The match between Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace ended. With Rebrov's resurrection, the home team defeated their opponent by 2: 1, widening the gap between them and the relegation zone.
After the match, almost all of the Nottingham media reported on the match. All of Forest's players became heroes, especially Rebrov, who was praised to the skies by the media. The media praised him for becoming a Premier League level player again and finding his old form.
As for Tony Twain, who directed it all? The photo of him talking to Rebrov alone on the field during halftime had long made the headlines. After the match, the reporters interviewed Rebrov, who was named Man of the Match for the first time. They asked him what Manager Twain said to him on the field during halftime.
Rebrov smiled and said, "Nothing much. He just asked me to move back and let me play for myself. I saw a completely different world. "
"… This is Tony Twain. He has the ability to turn something rotten into something magical. During the match, the television commentator called him a magician. I agree with that. Look at Collymore's Forest Team, and look at Tony Twain's Forest Team. The players are still the same, but the team is completely different. We've gotten the crucial three points and restored our morale. Listen to the cheers in the City Ground Stadium. Nottingham Forest is slowly waking up! "
The moving tram swayed gently. The carriage was empty, and a few old people were dozing off. The tram traveled through the suburbs of Nottingham. There were almost no car horns outside, and there were few pedestrians. It was Sunday morning. Tang En sat on the tram to the small town of Hocknall. Outside the tram was the quiet countryside. He looked outside, then looked inside. Opposite him, a passenger was holding up a newspaper that had been published that morning, reading it attentively. On the side facing Tang En, there was a photo of himself and a large headline:
"Tony Twain is back!"
Seeing this scene, Tang En laughed softly. It sounded like "Superman has returned." He was back in the headlines again. It felt good to be worshipped and watched.
On this quiet morning, the empty tram was completely different from the tsunami-like atmosphere in the City Ground Stadium yesterday. Tang En leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes to reflect on the match that had just passed.
I'm back again. This time, I won't leave easily.
Accompanied by a clear jingle of the bell, the shaking of the trolley stopped. Twain opened his eyes and saw the spire of the church on the hillside. They had arrived at their destination.
He jumped down from the tram and stretched himself. Tang En walked towards the church.
He hadn't been here for a while since he came here once in the summer. Half a year had passed in the blink of an eye, and he was no longer the Tony Twain, the unemployed coach who was at a loss and could not see the way forward.
Because of Gavin, he decided to stay with the Forest team and wait for a chance to return to the City Ground stadium's technical area. Now that he was back and had led his team to victory, he came back here once again.
For him, the graveyard behind the gray brick church was the starting point of another journey, and when he was about to stride forward, he should come back here to reconfirm his direction.
It was some distance uphill from the tram stop to the church, though it seemed so near. Twain bought a bouquet of lilies from a deserted flower shop on the street. He held it in his hand and thought for a moment. He asked the shop owner for a card, took out a pen and wrote on it:
— To Nottingham Forest's most loyal fan, George Wood's eternal supporter: Gavin Bernard.
※ ※ ※
A group of children were playing football on the green field in front of the church. Some of them were even wearing the red Forest jerseys. They were shouting and fighting for a ball. When someone shot the football between two piles of clothes, they would imitate the celebratory actions of the football stars.
When he was young, Tang En often played like this. However, they did not play on such a good lawn. Instead, they played on the dam that was used to dry the grains in his hometown. They used school bags, bricks, old shoes, clothes, wicker baskets … in short, anything that could be moved to make a goal. Then, a group of children would chase a broken ball on it. From Tang En's current perspective, even the "football stars" who played the best football in the group when they were young were terrible to look at, but everyone played happily. Beside the dam was a pond for raising ducks. Often, people would accidentally kick a football into the lake. They played badly, but Tang En, who was a good swimmer, was always the one to go into the lake to fish for the ball.
