Tang En was awoken by the bright morning sun. The open glass window reflected the sunlight into the bedroom, shining right on Tang En's face. In his sleep, he suddenly felt the light in front of him. He opened his eyes and saw that the clock on the wall showed that it was already 9: 40.
Tang En sat up, wiping away the saliva on the pillow and the side of his mouth. His head still hurt a little. He pinched his temples and tried hard to remember how he came back yesterday. He was still lying naked in bed. He only remembered that he drank wildly with the group of fans. He could not remember exactly how much he drank. He dug out his wallet from his shirt pocket and found that all the cash was gone. He smiled bitterly. It looked like he had really drunk a lot yesterday.
He jumped out of bed and stood in front of the window in his underwear. He looked up at the blue sky and white clouds, as well as the bright sunshine. A smile appeared on Tang En's face. After a few days of rain, it had finally cleared up. His tactical theory had been accepted by everyone. What he needed to do next was to let this idea take root in training and in matches. The players, fans, coaches, and chairman had all accepted his ideas.
This was not an easy task.
Tang En raised his hand and reached toward the white clouds in the sky, as if it was a glittering silver trophy.
"For victory … Good morning!"
With the winter transfer window closing in a few days, the Forest team sent away one of their teammates. This was also the first deal Tang En had completed as the manager and general manager. Jack Lester had long made up his mind to leave Nottingham. His contract still had a year to go, but he did not engage in negotiations with the club to renew his contract. He had long told the club that he wanted to leave, so Nottingham Forest's marketing department had been looking for a buyer for Lester. Things did not go well at first, but that FA Cup match changed everything. Jack Lester scored a beautiful volley in the match, attracting the attention of many teams. Four clubs made an offer to Forest. In the end, Sheffield United, who were also in the League One, won the rights to Leicester for two years with a price of 300,000.
Tang En was not surprised by Lester's departure. He knew that the man would leave sooner or later. Lester was still kind. At least he informed the club in advance that he would not be renewing his contract, giving the club some buffer time. If he quietly went to find another club and waited for his contract to expire before leaving, the Forest team would not get a single cent. Three hundred thousand pounds was not a lot, but for the Forest team, which had just experienced an economic crisis, every cent needed to be particularly valued.
Instead, it was Leicester who went to the side of the training ground to thank Tang En before he left, which he did not expect.
At that time, Twain wore his sunglasses as usual and stood on the sidelines to watch the team train. Most of the time, he remained silent. The players were used to Tang En's style and no longer treated him like a monkey in the zoo.
Leicester, who had just announced his departure, did not participate in the team's training. He went to the locker room to take some of his belongings. He was supposed to leave directly. But he turned back.
He walked straight in front of Twain, blocking his line of sight.
Tang En took off his sunglasses and looked at Lester. "Jack, what's the matter?"
"I'm here to thank you."
"Ah?"
Lester had wanted to call Tang En boss out of habit, but he quickly realized that he was no longer a member of the Forest team, so there was no need to call him boss anymore. "Yes, I thank you for what you said to us at half-time in the match against West Ham. You see, I listened to you and played for myself. Now I've got a pretty good contract. "He spread his hands. "If you hadn't reminded me, maybe I'd still be muddling along."
Tang En smiled. "That's good. Are you still willing to listen to a message from me?"
Leicester nodded.
"No matter where you play in the future, remember: You're a professional player. You have to be worthy of every penny you earn."
"Thank you, Coach. I understand."
"Okay, let's go. Good luck, Jack. "Tang En lowered his head and put on his sunglasses again.
"Good luck to you too, Coach." Leicester turned to leave.
Leicester's departure did not have any impact on the Forest team's locker room. Everyone was a professional player and had seen their fair share of parting and reuniting. Moreover, the Forest team's locker room had been receiving and sending people off like this for the past two years. They were used to it.
Leicester's departure was tantamount to giving Tang En a hand. It turned out that Leicester, Hailwood, and Johansson all had opportunities to play. Furthermore, there would be complaints if the number of times they played was low. Paul Hart was often left badly battered by the three of them. Now, Tang En confirmed that the team's main forward line would be David Johansson and Marlon Hailwood. One had speed and explosive power, while the other had the body and the ability to dribble. They were very close to the perfect forward pairing in Tang En's heart. Although Johansson's technique was not as good as Leicester's, Tang En admired his professional attitude. He was dedicated and had a strong sense of teamwork. This kind of forward could faithfully complete his own tactical ideas on the field, and there would not be a situation where a general would not obey his orders when he was on the field.
