Tang En still remembered his encounter with Roy Keane a season and a half ago. He had thought that the matter would have a perfect ending — like the ending of a princess and a prince living happily together: Roy Keane announced that he would join Nottingham Forest on a free transfer and become a member of Tang En's team.
But unfortunately, not all stories were like fairy tales. Roy Keane's stubbornness and loyalty exceeded his imagination. In the end, the two men met and separated in the vast sea of people, and no story happened.
Tang En's only gain was the friendship of this tough Irish man. They got along very well. When Keane resumed training with the Forest team, he asked Tang En some questions about coaching a team. Of course, the arrogant Keane only asked questions about some doubts, and Tang En answered them. Apart from that, Keane did not show too much enthusiasm and curiosity about the career of a manager. At that time, Keane had not decided to retire, and becoming a manager was just a dream.
But Keane did say to Tang En more than once that he hoped to become an excellent manager like Ferguson and Clough after he retired, and could influence the new generation of players on the right career path.
Later, he joined Celtic and left England. When he left, he published a touching open letter, thanking everyone, including Ferguson, who had driven him out of the house. The only person he did not mention was Tony Twain. He said he would not make someone feel too good, and he meant what he said.
Now, a year and a half later, he was back, returning to the stage that once belonged to him with his dream.
He was no longer the captain of the "Red Devils" Manchester United, nor was he the down-and-out player who had been driven out by the Manchester United Football Club and had nowhere to go and was already at the end of his career. He wore a well-ironed suit, polished leather shoes, and a dark red tie with a tie clip with the Sunderland emblem.
Now he was the manager of Sunderland, the newly promoted team in the Premier League.
"Do you like to hear me call you Mr. Keane? Or Manager Keane? " At the regular press conference the day before the game, Tang En met his long-lost old friend, Roy Keane.
"Either is fine. It's up to you. "
In front of the cameras of the reporters, the two coaches shook hands. They both had smiles on their faces, but this was not a show in front of the public. Tang En did not have many friends in the coaching world. Some people might not be Tang En's enemies, but they could not be considered friends either. Fortunately, Roy Keane was one of them.
"Then I'll just call you Roy. I heard about your results in the EFL Championship and I have to say you did a great job! "Twain whispered in Keane's ear as the two men shook hands and hugged.
"No matter how beautiful it is, it can only be 'Tony Twain's second Nottingham Forest miracle'." Roy Keane shrugged and curled his lips.
Roy Keane decided to retire after half a season with the Celtics, and then he took a break for a while. At the end of December last year, Sunderland approached him, hoping to hire him as the "Black Cats" manager. At that time, Sunderland was already last in the English Football League Championship. Their only remaining goal for the season was to avoid relegation and nothing else.
Before Roy Keane, Sunderland had looked for many other well-known and unknown managers, but no one was willing to take over the mess. At that time, there were also people in the Managers' Association discussing this issue. Many people felt that going to Sunderland to coach was a disaster, or to put it nicely, "a high-risk gamble." Maybe they would be buried with Sunderland — relegated to League One, which was England's third level league, equivalent to the former League Two.
Which manager would be willing to do such a thing?
This matter aroused Tang En's interest. Of course, he did not want to coach. It was because he had a suitable candidate to recommend to Sunderland.
His precognitive memory came to an abrupt end in the first half of 2007, and now it was completely useless. Even so, he still vaguely remembered that Roy Keane did manage Sunderland. As for when he started coaching the team, and whether he led the team to avoid relegation or promotion, he did not know. And he did not know the story behind Sunderland's search for Roy to coach.
But now, he had a chance to make it all a reality.
Would Roy Keane become an outstanding manager and then threaten Tony Twain's results? Would he become a big shot who could compete with Tang En in the league and European competitions in the future?
Tang En did not know, and did not want to know. That was a matter for the future, and it was also Keane's own business. Now he just felt that Roy had talked to him more than once about his dream of being a manager. Now that the opportunity had come, he could use his little reputation in football to help Roy. After all, the two were friends.
Then he found the chairman of the Sunderland Football Club, Danny Quinn, and recommended the former Ireland international to him as a national team teammate.
Speaking of the young chairman of the Sunderland Football Club, there were some well-known "grudges" between him and Keane.