When he reached high school, he went to a boarding school in the city. There was no simple dam or pond there, but a specialized field. However, Tang En no longer played football. He only watched others play from the sidelines. It was the same when he reached university. Until now, he was used to watching others play from the sidelines. He found a sense of accomplishment and joy that was completely different from playing in the field himself.
Tang En lingered around the group of cute children for a while before continuing to walk forward. He bypassed the deserted church and turned into the forest path.
The cemetery was even more deserted than the church. It was surrounded by a dense forest, and the temperature seemed to be a degree or two lower than outside. Tang En wrapped his coat tightly around himself and walked straight to Gavin's grave.
When he clearly saw a bouquet of lilies placed in front of the tombstone, he was a little surprised. The fresh petals still had water droplets on them. The person who placed it here had clearly just left. Tang En looked around the cemetery. There was no one there.
He looked down and noticed that there was also a card in the bouquet, so he picked it up. There was only one sentence on it:
To Gavin.
There was no signature, and Gavin's name was misspelled. Looking at the crooked handwriting that was worse than a primary school student's, Tang En smiled.
He put the bouquet back down and carefully placed his own bouquet at the side. After doing this, he took out a cigarette from his coat pocket and prepared to take a puff. The fire was already lit, but he stared blankly at the dancing flames. Then he took the cigarette out of his mouth and inserted it back into the cigarette case.
He had forgotten just now that there was a child beside him.
So, he squatted down again and looked at the small line of words at the bottom of the tombstone.
Michael said to him at the bar, "Tony, I won't go to the game tomorrow. I won't go in the future. "When he said that, his face was calm, as if he was talking about someone who had nothing to do with him. At the time, Tang En thought his heart must have died. He even … no longer loved football, but hated it. Because football had taken away his most beloved son.
When Michael told him that he was going to America that day, it strengthened Tang En's belief. He hated football, and he wanted to escape from it.
But when he later saw the small line of words at the bottom of the tombstone, all the impression Michael had left in him was overturned in an instant.
He loved his son so deeply, and he also loved football so deeply. He would bury this love deep in his heart, and then lock it up again, never to touch it again, whether it was from others or himself.
Tang En swept away a withered leaf that had fallen in front of the tombstone, then stood up and turned to leave the inconspicuous little tombstone.
The Forest team would resume training in the afternoon. Three days later, on December 17th, in London, on the south bank of the Thames, at the Newden Stadium, they would challenge their opponent in the quarterfinals of the English League Cup — Millwall.
That was a match that Twain could not afford to lose!
※ ※ ※
Tang En returned to the club's training ground in the afternoon and went to the reserve team before the team's training. At the side of the reserve team's training ground, he saw Gareth Taylor. The other side also saw him, and from the look in his eyes, it seemed that he was somewhat unconvinced that he was being managed by this young manager.
But it didn't matter … If you're unconvinced, then so be it, kid. I just want you to score goals for me.
He waved to Taylor, and the reserve team coach called the big man down.
Tang En looked at Taylor, who stood in front of him and was slightly taller than him, then turned to leave. "Come with me."
Taylor did not move. "Where to?"
Tang En turned his body halfway. He turned his head to look at Taylor, then turned back and stuck out two fingers. "I'm not in a good mood right now, so I'll give you two choices: one, come with me and don't ask anything; two, you continue to stay here until the winter transfer market opens. Make your own choice. "
With that, Tang En no longer looked at the dumbfounded big man and turned to leave.
Taylor did not expect Tang En to leave so resolutely, and he froze there for a moment. The reserve team coach patted him lightly. "Why aren't you following him?"
Only then did Taylor, who had just woken up from a dream, jog to catch up and then silently follow behind Tang En. The two of them walked all the way to the side of the First Team's training ground. At this time, the players were already on the field preparing to warm up.
Tang En stopped at the side of the field, while Taylor very consciously ran onto the training ground, no longer daring to ask the gloomy-faced manager a single word.
The players were not surprised by Taylor's return to the team. Now that the forward line was short of players, it was only natural for Taylor, who had been continuously scoring goals in the reserve team, to return.
