The English media described the Football Association's punishment of Tang En as "Rape-Gate" — the name given by the British media to this incident. Tang En described it as "unimaginative" because it sounded as if he had really raped someone — as if it was a tickle for Tang En. In the end, it only made Tang En more comfortable. As for Tang En's curse of West Ham's relegation, the Football Association did not care at all. Rode jumped up and down for a long time but did not get any explanation. He angrily accused the Football Association of not doing their job well. In the end, the Football Association's response was swift. They immediately fined the poor West Ham's acting manager 5,000 pounds.
The other victim, the referee on duty for that FA Cup match, Winter, looked helpless. However, he did not make any statement and refused to accept any interviews from the media. On this point, he was much smarter than Rode.
Tang En was not heavily punished. This also became the main topic of discussion in the following episode of Match of the Day. When the host, Lineker, brought up the issue with Mark Hansen, Hansen sarcastically speculated if Tang En was Pallios's brother-in-law. After the episode was broadcast, the BBC received a letter of protest from the Football Association. However, they ignored it.
As the person involved in the entire incident, Tang En had long stayed out of it. The media liked to hype things up, but that was their business. Tang En now put all his attention on training. The team's daily training was still managed by Des Walker and Ian Bowyer. Tang En would stand on the training ground with his sunglasses on every day. However, his words could be counted on one hand. He still had to continue to learn. What made Tang En the happiest was that Bowyer seemed to have let go of their past enmity. Although they still did not interact much, he did not make things difficult for him in his daily work. On the contrary, he was very cooperative.
Originally, Tang En was worried that Bowyer would be the straw that broke Forest's back. Now, it seemed that he had worried too much. That day, when they were drinking at Burns' Forest Bar, Walker had mentioned something about Bowyer. Only then did Tang En understand how glorious the fifty-one-year-old man's career had been. He was the main contributor in Forest's two UEFA Champions League titles!
His experience would definitely be of great help to him. Tang En decided to build a good relationship with this person.
Forest's next match was on the afternoon of the 18th of January. Before that, League One had already gone through a round. Because Forest had to play in the FA Cup, their 28th match was postponed to the 25th. This gave them a fourteen-day rest period. On the 18th, they would challenge Coventry City in an away game. It would be a tough battle. First of all, the team's manager was banned from playing and would not be able to direct the game from the technical area. Secondly, Coventry City was currently ranked sixth in the league table. Ever since they lost 1: 2 to Preston North End at home in the 21st round of the league tournament, they had maintained an unbeaten streak of seven rounds. The team's morale was currently high, and it was also their home ground. What gave Tang En even more of a headache was the team's style. It was a team with a tenacious style and a stubborn temperament. It was precisely this temperament that allowed them to remain undefeated for seven consecutive rounds of the league tournament. This record could have been broken several times, but it was saved by themselves.
Tang En hated this kind of team, because he also had this kind of style. This match was completely different from the FA Cup. West Ham would not swallow their pride and fight to the death with him, but Coventry would, because it was related to whether they would stay in League One or be promoted to the Premier League at the end of the season. These days, he did not go to Burns' Forest Bar. It was as if he had returned to a puritanical life. Every day after the team's training, he would bring his work home. He had to thoroughly study the team before the match and understand each and every one of their players. If possible, he even hoped to see all the recordings of those seven matches where they were undefeated. Unfortunately, the Forest team's intelligence work could not meet his requirements.
"I'm sorry, Tony. The only video we have of Coventry City's matches is when they visited the City Ground in the first half of the season. We beat them 1: 0. " Looking at the apologetic Walker, Tang En felt that perhaps he should specially find a scout to be in charge of observing the team's opponents for the next match. Before the match, he should put all the information he could about the opponents on his desk for his reference. It was just like the FM 2007 he was playing.
However, the team currently only had three full-time scouts. Two of them were away for long periods of time, looking for talented children all over the United Kingdom and trying their best to bring them to the youth training camp in Wilford. The other was mainly in charge of scouting the players in the Nottingham area. It was impossible for them to help him complete that task.
