The media were still making all kinds of speculations about the conflict between Chimbonda and Bendtner during training, hoping to get a live video. Because everyone knew that the Forest team had the habit of recording in-game videos during training.
Sometimes, they could get some training videos through insiders who had a good relationship with them. But this time, they all hit a wall. Those who had a good relationship with the media told them that Twain took the video of the fight after the incident and did not give it to anyone. As for where he put it, no one knew.
Twain did not want the media to continue to hype up the past. The team's atmosphere had finally returned to normal, and the situation had to be maintained. Therefore, he left the English media's speculations at the back of his head and left England with the team for Turkey.
Nottingham Forest was about to face an important game. The game would determine whether his team could take the first step out of the group stage and whether they could shut the mouths of the media behind them. As long as the results were not outstanding, any contradiction would be dug out by the paparazzi. But as long as they won, any contradiction would not be a contradiction, and there would be no problems.
That was the only truth in competitive sports — victory would cover up everything.
With so many nice words said, the game was not easy to play, or rather, it was not easy to play.
Beşiktaş was not a weak team that could be dealt with casually. The frenzied atmosphere at Turkey's home ground was world-famous. England and Turkey had a feud in football. A few years ago, a Leeds United fan was stabbed to death by a Turkish fan in Istanbul. When the England national team played against the Turkish national team, Beckham missed a penalty kick and was provoked by the Turkish player, Alpay. After the game, it led to a fight between the two teams in the locker room passageway. Alpay, who stirred up the trouble, even lost his job because of it. He was kicked out of the Aston Villa team.
The media dug up the old scores of the Forest team's previous consecutive losses, as well as the recent news of the fight between Chimbonda and Bendtner, to prove that the Forest team was full of internal contradictions and panic. The trip to Turkey boded ill rather than well.
Twain did not care. No matter what the outside world said, it would be fine as long as it did not affect his team. And from another perspective, he was eager for the English media to hype it up. Because it would confuse his opponent in the game, the Turks.
※ ※ ※
Beşiktaş is a strong team in the Turkish league and a team that often participates in the UEFA Europa League. In Turkey, they stood side by side with Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe and were strong teams that represented the strength of Turkish football. At the same time, their home stadium, İNönü Stadium, was also commonly used by the Turkish national team and was known as the "Devil's Home" in European football.
Istanbul was a city that spanned two continents and had always been called "Constantinople" by Westerners. It was the capital of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. This country had once brought blood and war to the European continent. At its peak, they used the Mediterranean Sea as their own lake. One of the "Yellow Peril" that frightened Europeans was the Ottoman Empire's conquest of Europe.
The country's predecessor had planted the seeds of fear in the hearts of Westerners, and the country's football atmosphere also made Westerners feel afraid. In England, football hooligans might turn into hooligans because they had too much to drink. But in Turkey, the fans here are fanatical enough without drinking. In football circles, the term "devil's home ground" was usually used to describe the atmosphere in a stadium. But for Turkey's stadium, perhaps it would be more accurate to describe it as "Hell's home ground."
Nottingham Forest fully felt the enthusiasm of the Turkish fans from the moment they landed.
"Cry and go back, English bastards!"
It was a banner that appeared on the side of the highway from the airport to the hotel. There was one at regular intervals, so there was no need to worry that the Forest players would not see it. The Turkish radical fans firmly believed that doing so would put great psychological pressure on the English team and cause them to perform poorly in the game against their team.
In fact, the Forest players did see it, but it was unknown whether they really thought as the Turkish fans hoped.
Before they set off, the British television station BBC made a special album to introduce the style of the Turkish fans and solemnly warned the Nottingham Forest fans who wanted to follow the Forest team to Istanbul not to go out alone at night. It was best not to go out in a group, usually not to go to crowded places and stay away from bars. In the end, they followed the team organized by the Forest club.
The schedule for the cheering group organized by the Nottingham Forest Football Club for the fans was as follows:
They would fly from London to Istanbul in the morning of the game. They would eat together and move together. After watching the game in the evening, they would immediately fly back to London.
