the club was Allan Adamsler. But now Allan's behavior made Evan have doubts — maybe he could not rely on this person anymore.
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Tony Twain did not return to Los Angeles just because Wood went back to participate in training and competitions, because the matter was far from resolved. Moreover, with Wood going to work, he should stay and take care of Sophia. It was reasonable for him to do so. Although Miss Vivian was around, Twain was probably the only person who could talk to Sophia.
So, Twain gave Shania a call and told her that he might not be able to come back for a period of time. If she was not too busy after the end of her work, she could come to Nottingham. Shania heard that Sophia's condition was not good, so she specially called to ask about Sophia. As for Twain's request, she naturally agreed without hesitation.
Originally, Twain sneaked back alone without the media knowing. But after staying here for a long time, the omnipresent media could smell him even if they used their noses to sniff him. So, within a few days, photos of Twain in and out of the hospital appeared on the sports pages of several newspapers.
A day after the news of Tang En's return was published in the newspapers, he welcomed a special guest in Sophia's ward.
Nominally, Evan Doughty was here to visit Sophia on behalf of the club, wishing her a speedy recovery. However, in reality, he was here to look for Tang En.
"When did you come back? Why didn't you inform me that you were coming back? "In the guest room outside, Evan Doughty acted as if he was very familiar with Tang En.
Tang En smiled. "I was too busy for the past two days and didn't have the time. Didn't you come looking for me? "
After four years, the two of them finally met face to face again. The filth of the past seemed to have faded away. At the very least, outsiders wouldn't be able to tell that they were enemies in the past.
After that, the two of them rambled on, not talking about football or the recent predicament the club was facing. In the end, when there was nothing else to talk about, Evan Doughty took his leave.
Tang En sent him to the door of the ward and did not continue. After Evan left, he returned to the ward and sat on the sofa, deep in thought.
According to his understanding of Evan Doughty, no matter where he went, he would always bring Allan Adams with him. However, this time, he came to the hospital alone to "visit" Sophia. Although Evan only said that the reason Allan did not come was that he was in charge of the negotiations with the Arabs, even the tabloids knew that the Arab consortium had temporarily stopped the negotiations and returned to the United Arab Emirates, saying that they wanted to reconsider their offer for Nottingham Forest Football Club. Clearly, in their eyes, such a terrible club was not worthy of Evan Doughty's offer. It was useless no matter how glorious its past was. Businessmen only cared about the present and the future. They did not care about the past. If you could not bring them benefits now, then you had no value in their eyes. If your future was limited, then your position in their eyes would further decline.
Now, everyone knew that Nottingham Forest's acquisition had reached a stalemate. However, Forest's fans did not know how they should feel. They were tired of the club's chairman, who had brought them countless glory, now turned into a clown. But they also did not want their club to be in the hands of a group of Arab bearded men who did not understand football or English football. Look at Manchester City, a mercenary team built on money, but it was just a toy for the Arabs.
As one of the oldest clubs in the world, how could it be reduced to such a state?
If Nottingham Forest was a team like Notts County, the fans could start a fundraising campaign and buy the club themselves. However, Nottingham Forest had a long history and a glorious record. It could not be bought just by the fans' donations. Tony Twain's annual income was not small. Even so, all his savings were not enough to buy the club, unless he could find a more powerful consortium to invest. However, he had not been in contact with the brokerage world, so he was not interested in it. Evan Doughty set the club's price at 1.2 billion pounds. The media mocked Evan for asking for too much. Nottingham Forest Football Club had a debt of 400 million pounds. After deducting that, the club's market value was at most 500 million pounds, which meant that 900 million pounds was a reasonable price to buy the club. However, the Arabs were ruthless enough to directly lower the price to 600 million pounds. 400 million was used to pay off the debt, and the remaining 200 million was the actual value of Nottingham Forest Football Club in the eyes of the Middle East.
With such an offer, it was no wonder that many Nottingham Forest fans did not have a good impression of the Arab consortium. For a team that had won the Champions League five times, the actual value of 200 million was simply an insult. Therefore, on one hand, the Forest fans were tired of Evan Doughty's "sale farce" every season. On the other hand, they did not want the Arabs to really take over the club.
Twain's thoughts continued.
Originally, Allan Adams was Evan Doughty's most trusted right-hand man, and the negotiations with the Arab consortium were left to him. In the Nottingham Forest Football Club, which was no longer a listed company, it could be said that other than Evan Doughty, the most powerful person was Allan Adams. But now, Allan did not come with Evan. Twain was very concerned about this matter.
Could it be that this showed Evan's attitude?
Thinking that Evan Doughty was actually a person who had a strong desire for power, Twain felt that his coming alone was definitely not like what he had said, that Allan was "tied up with work."
It looked like something was brewing within the Nottingham Forest Football Club …
But what did that have to do with me?
