Albertini's injury caused the atmosphere in the team to suddenly become a little heavy. The collapse of a key player at a crucial moment was a huge blow to the team's morale.
Whether Tang En was willing or not, he now had to accept the reality that the team would start the new season in the absence of the captain.
He made some adjustments and placed Arteta in the midfield core position during training. It was obvious that he wanted the Spaniard to replace Albertini.
At the same time, with Arteta playing in the starting lineup, the Forest team's offensive tactics had to be further adjusted. After all, the way Albertini and Arteta organized the offense was different. The team needed to familiarize themselves with these. Fortunately, Arteta had played quite a few games in the final stages of last season. The team was not unfamiliar with this more delicate offensive method.
The only problem was that George Wood and Arteta did not have enough chemistry with each other. Less than half a season of familiarization was far from enough. Most of the time, Wood was still following Albertini's train of thought and routine. The most obvious example was that Arteta was closer to the opponent's penalty area than Albertini. In this way, the distance between Wood and the RCD Espanyol was widened imperceptibly. It was easy for the opponent to cut off the connection between the two. Once the defensive midfield could not provide enough protection for the attacking midfield, then the Forest team's offense could not be organized. It would be easy for the opponent's pressing to disrupt their rhythm, and then they would completely lose control of the midfield. Losing control of the midfield was tantamount to losing the game.
Tang En could not help but shake his head when he saw the situation outside the training ground. Albertini's influence on George Wood was not obvious, but it ran so deep.
It would have been a good thing in the past, but in the current situation … Twain had a headache again.
If there was any good news during this period, it was that Anelka, who had just joined the team, had behaved himself. He did not add fuel to the fire and create more chaos.
He was new to a team and faced new teammates and a new manager. He was not familiar with the manager's temper, so he would naturally be a little more restrained. Twain did not let down his guard against Anelka because of this.
A leopard never changes its spots.
He did not think Anelka would suddenly become an optimistic, cheerful, and likable lad just because he came to Nottingham Forest. Even if he looked like that on the surface, it was only because he was trying hard to suppress his true nature.
Anelka was not a player he had pushed to bring in. Unlike Bendtner and Eastwood, he was not enthusiastic about the player. Even though he told Kerslake to "treat him like any other First Team player", in reality, he was still a little biased. He could not help it, he could not do it.
If you do well, I can give you a chance, just like I give any player who does well. But if something happens to you, I'll give someone else a chance.
But if something went wrong with Eastwood, even if Tang En had to use his shoulder to push him, he had to help Eastwood regain his form.
That was the difference.
※ ※ ※
On August 10th, the first leg of the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League would be held at the Forest team's home ground, the City Ground stadium, two days later.
This was the first step for Nottingham Forest to return to the UEFA Champions League after twenty-four years. What was originally an ordinary, even low-level qualifying match immediately became a popular game because of this new meaning. The tickets for the game had been completely sold out a week ago. Everyone in Nottingham had great interest in this game. Until two days before the game, there were still many people outside the square outside the City Ground stadium holding up signs that read "I need tickets", hoping to meet someone who would return their tickets. But without exception, they were all disappointed. Forget about refunds, even the scalpers had disappeared. Those that could be sold had long been sold out. Now, even if the scalpers wanted to make another profit, there were no more tickets left.
Now, the players whose families were in Nottingham would start to worry, because their relatives and friends who did not manage to buy tickets would come knocking, hoping to get the tickets allocated to the players and club staff. But there were not many. Each person only had three or four tickets.
As a result, the tickets in the hands of the players who were not in Nottingham, or even overseas, were all plundered by the local players.
Of course, there were exceptions. George Wood was a local player, but his tickets were all given to Wes Morgan. Other than his mother, he did not have any relatives or friends who came to him for tickets. He did not even know if having relatives or friends was a good or bad thing for him.
Tang En had six tickets in his hands, which was the manager's privilege. But no player dared to plunder his tickets, which was also the manager's privilege.
Tang En could not think of anyone else to give the tickets to. Shania was still in Brazil, and Sophia did not need his attentions. Wood would leave the tickets for his mother.
With the six tickets in his hands, he had nowhere to go.
The group of people in the Forest Bar were all loyal fans of the Forest team. How could they not have tickets for this game? Kenny Baines had to guard his own bar. He had not gone to the stadium to watch a game for a long time. No matter how meaningful this game was, he would not go.
But when he mentioned the Forest Bar, Tang En thought of someone.
He ran to find Fat John and asked for Michael's address in America.
"What are you doing? Are you sending him tickets? But he won't come. And he's in America. By the time you send it over, the game will be over. "John did not understand.
"Of course I'm not asking him to watch the game." Tang En wrote an address on the airmail envelope as he said to John, "I'm just telling him, the guy who swore he would no longer love football, that I not only let the Forest team return to England's top league, I also let the Forest team return to Europe's top league! I don't care if he cares about this, and I don't care if he remembers it. But I promised him, and I've done it now. "Tang En looked up at John as he put the tickets into the envelope.
John was silent.
Tang En sent away a ticket. There were still five left. He brought all of them to Gavin Bernard's grave, lit them with a lighter, and "sent" them to the eternal Forest fan, Little Gavin, in China's way.
"Five might be a little too much, but … I don't have anyone to give them to. You can keep the rest as souvenirs."
(To be continued, if you want to know what happened after, please log on to WWW. CMFU. com. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading!)
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