Time passed by July and entered August. Nottingham Forest quietly withdrew from the transfer market. While the media was still guessing who Tony Twain's next target would be, the Forest team had already integrated the team and fixed the lineup. The rest of the time had to be used to prepare for the new season's opponents.
For this reason, other than the usual training, he did not go to the bar to drink every night. Instead, he stayed at home with Dunn to watch the videos of all their opponents in the English Premier League. He studied the summer transfer data of all 19 English Premier League teams other than the Forest team to understand whether these opponents had strengthened or weakened.
Tang En's understanding of being three years ahead of the world played an important role at this moment. Regarding this summer's transfers, no one could actually see through them. They did not know if a certain team's purchase of a certain player was worth his price. They did not know if a certain unknown kid would perform beyond everyone's expectations. They also did not know, after a season, which players would be worth their money and which players would become substandard goods that did not live up to their name.
But Tang En knew that after a season, he knew who bought the right players and who bought the wrong players.
He would also mention some names when discussing the English Premier League with Dunn, but he would not say it too clearly — he was afraid of arousing Dunn's suspicions. After all, he came from the future, and Dunn was just a parallel possession.
Even if the two of them had the same experience, and they could have an extraordinary tacit understanding, there would still be secrets between them that belonged only to themselves. But there would still be secrets between them that belonged only to themselves. Tang En would not tell Dunn, and Dunn would probably not want Tang En to know.
※ ※ ※
Judging by the score, the new Forest team that Tony Twain had spent more than 12 million pounds to build was clearly unsatisfactory.
The results of the five warm-up games were one win, two draws, and two losses. The biggest problem exposed was not the lack of tacit understanding or the lack of physical recovery, but the fact that the team did not have many ways to switch from defense to offense, and lacked the most efficient means to attack. Albertini was the core of the Forest team's midfield, but he had not fully adapted to the style of English football — to sum up this style in one word, "fast." Fast offense, fast defense, fast transition from defense to offense, and fast transition from offense to defense. It was a little difficult for Albertini, who was used to Italian football, to maintain this fast pace in intense confrontations.
However, Tang En had given him full trust. Even if it was clear that he had performed poorly and caused the team to lose, he would not criticize the Italian veteran in the post-match press conference. If the reporters insisted on being bad on this issue, he would put on a straight face and say that Albertini was still in the run-in period with the team and that it was normal for his condition to be unstable and not ideal.
He did not doubt Albertini's ability and professionalism. The only problem was that he needed time to adapt to the style of football. And he believed that at Albertini's age, there was no need for the manager to spur him on. The player himself wanted to prove himself more than anyone else.
As a veteran, Hierro did a good job in defense. However, due to the influence of age, he had completely abandoned his offensive capabilities and focused on defense.
Among the players who had just joined the team this summer, the most satisfying was probably the Australian striker, Viduka. After all, whether it was adapting to the English Premier League, game experience, age, or technical characteristics, they were all very compatible with the Forest team. Compared to the 02-03 season, Viduka's performance in his final season with Leeds United had declined slightly. That was because of the club's crisis. To be honest, there were not many players who were still in the mood to play football at that time. Even so, he still scored 11 goals in 30 appearances in the League Championship.
Viduka scored three goals in five warm-up matches and was the player who had scored the most goals in the team's warm-up matches. Due to the outstanding form he had displayed, Crouch could only be his substitute. His partner was the more agile Freddie Eastwood.
Nicklas Bendtner and Peter Crouch would be the substitutes in the forward line. When necessary, Tang En would consider rotating them. In addition, if they could not open up the situation, it was not a bad choice to bring on Crouch, who had very distinct technical characteristics, and the tall Bendtner, who was excellent in headers. After all, the English Premier League opponents were more familiar with Viduka and the most unfamiliar with Bendtner.
The Forest team's greatest advantage was not that they were young, but that they were too unfamiliar to the English Premier League opponents. Half of the team were rookies, while the others had not played in the English Premier League before. They needed to adapt to the English Premier League, and the English Premier League teams similarly needed to familiarize themselves with them.
There were four rounds of matches in the English Premier League in August. The Forest team's match schedule was that the opponents at the beginning were weak, and the further they progressed, the harder it would be. In the first round, the Forest team would challenge Blackburn Rovers in an away game. In the second round, they would return to their home ground to face Aston Villa. The strength of the opponents had already begun to improve. In the third round, the real tough battle — a home game against the defending champion, Arsenal! In the fourth round, they would challenge Everton in an away game.
In fact, the "weak" mentioned earlier was all relative. Tang En looked around. No matter how he looked at it, he did not feel that any of the four opponents were "weak." After entering the English Premier League, for the Forest team, any opponent could be stronger than them. The days where they could casually play against teams ranked in the middle and lower reaches of League One were gone forever.
