"The match is over! 3: 0! Nottingham Forest has obtained the final victory! "
When the commentator shouted this sentence, the television camera did not continue to focus on the players on the pitch. It did not even focus on Balotelli, who had scored twice in the match. Instead, it quickly cut to the technical area and gave the Nottingham Forest manager, Tony Twain, a close-up shot.
In the camera, Twain had just gotten up from his seat when his assistant manager, Kerslake, patted him on the shoulder. Then, Twain turned around and walked towards the Wolverhampton Wanderers manager, Alan Pardew, to shake hands with him. This was a post-match etiquette.
As his team had already been relegated, Pardew did not have any complaints or dissatisfaction about losing to Twain on their home ground. On the contrary, when he shook Twain's hand, he even chatted with Twain for a while, telling him that he did not want Twain to retire.
Twain only smiled and did not say anything.
He had heard many similar words during this period of time. Some of them were from the bottom of their hearts, while others were just out of etiquette. Twain did not care which were sincere and which were just etiquette. Anyway, there was only one more match before he had to bid farewell. He did not care what others thought of him. Today, he would not roll up his sleeves to slap someone's face.
After saying goodbye to Pardew, Twain returned to his team.
What greeted him was Kerslake's smiling face. "Latest news, Tony! Manchester City has lost! "
Twain laughed as he looked at him dancing with joy. This result meant that they did not need to fight Manchester United in the last match and could advance to next season's Europa League.
"I don't care what happens in the next match, Tony. Even if we lose, haha!" Kerslake shouted excitedly in the noisy stadium.
"That won't do, David." Twain shook his head. "My coaching career cannot end in failure."
David Kerslake knew that this man was still competitive, so he did not say anything and only smiled.
Soon, the news of Manchester City's loss spread throughout the Forest team. Even Wolverhampton Wanderers' home ground, Molineux Stadium, used a live broadcast to congratulate Forest. Only they, who had already been demoted, could have the mood to congratulate their opponent.
The Forest players hugged each other excitedly when they heard the news. It meant that their hard work for half a season had not been in vain.
But the other assistant manager, Freddy Eastwood, had another worry.
"I'm worried that if this goes on, our players will lose their fighting spirit in the final round of the league tournament."
He told Tang En so.
His words were very reasonable. Because qualifying for the European competition was the Forest team's highest goal for half a season. All along, the team had been striving toward this goal. Once the goal was achieved, everyone's energy would be drained. How were they supposed to fight in the final round of the league tournament?
Just look at the Wolves in this match. They were simply the best "role model". Having lost their hopes of avoiding relegation, Wolverhampton Wanderers, who had been relegated early, showed no fighting spirit in this match. Before Forest scored the first goal, they were still putting up a show of resistance. When Balotelli broke through Wolverhampton Wanderers' goal with a free kick, their morale plummeted and they surrendered.
The Forest team's last opponent was not a team at the level of Wolverhampton Wanderers, but Manchester United, who was currently ranked first.
Tang En did not care about Eastwood's worries. He could not always let the team walk on a single-log bridge over a bottomless abyss. Putting the team under high pressure might not be a good thing. If the team had no motivation, then so be it. It was not like the team could only rely on pressure to win.
Playing against Manchester United did not require the carrot of "qualifying for the European competition" to boost their fighting spirit. They had practiced for two weeks and had never thought that they had to beat Manchester United in order to qualify for the European competition.
But what Eastwood said was not completely impossible. In the following week, one of Tang En's and the coaching staff's jobs was to prevent such a situation from happening.
"Don't worry, Freddy. No matter what problems we encounter, there will always be a solution. " Tang En patted Eastwood on the shoulder. "Now enjoy the joy of victory. Don't frown."
Eastwood glanced at Tang En. "I believe you when you say that." He was referring to Tang En's words, "No matter what problems we encounter, there will always be a solution." "But what happens after you leave?"
Eastwood still did not know that Dunn was going to take over. Even if he knew, he would probably be skeptical of Dunn's ability.
Other than Tang En, there was probably no one else in the world who still had hope for Dunn.
"I'm not the only qualified manager in this world," Tang En replied to Eastwood.
Unexpectedly, Eastwood shook his head very seriously. "There is only one Tony Twain in the world."
※ ※ ※
"We have once again qualified for the European competition next season. Compared to half a season ago, this result can only make us more reluctant to see Tony Twain leave." Pierce Brosnan wrote in the Nottingham Evening Post, which was published later.
"When we describe a star player as very good, we are always used to saying that he has the ability to change the outcome of the game alone. Now I want to give this to Tony Twain. He is fully deserving of it. Yes, what is the difference between today's Nottingham Forest and the Nottingham Forest of half a season ago? There is one more Chen Jian. There is one more Chen Jian. He was the one who brought about Chen Jian. He was also the one who brought about the victory and the sixth place in the league tournament. From a long, long time ago, we all knew this fact — Tony Twain is a man who can bring victory and championship titles to the team. He has the ability to change the outcome of a season alone. "
When the Wolves game ended, the number of commemorative activities for Tang En increased. No one could bear to see Tang En go, so there were more and more voices urging him to stay. But they also knew that they could not change anything other than making such voices.
The tickets for Nottingham Forest's home game against Manchester United were sold out. Even so, there were still many people asking for tickets online, hoping to get a chance to see Tang En off at the stadium.
The Nottingham Forest fans were proud that they had such an outstanding manager. There were even some smart merchants who launched a service to take a photo with Tony Twain. In the square outside the Crimson Stadium, there was a vendor who set up a lifelike portrait of Tang En, the size of a real person, for fans and tourists to take a photo with Tang En. Surprisingly, business was booming. Every day, many people came here to take a photo with "Tony Twain." There were even some black-haired and yellow-skinned visitors from afar.