Twain shook his head and stood up. He decided to go out for a walk. Since his identity had already been exposed, it did not matter anymore. He could take the opportunity to see his old friends at the Forest Bar.
※ ※ ※
If Wood had read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," he would definitely know the allusion to "be in the Cao camp, but be in the Han camp." Because his current situation was a classic example of "be in the Cao camp, but be in the Han camp." Although he had returned to the team and thrown himself into training, his mother's condition had not improved. Her body was still very weak. She had even been admitted to the sterile ward this week. That was a sign that her condition had worsened.
Under such circumstances, how could he stabilize his condition and put his heart and soul into training and matches? At the end of the day, Wood was also a person of flesh and blood with emotions. He was not really a block of wood or a killer robot from the future. Although he had promised his mother that he would return to the team, his mother could not control his emotions. He wanted to miss his mother, and Sophia could not say that she would not let him miss her.
Greenwood was also helpless in this regard. He was not an expert in psychological adjustment, and Wood did not listen to him. There was perhaps only one manager in this world who could make Wood bow down to him, but that person had already retired.
His teammates were also helpless in this regard. No one could ask Wood to put all his thoughts on football at this time and play the role of a captain, because they were not in the position to do so. As Wood's only relative, his mother was lying in the sterile ward in the hospital at this moment. Her life could be in danger at any time. What they should do was actually persuade Wood to temporarily put down football and take care of his mother. They should not ask him to lead by example on the training ground and on the field, and play football without regard for his family. For these professional players, football was a job. There was no job that could be more important than their family.
It was just that once Wood made a decision, there was basically no room for others to interrupt. Therefore, even Wood's best friend, "Little Monkey" Bale, could not persuade him to go back and take care of his mother.
The following UEFA Europa League game was George Wood's first game after returning to the team. As a result, he did not perform well in the game. He was still active in running, but a little like a headless fly, running around aimlessly, let alone organizing the offense and defense. Nottingham Forest's tactics were centered around George Wood. Wood's performance was not good, and the team was like a plate of loose sand, unable to organize.
In the end, Nottingham Forest lost 0: 2 to Sporting Lisbon on their home ground.
In the next two days, Nottingham Forest faced Fulham in the home league game. George Wood's performance did not improve, but Greenwood changed his tactics. He did not continue to let Wood be the core, but let Balotelli be the center of the field, and the offense revolved around him. The team defeated Fulham at home with 2: 1 thanks to Balotelli's excellent performance, and finally stopped the trend of continuing to decline.
However, the good times did not last long. In the next week's league game, Nottingham Forest lost again to Newcastle. This time, it was no longer useful for Balotelli to be the core, because it was much easier to freeze a striker than a defensive midfielder …
Nottingham Forest's ranking temporarily stopped in the last round of the league, and continued to decline after the loss to Newcastle. They lost 1: 3 to Blackburn Rovers, 0: 1 to Tottenham Hotspur … By the end of October, the Forest team's ranking had dropped from the original tenth place to the fourteenth place. Throughout the entire October, apart from beating Fulham 2: 1, they did not win another game, not even a draw. In total, they played a total of five games in October, but they only managed to get three points.
What made Evan Doughty even more anxious had yet to come. Greenwood, who only led the team for four games and lost three, felt that he was not suitable to manage the First Team. Therefore, after the loss to Tottenham Hotspur, he took the initiative to ask Evan Doughty to resign, hoping that the club chairman would agree to his request to resign as the manager of the First Team and return to coaching the youth team.
How could Evan Doughty agree to it? He could not find a suitable manager for the club. However, he could not win against Greenwood's strong will, and in the end, he had no choice but to agree to Greenwood's resignation as the acting manager of the First Team.
Following that, Evan Doughty had no choice but to appoint Freddy Eastwood as the interim manager to manage the team, and on the other hand, he stepped up his search for a suitable manager.
In reality, if Eastwood had a choice, he would definitely not take over this hot potato. On one hand, it was because he felt that he was not good enough to be a manager, and on the other hand, it was naturally because the current Nottingham Forest was simply a black hole for managers. No matter how famous or capable a manager was, his reputation would be tarnished and he would suffer a crushing defeat.
In the end, Eastwood was appointed with a frown. At the press conference, he did not show any joy at being promoted to manager. Even though it was interesting to be able to coach his former teammates, he was not in the mood to joke about it. Faced with the reporters' questions about the team's results and prospects, he only expressed that he hoped that his performance would not disappoint the fans and the club's trust. Other than that, he did not say anything else. The atmosphere at the press conference was a little cold.
After the press conference, many media outlets expressed that Nottingham Forest's prospects were still not optimistic. This time, they were not deliberately going against Nottingham Forest and deliberately slandering Nottingham Forest. What they said was the truth. Even if it was the most hardcore Nottingham Forest fan, they would probably only come to a similar conclusion.
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