In terms of personnel allocation, Tang En abandoned the French right back, Matthew Louis Jean. He could not tolerate the man's clumsy performance on the right side of the defense. If not for him, Tang En would have welcomed his first victory at Coventry City. He straightened out the 20-year-old Irishman, John Thompson. As a full back, other than his low level of throwing out of bounds and his weak physique, he was impeccable in other aspects. He could arrange for someone else to throw out of bounds, and the kid's advantage in heading the ball could also allow him to return to the middle to cover for the center back. If necessary, he could even head to the midfield. It was simply too useful.
Other than the right back, Tang En did not change in any other areas. The formation was as such. The formation was the traditional 4-4-2 formation in the United Kingdom. Tang En had originally wanted to change to a 4-4-2 formation in the diamond midfield. No matter which generation of the Football Manager game he played in the past, the teams he coached would always use this formation, focusing on attacks from the flanks with the attacking midfielders plugged in. However, the results of this formation in training were not ideal. The players were clearly at a loss. They had already played a 4-4-2 formation for a long, long time. Suddenly changing to a diamond midfield, they did not know how to move. Moreover, the team currently did not have an attacking midfielder that met Tang En's requirements for a diamond midfield. Originally, Tang En thought Ian Jess could do it, but once he got too close to the opponent's penalty area during training, he did not know what to do. Andy Reid's problem was that he preferred the flanks.
Tang En sighed and gave up on this idea. This made everyone in the team heave a sigh of relief. The British had played a 4-4-2 formation for decades. Some things had long seeped into their bones and blood. It was not something that could be changed overnight.
Since he could not change the formation, Tang En would change their understanding of tactics, just like how he changed Walker and Burns.
During training, Tang En specially split the midfielders into two teams, led by Walker and Bowyer respectively. They practiced quick passes on the two sides of the field. They were required to push forward from the center circle, and the number of passes to the penalty area could not exceed five times. This was the focus of their training during this period. Tang En observed from the field and firmly remembered all the problems reflected in the training. He would think of a solution when he returned. He did not expect the entire team to be able to fully understand his tactical intentions in a week and be able to play with ease on the field. But he wanted to see changes.
On February 1st, Nottingham Forest would welcome their opponent in Round 30 of the Premier League at home — Wimbledon. Tang En wanted to see some changes in this match. More importantly, he needed a victory to consolidate his tactical thinking and to prove that he was not wrong.
Failure would destroy everything, while victory would save everything.
Victory or defeat? That was really a question …
Before Tang En had transmigrated, he would often play a game called "Championship Manager." Although Wimbledon was in League One in CM4, they were a team with a few powerful people. If the results of the competition were determined by the strength of their players, they should have returned to the English Premier League after a season.
But the reality was … currently, after 29 rounds of the 02-03 English Football League First Division, they had 35 points and were ranked 17th with two matches left.
In reality, Tang En did not know. There were some differences between the outstanding statistics of Wimbledon in the game and the Wimbledon in reality. In reality, the Wimbledon team could not be considered a "Crazy Gang" in the strict sense. At least, the Wimbledon fans in their hometown in London would not recognize their status. The team had just moved from Wimbledon, where they had stayed for 97 years, to the satellite city of Milton Keynes in North London. After two seasons, they even changed their name to Milton Keynes Dons Football Club.
The true successor to the "Crazy Gang" was AFC Wimbledon, which had just been established for more than half a year. This was an amateur club spontaneously established by Wimbledon fans. They followed the logo and colors of the glorious Wimbledon team of the past and competed in the Amateur League. SI, the company that produced the CM series of games, sponsored the club and had their company logo printed on their chest. Many old CM players would probably remember that the cover of the CM4 game was a leaping goalkeeper with the SI logo on the chest of his jersey. This person was the goalkeeper of the original AFC Wimbledon team. It was precisely because SI sponsored AFC Wimbledon that the in-game Wimbledon team would have such powerful goblins. To give two examples, Serge Makofo, a 15-year-old Wimbledon youngster known as the "dribbling genius" in CM4, was just an ordinary player in reality. He did not have 20 points of speed, 20 points of dribbling, or 20 points of explosiveness. Another goblin on the left, Lionel Morgan, had even retired to become a coach in reality at the age of 21.
Tang En did not understand these things. Of course, these things were useless to him now. He only needed to know that the current Wimbledon team was performing badly. Perhaps it had something to do with their forced move from Wimbledon and uprooting their hometown.
The team's performance in the recent four rounds of the league tournament had been very good. They were undefeated in four rounds, but they also did not win in four rounds. They drew in rounds 23, 24, 28, and 29. The games in rounds 26 and 27 were postponed, which affected their ranking.
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