Chapter 54
Words:1344Update:22/06/20 13:45:45
Even those who did not watch football matches would know a thing or two about English football hooligans. Along with London's fog and the English pubs that blossomed everywhere, they became the country's symbol. Tang En's understanding of football hooligans was not much better than the average person. When he was in China, he would almost never come into contact with a real football hooligan. Those who thought football hooligans were cool and thought they swore a few vulgarities and shook their fists, then followed others and yelled, "I want that leg of his" during a match could not be considered football hooligans.
What should a real football hooligan be like?
Tang En was not in the mood to think about such a boring question. After spending a decent night at Burns' bar, he woke up the next morning with the same problem in front of him. There were still five matches until the end of the league tournament. He had to think of ways to improve his team's ranking so that he could pick a weaker opponent in the play-offs.
He circled the dates of the five matches in red on the calendar to remind himself that they were five matches.
He was sure that he and the team had made all the preparations to win the remaining four matches and then fully prepare for the play-offs for the promotion. After the three play-offs, they would become a newly promoted team that would participate in the next season's Premier League. Then he would make use of the holidays to return to China and secretly visit his parents. At the same time, he would find out how the "Tang En" in China was doing.
That was Tang En's entire plan for the future.
Tang En's plan had a bad start. The Forest team lost to third-ranked Sheffield United in an away game in the 32nd round of the league tournament on April 16. Although they only lost by one goal — 0: 1, a loss was a loss. With three points less, the Forest team also lost a good chance to overtake the Wolverhampton Wanderers because they had played one less game than the Wolverhampton Wanderers and were only two points behind.
Even though Tang En was hopping mad at the score on the sidelines during the match, he still accepted the defeat in the locker room after the match. What else could he do but accept the defeat in the locker room after the match? A loss was a loss. Only losing by one goal against the third-ranked team in an away game was already a pretty good result. Tang En convinced himself from another angle. If his team only managed to get sixth place at the end of the season, then it was inevitable that they would have to play against the third-ranked Sheffield United again. This match could be considered as accumulating experience for the next two matches and observing the opponent.
However, the players did not have a holiday to enjoy. In the changing room, Tang En announced the cancellation of the day off after the match. Upon returning to Nottingham, the entire team began training in preparation for the next round of the away game against Reading. That was the fourth-ranked team.
Despite losing the match, Tang En's team still received the support of the fans upon their return to Nottingham.
The next day, there were even more fans surrounding the training ground. Other than the familiar faces, Tang En also saw a group of people singing Forest's team song at the top of their lungs, encouraging the players to train. The voice was loud and attracted Tang En's attention. What Tang En found interesting was that these fans had spontaneously divided themselves into two distinct groups.
The side with more people was obviously a group. They knew each other and had a unified leader. Twain effortlessly found the leader among the crowd.
He wore a red jumper and a Forest scarf around his neck to prove his identity. The people around him wore different colors and styles of clothes, but they all had one thing in common — they all wore the Forest team's red scarf around their necks.
Today's sky was originally not beautiful, with a drizzle falling. Tang En thought there would be fewer fans watching the team's training at the side of the training ground than usual. He did not expect such a group of fanatical supporters to come. The group of fanatics quickly attracted the security guards at Forest's Wilford training base. They rushed over and surrounded these people, watching them vigilantly.
It was Tang En's first time seeing such a scene in his nearly half a season of coaching Forest.
Now, even a fool could guess who these people gathered outside the training base and loudly cheering for the team were.
Looking at the scene of this group of people standing in the rain and singing and cheering for the team, Tang En could not associate them with football hooligans who fought and fought.
They looked no different from any ordinary fan.
It was hard to imagine that such a group of people would be notorious "football hooligans." Was there a mistake somewhere?
They worked hard to cheer for the team at the side of the field, but the players did not seem to appreciate it. Some people looked at them with eyes filled with obvious disgust. Even Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes Walker treated them like air.
At the end of the training, the players deliberately left from the side far away from the barbed wire. No one went up to satisfy the fans' request for autographs. Those poor fans looked disappointed when they saw that the players had no intention of coming over. None of Hodge's men planned to ask for autographs or anything. They seemed to be purely supporting the team.
The team's reaction was beyond Tang En's expectations. It seemed that he was the only one who did not know how powerful these guys were.
Glancing at the group of people singing and sending off the team outside the training ground, he followed the players and turned to leave.
Although he had been in this country for almost half a year, he found that he still knew nothing about many things here. It was a bad feeling.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