Tang En rubbed his temples. It looked like there were still many areas that needed to be changed in the team. It was a pity that he did not have the energy and did not dare to try. A manager who did not know what his future would be would naturally not dare to try his plans. Tang En felt that he was a little like Chelsea's manager, Ranieri. The difference was that Ranieri tinkered with the team's tactics, while Tang En tinkered with the entire team. He did not dare to use any ideas he had. He was afraid that once he laid out a plan, it would be fired because of poor results. If that happened, all his efforts would be in vain.
Because he had become a manager, Tang En was now used to looking at a team's information first to find out who the team's manager was. In a sense, a manager greatly affected a team's style, tactics, temperament, and results. To understand a team, the best way was to start with understanding the current manager. Tang En looked at the current Coventry City manager. He saw a somewhat familiar name: Gary 'Mcallister'.
Tang En looked at the English name for a long time. Then, he hesitantly translated it into Chinese: Gary McAllister.
McAllister?!
Tang En almost jumped out of his chair. He remembered that the old man was still at Liverpool last season. The 2000-01 season was Liverpool's most glorious moment in 14 years. They became the Treble for the first time since 1984. McAllister scored a penalty in that year's UEFA Europa League final. In the last minute of extra time, he even used a free kick to "assist" Aravis's Gulli to score an own goal. It was the most glorious moment of Liverpool's Houllier era. They won a total of five championships that season.
It had only been two years. How did he come to League One team, Coventry City?
The information showed that the Scotsman had returned to Coventry City after the 2001-02 season. Furthermore, his status was that of a manager cum player.
Tang En knew that McAllister was very good as a player. His free kicks often helped Liverpool score goals. However, he knew nothing about the manager, McAllister.
Tang En stared at the name for a long time. It was as if he could see what he needed from the name. In reality, that was indeed the case. A few minutes later, he chuckled.
"A player cum manager?"
Coventry City was once one of the four major cities in England. It had a history of a thousand years, but that was a thing of the past. Moreover, to a Chinese like Tang En, the so-called "major city" in England was perhaps only the size of a county in China. The city had once suffered a devastating bombing by the German Air Force during World War II. It was almost completely reduced to ruins. After the war, Coventry City became the center of England's automobile industry. It produced cars specially for the British royal family.
Tang En's understanding of the city was almost zero. He did not intend to put his energy into flipping through the tourist brochure. For a football manager, understanding the history of a city was far less important and useful than understanding the history of a particular team in the city.
Nottingham City, where Forest was located, was only about 30 miles away from Coventry City. It was less than an hour's drive away. However, as an away game, Forest still arrived in the city a day earlier to prepare for the next day's game.
Tang En sat on the team bus. He looked at the gloomy sky and the newspapers that had been blown into the air. He turned his head and asked Walker, who was sitting beside him, "What did the weather forecast say?"
"It's going to rain tomorrow. The temperature is very low."
Tang En thought of Kenny's description of England. He could not help but curse. He hated playing in the rain. He hated any weather that was not conducive to playing. Rain, snow, strong winds, hail, lightning … if there was any.
At that moment, outside the bus window, a cheese-colored building was like the rising sun, slowly rising from behind the layers of houses on the side of the street.
"Highfield Road Stadium," Walker introduced to Tang En. "Coventry City's home ground."
Hearing Walker's words, Tang En could not help but take a few more glances at the building where his team would be playing tomorrow. Most of the stadiums in England were very small. They were not like the stadiums in Italy, Spain, or Germany, which looked grand and imposing. Four low stands that barely covered the stands' roofs and a patch of green grass were the entirety of a stadium. Forest's home ground, City Ground Stadium, could accommodate 30,000 people. Built by the river, it looked like a secondary school's stadium. Coventry City's stadium was the same.
The home ground of Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid, Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, had six levels of stands, equivalent to the height of a 20-story residential building. Furthermore, the stands were designed to be very steep. Tang En had never been there before, but he could tell what kind of atmosphere it was from the television broadcast. When you stood at the top of the stands, you could not clearly see the numbers and movements of the players on the field when you looked down. Instead, you had the illusion that you could fall at any time. This kind of shocking pressure was rarely experienced in English stadiums. Most English stadiums had two or three levels of stands. Manchester United's home ground, Old Trafford, was currently England's largest professional football stadium. It could only accommodate 60,000 people and had three levels of stands.
