After a careful examination, the team doctor's conclusion to Twain was that Eastwood's knee, which had recovered well after two surgeries, could start physical training. According to the plan, he would be able to meet the requirements for a game in about a month's training.
Tang En was very satisfied with this. He specifically called Professor Constantine and the chief surgeon, Stephen Albert, to thank them.
Then, to be on the safe side, Tang En asked the team doctors to set Eastwood's return to the field at the end of February.
Since he had already waited for nine months, another month and a half would not make much of a difference.
Thus, just like that, Eastwood would appear on time at the training ground every day like the rest of the team. Then, the team would train together, and he would be led by a specialized coach to undergo recovery training. It started with the simplest running laps. The places he most often went to were the strength training room and the physiotherapy room.
Occasionally, when his feet were itchy, he would run a few kicks on the sidelines to satisfy his craving. But he would soon be stopped by the coach in charge of his recovery training.
※ ※ ※
The competition schedule in January was not very dense. All the teams were busy recruiting at this time to strengthen their strength for the second half of the season. Nottingham Forest, which had been attacking everywhere in the transfer market in the past few seasons, was quiet this month.
Because they lost to Tony Twain's Nottingham Forest in the battle for the goalkeeper, Manchester United had been plagued by problems in the rear defensive line for a season and a half. This season, Ferguson finally found a replacement for Edwin van der Sar — the young goalkeeper Ben Foster, who played for Stoke City.
Following that, Manchester United brought in France's AS Monaco's young main player, Patrick Evra, for the left back position.
Now, Manchester United was eight points behind Chelsea at the top of the rankings. Ferguson was not willing to give up on this season. They had successfully turned the tables when they were 12 points behind Arsenal, let alone eight points now.
Dunn reminded Tang En to be careful of Manchester United's counterattack in the second half of the season. Tang En did not take it too seriously. Now, all his thoughts were on the Champions League's round of 16 competition that would resume in a month.
After the group stage, 16 teams had been decided to participate in the next stage of the competition. Then, these 16 teams would be shuffled and paired up again to decide their matchups by drawing lots.
When Tang En went to participate in the draw ceremony again, he was no longer a nameless pawn that no one cared about. He became the target of many coaches who took the initiative to strike up a conversation. The reporters also focused their cameras more on this young and promising Champions League coach.
The UEFA Champions League television magazine had even scheduled an interview with him — after the Champions League restarted.
Compared to the last time, there were a lot fewer people at the lot-drawing ceremony this time. Among those who did not come were Alex and Ferguson, whom Tang En was familiar with. Manchester United's first half of the season had been unlucky. Keane had terminated his contract with the team, and they had been eliminated in the group stage of the Champions League. The Manchester United dynasty that Ferguson had single-handedly built seemed to have reached the end of its road.
Of course, these were other people's family matters, and Twain did not care.
What he cared about was the result of the draw.
He was very satisfied with the result of the draw this time, because the Forest team had drawn a good lot.
In the Round of 16, Nottingham Forest played an away game and then a home game. Their opponent was Rangers, a Scottish Premier League team.
Many coaches cast envious or jealous glances at Twain. He was laughing happily in his heart, but Twain's face was frowning, as if he had drawn a very strong team.
The results of the draw for all the teams were as follows:
Bayern Munich versus AC Milan.
Real Betis versus Liverpool.
Real Madrid versus Arsenal.
Eindhoven versus Lyon.
Chelsea versus Barcelona.
Glasgow Rangers versus Nottingham Forest.
Ajax versus Inter Milan.
Werder Bremen versus Juventus.
Without any suspense or surprise, Chelsea and Barcelona were assigned to the same group by the UEFA.
※ ※ ※
After returning from the draw and returning to England, Twain's team was stimulated by the good news. They won two league games in a row, winning 2: 0 against Portsmouth in an away game and 3: 2 against West Ham United at home. Twain's request for the team was to score as many points as possible before the Champions League restarted, to lay a solid foundation for the future battles on two fronts.
As for the FA Cup, Twain, as usual, used it to train the newcomers. He did not say that this was giving up, but to give the players more opportunities to train on the field. Therefore, those who usually did not have a chance to play on the field would try their best to perform. As a result, the results got better and better, making it impossible for him to give up even if he wanted to.
On January 28th, in the fourth round of the FA Cup, Nottingham Forest won 1: 0 at home against Bolton Wanderers and successfully advanced to the next round of the FA Cup.
This was the best result in the FA Cup in Manager Tony Twain's coaching career. Last season, he lost to Manchester United in the fourth round of the competition. This season, he did not know how far the team could go. The only thing he could be sure of was that every time the team advanced to the next round, they would create a new "best result."
Entering February, Tony Twain once again became the focus of the media because Nottingham Forest maintained a winning record in all the January matches. He was named the English Premier League's Manager of the Year for January, and his team was also named the Team of the Year. His player, Anelka, relied on his consistent goal scoring to win the Player of the Month award.
With three honors gathered in one person, Twain's career was in a wonderful period of ascension.
Of course, there would also be people singing a different tune at this time, saying that anyone who won the Player of the Month award would definitely lose in the first match of the month.
And Twain once again proved that he was a "magical manager" who specialized in breaking all kinds of curses.
Nottingham Forest won 2: 0 at home against Fulham in the 24th round of the league tournament on February 1st. Not only did it make his critics speechless, but it also took revenge for the team's away loss to the opponent in the first half of the season. (To be continued, if you want to know what happened next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. com. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading!)
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