On the 8th of August, Tang En announced that the team would have a day off. Then, he pulled David Kerslake along to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, to watch a match at his own lucky Millennium Stadium — the 04-05 EFL Community Shield. He did not go as a fan of the two teams participating in the match. He went to observe and understand the two opponents of the Forest team this season at a closer distance.
The current Tang En did not dare to make a promise like the Premier League champions anymore. The English Premier League and League One were two completely different concepts of competition. They could almost be considered two different worlds.
Last season, Arsenal, led by Wenger, achieved the great result of winning the title for 38 consecutive matches without losing. Even though it was not a continuous unbeaten record in England's top league, it was not easy to achieve a season without losing in today's fiercer competition and confrontation. With such an Arsenal, would Tang En dare to say that he could win the Premier League this season?
Being arrogant did not equate to being an idiot. He knew when he could be arrogant and when he had to keep a low profile.
Arsenal and Manchester United were the biggest pair of enemies since the establishment of the English Premier League. In the past, the relationship between Manchester United and Arsenal was perhaps as tense as it had been in the past decade. The person who changed all of this was the Gunners manager, the Frenchman Arsene Wenger. After winning the Premier League's first two seasons in a row, Ferguson began to look forward to his own dynasty in the Premier League. Blackburn Rovers' usurpation midway was widely regarded as a flash in the pan of an upstart and could not pose any threat to Manchester United. Because the following season, Manchester United successfully overtook Blackburn Rovers.
In the first five years of the Premier League, Manchester United won four titles. The glory belonged entirely to Ferguson and his Manchester United team. Just as Ferguson had laid the foundation for his Manchester United dynasty, the next step was to continue to consolidate it, the Frenchman Wenger arrived. Wenger, who was still coaching the team in Japan, was unknown. No one knew his name or ability. There were even people who laughed at the Frenchman — England and France had always been at odds.
The result? In Wenger's first season at Arsenal, they won the Premier League title. Furthermore, they were known as the Double Winners of that season and also took the FA Cup title. Wenger gave a head-on blow to Ferguson, who was riding on the crest of success. It also caused the two managers and the two teams to form a grudge.
By the end of the 03-04 season, for the next six years, the Premier League was basically a situation where Manchester United and Arsenal fought for supremacy. They both won and lost, Liverpool completely sank, and Chelsea was not stable enough. Two traditional powerhouses and two managers full of unique personal charisma, coupled with the teams deeply marked by them, the feud between the two sides ran through more than half of the Premier League.
Therefore, as long as these two teams met, it was bound to be a fiery scene. They fought from the field to the field, causing the audience and the media to cheer and give the Football Association a headache.
Even if it was a mere Community Shield, it was also a battlefield for them to fight. Tang En watched the game seriously on the field, greedily absorbing everything he could learn — the on-the-spot substitutions of the two veteran managers, the starting lineup, the actual tactics during the game, and so on. The outcome of the game was actually the most secondary.
It was not until the end of the game that Tang En, who saw the score, remembered that the result did not deviate from the history in his memory — Arsenal defeated Manchester United 3: 1 and picked up the first championship trophy of the season. Even the players who scored the goals were the same. Arsenal's Gilberto scored the opening goal for Arsenal. Then, Alan Smith, who had rejected Forest this summer and switched to Manchester United, scored his first official goal after joining the Red Devils, helping the team equalize the score. Then, the young Spanish player, Reyes, helped Arsenal take the lead again. Finally, Manchester United's Silvestre became Arsenal's "hero." His own goal helped Arsenal secure the victory.
After the game, Arsenal's players excitedly held up a shiny silver prize plate, cheering and celebrating for their first championship title of the season. Manchester United's players left the field early, unwilling to be in the background at their opponent's celebration party and using their own disappointment to set off the other side's joy.
Tang En was also not interested in Arsenal's championship celebration. He and David Kerslake followed the crowd out of the stadium, intending to take a bus back to Nottingham.
Arsenal's fans were still in the stadium, unwilling to disperse. They accompanied their team to celebrate the victory. Almost all the people who came out now were dejected Manchester United fans. Beside Tang En were fans wearing Manchester United jerseys. Some of them were silent, dejected and hurrying with their heads down, while others were still indignant about their defeat, chattering endlessly with the people around them about the game that had just ended. There was such a fat man beside Tang En and Kerslake, complaining to Tang En all the way from the stands about how unfair the result of the game was, and how they were going to part ways in the end. He shrugged and said, "This is great. The Community Shield was given to them, and the Premier League title is ours!"
(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!)
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