However, there were also great benefits to the design of English stadiums. It allowed the fans to be closer to the stadium, which was more conducive to developing a good relationship between the fans and the players. Therefore, there were two completely opposite feelings when playing in English stadiums. The home team would think it was heaven. They could clearly hear the fans' songs and slogans supporting them. They could even rush to the side of the pitch to celebrate with the crowd after scoring a goal. On the other hand, the away team would think it was hell. They had to suffer under the home team's fans' boos and songs at all times. They could clearly hear every word those people cursed at them and clearly see the raised middle fingers.
Although Tang En had only experienced one game, he was similarly deeply affected by this. The FA Cup match at the City Ground Stadium had made him deeply understand these two feelings. In the first half, he felt like he was an away team. In the second half, he was back at home.
He wondered if Coventry City's fans were friendly …
The match was held at two in the afternoon. At one o 'clock, it was already difficult to find empty parking spaces in the car park outside the Highfield Road stadium. A light drizzle fell from the gloomy sky, but it did not affect the mood of the fans at all. They waved Coventry City's sky-blue team flag and sang songs praising Coventry City as they gathered towards the stadium from all directions. From the sky, it looked like a swarm of ants rushing towards a big piece of cheese that emitted a fragrance.
Forest's players were clearly used to this. They did their own things in the car, listening to music, resting with their eyes closed, or looking around. Tang En still could not get used to it. This was the first away game he had led the team to play. When he was at the City Ground Stadium 11 days ago, he did not feel anything special about the atmosphere in the stadium. Now, he really felt like he was in an away game: a completely unfamiliar city, fans who made a living, unfamiliar stadium, and unfamiliar opponents …
Realizing that Tang En's attention was on the fans outside the car, Walker decided to say something to ease the tension in the acting manager's heart.
"Tony, don't worry. Do you know Old Trafford? "
"Of course, it's famous."
"Old Trafford has a special security system. They will classify the safety levels of away fans based on historical data. The Liverpool and Leeds fans are classified as C level, requiring high security measures and a large number of police. Coventry is B level, with only a small number of police. So, they have nothing to fear, "Walker said, pointing to the Coventry fans passing by the team bus outside.
Clearly, Tang En was more interested in the Old Trafford stadium's security system. "Then, where are the fans classified as A level?"
"Wimbledon."
Hearing Walker's answer, a name flashed through Tang En's mind. He then laughed. "How interesting. The fans of the 'Crazy Gang' with Vinnie Jones are actually the most civilized … Did those guys at Old Trafford count the Wimbledon fans as football fans and input them into the computer? "
The Wimbledon team that defeated Liverpool in 1988 to win the FA Cup was known as the "Crazy Gang" in the English football scene. Just by looking at the name, one could tell the style of the team. Not to mention that they had two crazy leaders at the time: the gang leader was the infamous villain Vinnie Jones in the English football scene, and the deputy leader was the equally rough and tough Dennis Wise. Ten minutes before the kickoff of that year's FA Cup final, the team's captain, Vinnie Jones, led his men in the players' tunnel and scolded Liverpool's big name players. Less than a minute after the match started, Jones shoved Liverpool's striker, McMahon, onto a stretcher. In the end, Wimbledon won the match 1: 0 against Liverpool, who was like the sun at high noon, creating a legend. Jones and his team also entered the history books.
Similar incidents like this happened to the "Crazy Gang" countless times before the FA Cup final. In the season when Wimbledon had just been promoted to the top league, Liverpool visited Wimbledon's home stadium, Plough Lane. After the match, those proud Reds players practically ran back to the dugout in tears. After the match, they said to the media, "Wimbledon fans are too scary. This stadium is simply hell!"
Hell was the impression other football clubs had of Wimbledon's stadium and fans.
How could the "demon-like" fans be civilized spectators with A level of safety? Tang En felt it was too inconceivable.
"So … I don't believe in Old Trafford's security system anymore. I feel that rather than believing in the data summarized by the computer, it's better to experience it for myself." Having said that, Tang En suddenly realized Walker's intention of finding something to say to him. He smiled and said to Walker, "Des, thank you for your kind intentions, but I've never been afraid of anyone."
Walker also smiled. "Me too."
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