Back then, Quinn was the main center forward of the Ireland national team and a loyal supporter of the Ireland manager, McCarthy. In the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, when Keane and McCarthy fell out, Quinn stood firmly behind the manager. The following season, when Manchester United challenged Sunderland in an away game, Keane also elbowed his Irish compatriot, McAteer, on the field and had a quarrel with Quinn. The relationship between the two was not good, so Quinn did not choose Keane, who was idle at home, when the club could not find a manager.
At first, Quinn wanted to be the manager of the team as the chairman of the club, but he did not win any of the first five games in charge of the team, which made the Irish high school forward wake up. He could rely on the strength of his hometown consortium to buy Sunderland, which was in economic crisis, and then sit in the position of chairman, but he might not be able to lead a team to victory. Then he found his mentor in the Ireland national team, McCarthy.
As a result, one of the managers Keane hated the most was not successful at Sunderland. Sunderland's last place result was largely due to him. Two months later, the Sunderland board could not take it anymore and decided to fire McCarthy. Then until Christmas, Sunderland's manager was temporarily replaced by their youth team manager. The team's morale was low, and they lost consecutive games and finally slipped to 20th place in the English Football League Championship — last place.
Wasn't this situation a little familiar? It was very similar to the situation when Twain first took over the Forest team. The only situation in which Sunderland was better than the Forest team was that they did not have an economic crisis. But if the team continued to lose like this and lost to the third division, no one dared to guarantee that there would not be an economic crisis.
It was at this time that Twain recommended Roy Keane to Quinn.
The reason for Twain's recommendation was simple: "… I think what your team needs is not the stimulation of money or a star player, but to let the players get rid of the gloomy mentality brought about by consecutive losses. In this regard, I believe Roy will be the leader to bring victory back to the locker room and back to the field. "
Later, when he attended the press conference for the new manager, he was asked why he chose Roy Keane. Quinn repeated Tang En's words to the media without changing a single word.
After listening to Twain's recommendation, Quinn weighed the pros and cons and thought that in the current situation, personal grievances were not worth mentioning compared to the current situation of the club. Therefore, he generously took the initiative to find Keane and very sincerely hoped that Keane would become Sunderland's manager. At the same time, Twain also gave Keane a call and suggested that he should accept the opportunity. "If you're worried about the results of leading a team without experience … Look at Sunderland now. What else do they have to lose? Anyway, you're just a rookie manager. No one will have unrealistic expectations for you. I think the current Sunderland is the best team for you to start your coaching career. "
Roy Keane became the "black cat" Sunderland's manager after Christmas just like that.
The story that followed was simply a replica of Twain's first full season. Keane injected a strong mental strength into the team. Just as Twain said, Sunderland, who had gotten rid of their gloomy mentality, broke out with their powerful fighting power. Coupled with the financial support of the club's board of directors and the loan of young players to Sunderland from Keane's former club, Manchester United, after half a season, Sunderland became first from the bottom. They not only successfully avoided relegation, but also won the qualification for next season's Premier League in one fell swoop.
Manager Roy Keane's debut could not have been more stunning. It was no wonder that the media linked the miracle he created at the same age to Tony Twain, thinking that Keane had the potential to become "the second Tony Twain."
But for the arrogant Keane, this was probably not a nice thing to hear, even if the person being compared was his own good friend.
Twain knew that Keane's words, "No matter how beautiful it is, it can only be" the second Tony Twain's Nottingham Forest miracle. "These words contained some unwillingness and unwillingness. He smiled and patted Keane on the shoulder without saying anything.
After the two managers sat down, they began to answer the reporters' questions, mainly surrounding the game to be played tomorrow. There were also people who would gossip about whether the friendship between the two would affect the results of tomorrow's game.
At this time, Twain fully displayed the imposing manner of the host. He glared at the reporter who asked such a stupid question. "Are you suggesting that there might be unfair phenomena in the game between our two teams?"
In fact, it could not be said that the reporter was completely aimless.
Because after Sunderland was promoted, they went around buying players to increase their strength. Keane completed this work through two means. One was to rely on the club's board of directors' powerful financial resources to buy the players he liked directly from the transfer market; the other was to increase the team's bench thickness by loaning talented young players from teams that had a better relationship with him. For example, he loaned the center backs Evans and Simpson from Manchester United. Nottingham Forest was naturally also his loan target. Twain was also happy to let some of the outstanding players in the youth team go out to see the world, accumulate game experience, and improve their own level. So at the beginning of the new season, he loaned Adriano Moke from the youth team to Sunderland. He also recommended the center back Aaron Mitchell and several other young players to Keane, but Keane did not take a fancy to them.