It was not only the local English media that paid attention to the game, but also the media from all over the world. The game was set by the English Premier League committee to be broadcast live to the world. Currently, the English Premier League broadcast had covered 256 countries and regions, and the number of viewers exceeded a billion. This decision was equivalent to letting a billion fans around the world witness Tony Twain's last game. For a manager, this "farewell ceremony" was really of a high standard.
As a result, many countries began to advertise before the game, promoting how different this game was.
"The farewell game of the most successful manager in English history!"
"The feud between Tony Twain and Mourinho, the two most individualistic managers!"
"The ownership of the league championship trophy!"
There were a few gimmicks in this game. One was Tang En's retirement, another was the feud between him and Mourinho that lasted more than a decade, and the last was whether Manchester United could successfully win the league title. Although Manchester United was currently in first place, they were only one point ahead of the second-placed Arsenal. If they lost to Twain's Forest team in the final round, and Arsenal defeated Fulham, Arsenal would replace them as the league champion this season.
This was clearly not the outcome that Mourinho and the Manchester United fans wanted to see.
Therefore, the local media in Nottingham only cared about Tony Twain, while the media in Manchester were concerned about whether Mourinho's team could successfully defend their title. They were unusually pessimistic about this — they thought it was impossible to hope for Nottingham Forest to hold back in this game, because their fans and team would not want their legendary manager to bid farewell to his job with a defeat.
Therefore, those who thought that the Forest team would lose motivation if they qualified for the Europa League a round ahead of time were foolish. This game would be a very tough test for Manchester United.
Mourinho thought so too. When interviewed by the reporters, his expression was very serious, and he did not feel relaxed at all because his team was now in first place. When talking about the game, he said this: "… I don't like to predict the game, but I think my team will beat them (Nottingham Forest) …"
These words sounded a little forced, more like a morale boost than a real card up his sleeves.
But who knew if that was Mourinho's tactic to get arrogant?
※ ※ ※
Eastwood's worries were not realized at all. The players' lack of fighting spirit could not be seen in their daily training. On the contrary, they were in high spirits, as if no one wanted to miss such an important game because they did not perform well in training.
This made Eastwood once again sigh at the boss's great influence, and at the same time, he was even more worried about who would be able to control this group of players after the boss left …
The hype outside was fierce, and the people around him were so worried, but Twain did not seem to care about anything. He did the same every day for the past decade or so, handing the specific training work to the members of the coaching staff, and he was a hands-off boss.
He himself was a little like an old man approaching his retirement date, coming to the unit every day to make a cup of tea, and then taking a walk around.
He did not take a walk, nor did he make tea. He only needed to stand on the sidelines, and there was basically nothing for him to do. In fact, he had been busy. The strategy and tactics needed to deal with Manchester United had been worked out before. That was when he was busy. Now, it was just training and executing, and he was not needed much. When the day of the game came, he would still be busy.
What Twain needed to do now was to wear sunglasses, stand on the sidelines of the training ground, and watch the players train.
But he had been watching this kind of training for 16 years, and there were times when his mind would wander.
When he first took charge of this team, he could no longer remember who the players were. He also did not know how to train the team, and his understanding of the players was pitifully little. At that time, he did not think he would become the most successful manager in the history of this country.
If someone knew that this manager's true identity was actually an ordinary China fan who did not know anything, how would they feel?
This kind of secret should indeed be taken to the grave …
Twain suddenly had a thought. Were there really transmigrators other than himself in this world? Among those geniuses who had made many outstanding contributions, were there some guys from the future among them?
This question was really interesting. For example, why did Wenger have such a good eye for young players? Was he a deeply hidden transmigrator?
Twain thought about it in this way, and his mind wandered for a long time before he came back to his senses. He found that the team's training was almost over.
Assistant managers Kerslake and Eastwood gathered the players together. In the end, they still had to listen to a few words from the manager.
In fact, there was not such a procedure after every training session. It was just that as Tang En's departure approached, the players had strong requests. So, during this period of time, Tang En had to come and say a few words after every day's training ended, whether it was to comment on the training or talk about other things.
As Gareth Bale said, "I just like to hear the boss's voice."
Today was no exception.
Twain saw Eastwood waving to him and walked over.
"Actually, I've said everything that needs to be said in the past few days. I really can't think of anything else to say." Twain spread his hands. But it would not do if he really did not say anything.
"There are three more days to the last round of the league tournament. Looking at our daily training, I think we're ready. To be honest, I don't doubt at all that you've lost your motivation after completing the season's goals ahead of schedule. Have you lost your motivation? "
He asked as he looked at the players around him.
"How could that be, boss?" Gareth Bale rushed to answer. The others nodded in agreement. "We still have to give you a victory, boss!"
Twain opened his mouth wide and laughed happily. At the same time, he clapped his hands hard. "Isn't that over? What else can I say? Dismissed! "
Looking at the players' stunned expressions, Twain smiled more and more proudly.
He finally did not have to rack his brains to think of what to say to satisfy the players. When he was young, he was hot-blooded and liked to use impassioned words to motivate the players. He felt that it was especially cool. Now that he was older, he did not like this overly flamboyant form of expression. Instead, he preferred to be silent and use action to show his strength.
Ten thousand words could not compare to one action. If he really wanted to deal with the enemy, he might as well roll up his sleeves and give them a big slap instead of cursing until his mouth was dry. It was more effective.
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