This did not give the fans time to stay overnight in Turkey and greatly improved safety. But it also made a lot of fans who liked to move freely and go abroad to watch the game as a vacation feel that it was a restriction on personal freedom. They could not do anything except watch the game.
It was not just the Nottingham Forest Football Club. All the other English clubs did the same. On the one hand, it was to save costs. On the other hand, it was for the safety of the fans — the English fans had become the target of public criticism abroad. The repeated fan conflicts and riots made many clubs have to think about the safety of their supporters.
It was actually a common contradiction. The fans wanted more freedom. It was not easy to go abroad, and no one wanted to spend it on a plane or a bus. But the clubs were not willing to bring trouble to themselves because of any negative incidents. In addition, such an arrangement could indeed save the club a lot of money.
Considering the special nature of Turkey, Tang En also published an open letter to the fans on the club's official website before they set off, advising the fans who wanted to go to Turkey by themselves to give up the idea and follow the cheering group organized by the club.
"… I fully understand your feelings, but for football or travel, life is clearly more important. The players and I don't want to hear bad news about a supporter after we win the game. What happened to Gavin Bernard should not happen to the Nottingham Forest fans. Therefore, I sincerely hope that the fans can follow the cheering group organized by the club to Turkey … You don't have to worry about what will happen if the team that arrives in Istanbul in advance does not have their own people to cheer for them. What I want to tell everyone is that our players will not be affected by those messy things … So, please pay attention to your safety when you come to Istanbul! "
His words were quite sincere, so many people eventually gave up their own plans to come to Turkey and chose to follow the club's cheering group to Istanbul on the day of the game. After all, the incident with Gavin Bernard was a well-known tragedy in Nottingham. No one wanted their children or themselves to be the protagonist of the next tragedy.
As a result, Nottingham Forest had arrived in Istanbul for a day and a half. Other than the media reporters who came here to cover the game and a few Forest fans, they did not see any Englishmen again.
Instead, they fully understood what was called "the hospitality of the host."
The hotel they were arranged to stay in was in the downtown area of Istanbul. When they rested at night, they could hear the cheers of the Turkish fans outside throughout the night. It was clearly meant to provoke the Forest team and disturb their rest. It was all for the sake of the team they supported to win the next day's game.
Kerslake had talked to the person in charge of the hotel, but the other party spread his hands and said, "our hotel can't help with the fans' private actions. Besides, they're all on the street outside the hotel … We can't do anything about it even if we want to."
The team called to warn the people that they were a nuisance. As a result, the group of people ran away before the police arrived. After the police came, they pretended to circle around and then said to the Forest team, "I didn't see the people you were talking about." They withdrew. It didn't take long for the group to return and sing a Turkish song downstairs. It sounded like a fan song to cheer for Beşiktaş. Of course, it was naturally mixed with insults and middle fingers to the Forest team.
Twain lay in bed and could not sleep because of the singing downstairs. He got up and walked to the window, pulled open the curtains, and looked down.
The glass windows had been completely closed, but it still could not stop the noise deliberately made by the group of madmen.
The group of people lit fireworks, waved the black-and-white flag representing Beşiktaş, sang loudly, and scolded when they were tired of singing. They kept giving the middle finger to the hotel. If they saw a light in one of the windows, the fans would cheer in victory and then make more noise. Under the illumination of the street lamps and the fireworks in their hands, Twain could clearly see the beer bottles scattered on the ground.
No wonder it was Turkey …
He tilted his head and could not see the situation in the room next to him. But he knew that this level of noise would certainly have a certain impact on the team. Some people were born with dull nerves and could sleep to death even when there was thunder. Some people were mentally weak and the slightest noise could wake them up from their sleep.
The Forest team had both kinds of people.
