If the Premier League was divided according to China's habit of dividing factions, then Tony Twain and Stuart Pearce were clearly in the same trench. Because they were both Brian Clough's juniors and disciples, belonging to the "Clough faction."
Stuart Pearce was a famous tough guy in English football. He even got the nickname "Madman" because of his tough style and character. This nickname followed him through almost his entire career. The English media once described him as having the "heart of an oak tree." Oak trees were known for their hard wood.
Why was Pearce mentioned in the game against Manchester City?
Although Manchester City's manager was still Kevin Keegan, Twain knew in his heart that after this year, Keegan would be dismissed. The person who would take over the position would be his assistant manager, Stuart Pearce, who Keegan valued the most. And it was not only Twain who paid attention to this man. The local Nottingham media also paid attention to him.
Because Pearce was, and still was, a god in the hearts of Nottingham Forest fans. He played for the Forest team for 12 years, made 522 appearances, and scored 88 goals. As a left back, this figure was terrifying.
Tony Twain currently did not have anyone in the Forest team who could reach Pearce's current status and influence in the hearts of the Forest fans. This was bought with time and loyalty. When the Forest team fell into the First Division in 1992, the other players, including Keane, left the team. Only Pearce stayed. At that time, Manchester United and other powerhouses wanted to recruit him, but he refused these invitations. A season later, the legendary captain led the Forest team back to the Premier League. This story was comparable to Batistuta's experience in Fiorentina. It was just that Pearce was not as famous as Batistuta on a global scale.
Twain had met Pearce before. It was in Burns' bar in the first half of the year, at the cocktail party to celebrate the Forest team's 25-year UEFA Champions League win. But at that time, the two men only had a brief chat and did not talk in depth. Despite not having much contact, Twain could roughly understand what kind of person Pearce was. Even when they were drinking and chatting, this person's eyes were very firm and rarely wavered. If he spoke to you, he would look at you instead of glancing up at the ceiling and then down at his toes.
They had not interacted much, but Tang En had a good impression of this person. Perhaps it was because of his sincere attitude.
This game was not the first time Pearce had returned to the City Ground stadium after leaving the Forest team. When he was still a player at Manchester City, Manchester City had been relegated to the First Division (now the English Football League Championship) and had been a guest at the City Ground stadium to challenge Nottingham Forest, who had also been relegated. Before the game started, Pearce stood on the sidelines and bowed to the Forest fans in the stands. When the game started, he still ruthlessly defended against the Forest players, but he received the most applause from the home fans.
Four years later, Pierce stepped onto the turf of the City Ground stadium again, but this time he had taken off his jersey and changed into a suit.
The game had not yet started. The players on both sides were taking pictures on the sidelines. Twain stood in front of the technical area and watched the reporters gather in the visiting team's technical area. Their focus was only on one person. It was not the manager, Kevin Keegan, but Stuart Pearce, who was sitting next to him.
The Forest fans in the stands put up a huge slogan. "Welcome home, Madman!"
This was the best treatment an opponent could enjoy.
Twain's full attention was attracted by such a scene. He did not know if he would work at the Forest team for the rest of his life. Maybe not … Who could say for sure what would happen in the future? If he left this team and then returned to this stadium as an opponent, would he see such a slogan: "Welcome home, Tony"?
It did not look like a league game that anyone wanted to win, but a commemorative game for someone to return home.
There were bursts of cheers in the stands, and they shouted Pearce's name. In the face of such enthusiastic Forest fans, Pearce had no choice but to come out of the Manchester City technical area and walk to the stands where the Forest fans were the most concentrated. He bowed and waved to them, and then he received even louder cheers and applause.
Even Twain's supporters like Fat John and Skinny Bill stood at the front of the crowd and applauded Pearce with tears in their eyes. Seeing this man reminded them of the years when they were with Michael, excitedly playing football and drinking to their hearts' content. They were still very young then. Without the responsibilities of a husband, and without worrying about football hooligans hurting their children …
Pearce walked from the visiting team's technical area to the home team's technical area and waved to the fans. Like the fans, he also had his most precious memories here. He did not expect to receive such a welcome when he came back again, and tears welled up in his eyes. This was a rare moment of warmth before the game.