Walker saw Tang En, who stood at the side of the field with his lips tightly pursed, and walked over.
"Des, watch his performance in training. If possible, put him in the team's roster. We'll play 4-5-1, defend and counterattack. He's an important figure. Let the team practice this formation and tactics for the next two days, "Tang En said to Walker when he saw him walk over.
Walker nodded. Seeing that Tang En was not in a good mood, he walked back. Returning to the training ground, he blew the whistle in his mouth and shouted, "Alright, guys! Start training. Don't think that you'll have an easy time just because you won the game! Get nervous! From now on, you'll have to pay the price for the debt you owe for the past four months! Pay it back with all your might! "
Hearing Walker's shout, and then looking at the players who had jumped up, a hint of a smile appeared on Tang En's face.
※ ※ ※
Actually, with Nottingham Forest's terrible performance in the league tournament, it was really surprising that they could overcome all the difficulties and fight their way to the quarterfinals of the EFL Cup. Collymore was not without merit. At the very least, Tang En had to thank him for leading the team to this point.
Originally, a week ago, when the Forest team had just changed their manager, the odds set by the major bookmakers for this game were not optimistic about the away team, Nottingham Forest. But after Tang En led the team to win against Crystal Palace and returned perfectly, the bookmakers immediately made adjustments to the odds.
Among them, the odds set by William Hill, the leader of the British bookmakers, was the most representative.
Although the Forest team had won a game and many people were optimistic about them again, considering that they were playing in an away game and that the team had a new manager, the situation was not stable. It only slightly increased the odds for the away team to win.
The odds for the Forest team to win in an away game changed from the original 1: 3 to 1: 2.1.
Tang En did not gamble on football, nor did he like to gamble on football. But from the betting odds, which had been perfectly integrated into British football, he could roughly understand the current situation. To put it bluntly, although the team had just won, there were still not many people who were optimistic that they could win against Millwall in an away game. Incidentally, the odds set by the major bookmakers for Nottingham Forest to win the EFL Cup were also a little higher than their current opponent, Millwall.
What did high odds mean? It meant that the bookmakers and the public were not optimistic about them.
For example, in a game, if the home team was Manchester United and the away team was a debt-ridden amateur team that could not even afford the hotel fees, then the odds for the home team to win would be 1: 1.1, and the odds for the away team to win would be 1: 11. The odds for the former were low because Manchester United was too strong and there was almost no doubt that they would win the game. In order not to lose money, the bookmakers set such odds. Everyone knew that this result was easy to come out. Even if you bet money, you could only earn 10 pounds if you bet 100 pounds. Even though the profit was small, it was stable and there was no loss. The odds for the latter were high. Even if you bet 100 pounds and if you won, you could earn 1,100 pounds, the probability of this result happening was too low. Therefore, a team with high odds meant that they were not optimistic.
This EFL Cup quarterfinal was actually the least attractive of the four games. What was the point of a game between two teams in England's second division? Two of the other three games were Premier League teams fighting each other, and the last game was played by the beloved Arsenal team that played beautifully.
Apart from their respective fans, who would pay attention to this quarterfinal game?
※ ※ ※
A cup of black tea with an alluring aroma was placed on the table by the window. Outside the window, the sky was dark and gloomy, and it looked like it would rain at any time. But this did not affect the enjoyment of this cup of tea in the slightest. He held the newspaper in his hand, leaned on the sofa with his legs crossed, and concentrated on reading the newspaper. If the weather was clear, it would be a beautiful afternoon tea time.
He put down the newspaper, stretched, and then reclined on the sofa. He picked up the black tea and turned his head to look out the window. He was as leisurely as an ordinary tourist. It was a completely different parallel space from the noisy lobby he was in and the busy people walking around him.
For Nottingham Forest's manager, Tony Twain, this was a rare moment of leisure before the game.
※ ※
Asking for tickets! (To be continued, if you want to know what happens next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. COM. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading!)
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