Twain felt that there was really nothing he could do in the face of such a situation. Even if he knocked on the door room by room to tell the players to ignore the noise outside and sleep in peace, it would not help. Those who should not be able to sleep still could not sleep, and those who were originally asleep might be woken up by him. Feed them sleeping pills? Even worse, what if the urine test after the game revealed something detrimental to the Forest team? Would they be willing to listen if you told them it was because they could not sleep at night and took some tranquilizers?
So, the Turkish fans' move was really vicious and made their opponents helpless.
Twain stood in front of the window and watched for a while. He was expressionless throughout the whole process. No one could tell from his expression whether he was angry or helpless at the moment.
The Turkish fans were still tossing and turning, and Twain decided not to play with them. Their goal was to make the Forest team unable to sleep. If he stood there and wasted his energy with them, he would fall into their trap.
Twain returned to bed, stuffed the earphones of his iPod into his ears, and listened to the music as he fell asleep.
He was somewhere between being careless and having a nervous breakdown.
※ ※ ※
At breakfast the next day, Twain had been observing the mental state of the players. Yawning did not mean they had not rested well at night. Maybe they had just woken up and their spirits had not recovered. Those who did not sleep well looked haggard and had dark circles under their eyes. Twain noticed a few of them and wondered if he should let some of them start in the evening's game.
Gareth Bale was clearly one of them. When he ate breakfast, he lowered his head and looked listless. He did not look like he had much of an appetite, and he mechanically used his fork to move the fruit salad on his plate.
There were a few others like him, including the team's assistant manager, David Kerslake.
"Good morning, Tony …" David Kerslake carried his plate and sat listlessly at the table reserved for the coaching staff.
"You didn't sleep well last night either." Twain glanced at his plate. There was not much food on it. It looked like Kerslake did not have much of an appetite.
"Don't tell me you slept well?"
"It was alright." Twain shrugged. "I listened to the music and fell asleep in a while."
Hearing Tang En say that, Kerslake sighed. "You can still fall asleep with a sound by your ear … I can't have any other sounds at all. Otherwise, I'll end up like this." He pried open his eyelids and showed Tang En his bloodshot eyes.
"How pitiful." Twain smacked his lips. "What's our plan for the morning?"
"We're going to the stadium for one last practice to get used to the venue," Dunn answered him.
"Cancel it." Twain waved the fork in his hand. "Let the whole team go to sleep. Those idiots won't come here to make noise during the day, will they? "
"It's already very noisy during the day. This is the downtown area," Dunn reminded him.
"But our players must have enough sleep. Otherwise, they'll definitely be listless for the game at night. Also, I think it sounds noisy at night because those idiots deliberately make a lot of noise. Those sounds are very clear in the silence of the night. But during the day … Everyone is used to this level of noise. Maybe they won't think it's noisy now. People who don't sleep well at night don't have enough energy. I think they'll fall asleep as soon as they fall into bed. They won't care if it's noisy outside. The ones who will feel they can't sleep should be people like me who have a good night's sleep. " Twain winked at Kerslake, as if showing off his ability to fall asleep in such a noisy environment. "You have to go to sleep too."
"But … We've already talked to the people at the Beşiktaş club in advance. They'll open the stadium in the morning for us to do adaptive training …"
Twain waved his hands. "Then let them open the stadium and wait in vain. My team's matters are the most important. Their matters … Well, I don't care. "
He made a somewhat capricious decision. To say that he did not have any anger after being tossed around all night was like an inflatable doll. Twain naturally had anger in his heart, and it was not a small one. It was just that he did not want to show too much agitation in front of his own people. Otherwise, he would mess things up. But he did not care if there was a chance to take revenge on the Turks. Although what happened last night might not have anything to do with the Beşiktaş club, and it had nothing to do with the poor stadium administrator. But at this moment, Twain equated all the Turks with it.
So, when the reporters gathered at İNönü Stadium, ready to film the Forest team's field adaptation training, the Forest players slept soundly in their hotel rooms. The poor reporters waited for half an hour without waiting for Nottingham Forest to arrive.
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