After the two teams had this layer of relationship, it was inevitable that people would have wild and fanciful thoughts.
Keane also clarified with a straight face, "A personal friendship is a personal friendship, a game is a game. I will drink with Twain after the game, but before that, we are enemies. "
Twain looked at Keane with great tacit understanding and nodded. "When you leave, I will immediately start fighting with him. These are the inside stories that you will not know. "
His serious expression provoked a roar of laughter from the reporters below, and the question that made the two managers feel awkward was skipped.
Following that, everyone asked some very conventional questions, such as "Can you give an outlook for the game?" and "Mr. Twain (Mr. Keane), what do you think of the Sunderland (Nottingham Forest) team?" The two managers' answers were very standard and did not let the sensitive media get hold of any dirt.
After the regular press conference, Keane went to the stadium to watch the team adapt to the field training, while Twain went home to prepare for the next day's game. Just as Keane said at the press conference, the two men needed to put aside their personal friendship before the game ended and concentrate on playing the role of "enemies." So, Twain did not warmly invite Keane to dinner, and Keane did not take the initiative to talk to Twain again.
After the two shook hands at the press conference and said goodbye, they separated.
※ ※ ※
Back home, Dunn, who had been waiting at home for a long time, asked him, "How do you feel?"
"What do you mean, how do I feel?" Twain was confused by the question.
"A reunion of old friends." Dunn's words were as simple as ever.
Twain knew he was asking about how he felt after meeting Keane. The regular press conference was very boring, and he believed the reporters would feel the same way. There was no story happening at all. But he remembered the whispered conversation he had with Keane before, and a small detail re-entered his memory.
"Ah, you mean Roy. Fortunately, Keane in a suit and tie is a little unfamiliar to me. I'm still used to seeing him wearing the Manchester United jersey and frantically blocking the opponent's knee on the field. " Twain shrugged. "His results in the English Championship last season were amazing. To be honest, when I recommended him to Quinn, I did not expect him to do so well."
Dunn smiled slightly. "So, do you feel the threat from him now?"
Twain, who was pouring tea for himself, looked back at Dunn sitting on the sofa and shook his head. "No, far from it."
"The water is about to overflow." Dunn pointed to the teapot in Twain's hand.
Twain put the teapot down and picked up the teacups and walked over. He handed one cup to Dunn and enjoyed the other for himself.
"For Roy …" He took a big sip of tea before he opened his mouth to continue. "That beginning was too amazing. It may not be a good thing. Fate is really wonderful. Now I occasionally think … "He looked up at the bright red sky outside the window. The fiery clouds at dusk meant that tomorrow would be a good day.
"If nothing had happened to Gavin, the team's morale would be high, I would be in excellent form, and I would have led the team to the Premier League at the end of the first season. I would not have been dismissed and returned to the youth team, and Michael would not have left for America … Now, four years later, would I still be able to appear in public as a manager who won the Champions League and Super Cup?" Twain murmured as he looked out the window. "I don't know … I really don't know."
"Some things may seem very sudden and accidental at the time, but after a long period of time, I have to admit that they are all connected to the present. 'When Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on a man, it must first torment his will, tire his muscles and bones, starve his skin and skin, empty his body, and disarray his actions. Therefore, the heart is moved, and the nature is improved.' " Twain recited a passage from Mencius. Anyone who had received nine years of compulsory education in China would know this passage. "It's from the China ancestors again. To be honest, I hate this saying. Why must one accept failure before success? Why should failure be the mother of success? But … it's a pity. Whether I like it or not, this saying does make sense. The fact that it can be passed down for more than two thousand years shows that it is a famous saying. There is a reason for its existence and continuation. This is the law of nature. Humans can't go against it. Do you understand, Dunn? "
Dunn nodded. Although he was not an authentic China person, he understood the meaning of these words.
"I … have experienced many things, good and bad … That's why I can have the achievements I have today. This is a cause and effect relationship. And Roy, he … succeeded too quickly. It's not very good for his future coaching career. " At this point, Twain withdrew his gaze from the sky outside the window and turned to look at Dunn. He smiled. "If Heaven wants a person to have great achievements, it must first hone him and let him experience failure, setbacks, and hardships. But now Roy has not experienced these. He came to the Premier League with the hat of a 'genius manager.' This is not right. It's not reasonable. There's something wrong with Heaven. "He pointed to the sky outside the window.
"So, I've decided … I will do justice on behalf of Heaven."
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