After greeting the fans, Pearce turned around and saw Twain standing next to him. He walked over and held out his hand to Twain. After all, the two of them had some friendship, and Twain did not refuse the other's request to shake hands.
They just shook hands, and no one spoke. After shaking hands, Pearce turned back to the Manchester City technical area and sat down next to Keegan. Twain saw Keegan turn his head to say something to Pearce, but he could not hear it.
The interaction between Pearce and the fans was a small interlude before the game. When the game officially began, the Forest fans would not applaud them just because Manchester City was the team Pearce retired from. The Forest fans, like Tony Twain, were very clear about their likes and dislikes!
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Manchester City was a team in China that was no less famous than the traditional English Premier League powerhouses. Although many Chinese fans did not know much about the club's past and current situation, it did not prevent everyone from being familiar with its name, because the Chinese player, Sun Jihai, played in the team.
Twain knew a little about the team, and it was also related to Sun Jihai. Of course, after coming here, he knew more. This time it was not out of interest, but because his work required him to understand his future opponents.
Old habits, to understand a team, start with their manager. Kevin Keegan, if evaluated by Twain's standards, was not a successful manager. Perhaps the Newcastle fans would not agree with Twain's assessment, nor would other people who liked Keegan, but Twain insisted on this view. What was a "successful manager"? Could a manager who could not lead the team to glory be considered successful?
In addition to the familiar name of the manager, there were several players in the Manchester City team that Twain was more familiar with — striker Robbie Fowler, who started in the game, right midfielder Shaun Wright-Phillips, England's main defender at the World Cup in Japan and Korea, Danny Mills, England's main defender at the World Cup in Japan and Korea, Trevor Sinclair, who was also a member of the England national team at the World Cup in Japan and Korea, and later became famous as one of the eight people involved in the Premier League rape case. England's national goalkeeper David James, Steve McManaman, who played for Liverpool and Real Madrid, and former French national striker Nicolas Anelka, who also played for many big clubs … Look at these names, just reading them out could scare a lot of people.
Of course, there was also Sun Jihai, the Chinese player Twain was most familiar with, who was also on the Manchester City team's starting list.
Since the start of the season, the Manchester City team had only achieved a record of one win, one draw and two losses. For the Manchester City team with the above frightening names, being ranked tenth was not a position that they could gladly accept. There were rumors in the news that the club was ready to make a move, intending to find the former Southampton manager, Strachan, to replace Keegan. Although Twain knew that Keegan only voluntarily resigned in April of the following year, he could not deny that if he beat Manchester City, it would be the straw that broke the camel's back …
Last season, the Manchester City team's terrible defensive line made them suffer, so since the start of this season, Keegan had been working to reform the defensive line. Dunn and Distin were key figures, but the performance of the two men was erratic and not stable at all.
Sun Jihai's performance in defense did not seem to be as good as in offense. Coupled with the absence of the main midfielder, Barton, due to an injury, the team was unlucky.
Twain had carefully studied the current Manchester City team, and the defense was the team's biggest loophole. There was no need to say much about the offense. Anelka had scored three goals in four rounds of the league tournament, and Shaun Wright-Phillips had firmly occupied the position of the team's main right midfielder. The small man, who was once considered to have no future in the Nottingham Forest youth team, had attracted the attention of countless powerhouses. Coupled with the experienced "God" Fowler and McMaraman, who had partnered with Fowler at Liverpool, such an offensive lineup, at least in terms of reputation, completely overwhelmed the Forest team.
After the big battle with Arsenal in the last round, Twain believed that the Premier League teams would now pay more attention to the Forest team, and Keegan would probably not underestimate this opponent at the Forest team's home ground. His underestimation of the enemy would certainly be reduced a lot.
Twain's tactic was to clamp down on Anelka and Fowler during the defense, and then use his own flank offense to suppress Wright-Phillips and McMaraman. Goals would be the key word in this game. Since Manager Keegan was so concerned about the Manchester City team's terrible defensive line, Twain would strengthen his belief in reforming the defensive line …
(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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