Twain's deliberate "public apology" and the last sentence of "who is that?" made him a figure of the moment in the media again. No one had ever played a trick on a club in front of so many reporters before, but Twain did it.
What followed was just as he said to Shania. He no longer paid attention to the protests of the Chelsea Football Club and the various voices of the outside media. He concentrated on his work and no longer made any replies. The Chelsea Football Club and Abramovich himself were unhappy? What did that have to do with me?
His incident became a topic of conversation for many people over tea, causing the sales of England's major newspapers and tabloids to flourish.
The hype about Mourinho's dismissal eventually came to an end. After all, no matter how much of a character Mourinho was, he was only a Portuguese. Twain's vulgarities would also slowly make the public lose interest in continuing to pay attention to him because he shut up.
In fact, during this period and for a while, the focus of the English media was on the England team.
Because the battle of life and death was imminent.
There were two rounds left in the 2008 UEFA European Championship qualifiers between Switzerland and Austria. Because there were seven teams in Group E, there would inevitably be a team that would be absent at some point in the schedule. As early as the penultimate round, it was England's turn — they had one round left. The current standings had the England team in second place with 23 points after playing 11 games.
According to the rules of the UEFA European Championship qualifiers, there were 14 teams that qualified for the UEFA European Championship qualifiers. They were the first and second place teams of the seven groups, and then the two host teams, there were exactly 16 teams.
First-ranked Croatia and third-ranked Russia now had one fewer game than England. Croatia had 26 points, and Russia had 21 points. If England wanted to qualify, they needed to count on Russia losing to Israel in an away game in the group stage on November 17, and then England beating Croatia at home on the 21st.
Only then could the team participate in next year's UEFA European Championship.
The condition seemed a little harsh, but it was not impossible.
The English media calculated beautifully. Israel was not weak, not to mention that they were playing at home. And in the final round, Croatia, who was currently first in the group, was likely to have qualified ahead of time. So, they did not need to use all their main force and all their energy to fight against England.
So, everything was possible.
Before the 17th game day, the England team was concentrating on training, and the English media were cheering for Israel, hoping that they could beat Russia at home and keep England's hopes of qualifying.
※ ※ ※
From the end of the league match against Chelsea until November 24th, there would not be any games in the Premier League. It was the same for most of the other leagues in Europe. The two weeks in between were the A-League matches for the national team. In Europe, it was the day of the 2008 UEFA European Championship qualifiers. In South America, it was the longest South American World Cup qualifiers in the world. Although the official competition time was 2010, due to the special environment of South American football, the qualifiers here had already been in full swing in October. It was really the longest World Cup qualifier.
As for Asia, Asia's World Cup qualifiers would only start in February next year. For the Olympic Games, because they were the hosts, the football team did not need to play any qualifying matches. After losing the Asian Cup, the China Football Association basically disbanded the national team and focused on the Olympic strategy. They dragged the China Olympic team around the world to play friendly matches at public expense. The travel expenses, accommodation expenses, venue rental fees, appearance fees for the opponents, plus a mess of subsidies … It was a lot of money. As for the effect … Tang En could only sneer and wish China football good luck.
To his relief, the only China player on the Forest team, Sun Jihai, was not in the "Olympic strategy" plan because he was already over the age of twenty-three. According to the news that Tang Jing had revealed, he would certainly not appear on the list of three overage players. Therefore, this national team match day had nothing to do with Sun Jihai. He did not have to fly thousands of miles to the United States to waste time playing friendly matches with several MLS teams. Moreover, overage players generally would not participate in such a friendly match for the China Olympic Games.
Nottingham Forest was already a Premier League team and was considered a force to be reckoned with in Europe. There would inevitably be a large number of national footballers in the team's lineup, who would be called up at this time. Tang En had long seen such things and was not surprised. Apart from complaining that this would cause his team to play hard for the country and then recuperate while playing for the club, he had no other way to stop it from happening. After all, he was just a football manager, not the FIFA president.
David Beckham had a high reputation in the English media recently because he scored a goal at the last minute of the game against Chelsea and helped Nottingham Forest equalize the score. Many media outlets were publicly calling for the veteran to be entrusted with an important task again — although it was not to let him wear the captain's armband again, but to not let him go on the field again during garbage time and then come down. Although England's qualification was no longer up to them, as long as it was theoretically possible to qualify, they had to give it a shot, right?
McClaren refused to talk about whether Beckham would appear in the squad for the game against Croatia, and refused to answer the "boring question" of whether he would bet on Beckham. His reason was "to keep it a secret."
As a result, the media began to hype up Beckham's number of appearances for the national team — although there was nothing to brag about, the last eight minutes of the away game against Moscow was indeed his ninety-eighth appearance for England … He was still two games short of a hundred. If England could finally beat Croatia on November 21st, then they still had a glimmer of hope to advance to the finals. In that case, Beckham's hundred games still had hope. Otherwise … It was really hard to say what would happen.
Looking at the British media, big and small, excitedly discussing Beckham's appearance record and looking forward to a hundred games, as if they had already qualified for the UEFA European Championship qualifiers.
This country was really strange. When you succeeded, they were used to calling you "God." Once you failed, they scrambled to be the first to personally send you to the gallows. It was rare to be utilitarian to such an extent. If Beckham had not scored a crucial goal in the final moments of the game against Greece in 2001, which made him instantly a god, he might not have been able to make a comeback in England now.
For some reason, Tang En suddenly thought of China's gymnast, Li Ning. They were both once the darlings of the whole country, and later they were both abandoned by hundreds of millions of people. Beckham was luckier than Li Ning in that he could still save himself in his career and prove himself again; Li Ning had already reached the age of retirement when he failed — he forever lost the chance to rely on his own efforts to prove those who scolded him wrong.
Sports were so cruel … The Olympics and the World Cup were not fundamentally different. The slogans were beautiful, but in fact, the loser was the loser. Only the winner could enjoy the cheers and glory — it was not determined by a certain sport, it was determined by people. The people who watched the game, the people who participated in the game, the people who manipulated the game … All human beings.
But it was a digression.
Beckham at least had the entire British media to build momentum for him and plead for him, hoping to appear in the starting list against Croatia and become the hero who saved the country.
However, in the ambivalence of the English media and fans, there was one person who became a victim of Beckham's star aura. Perhaps it was not so serious. He was just a forgotten person.
In the squad list for the final game announced by McClaren, George Wood's name was not there.
※ ※ ※
Dunn had not returned yet, but Twain was not particularly busy. The team's training during this period was only once a day. There was not much time, but the intensity was high. The continuous Christmas schedule was coming, and the team needed to reserve enough fitness to cope with the multiple tournaments and two or three games a week.
The training time was scheduled for the afternoon. After Twain had lunch, he still had a lunch break. When he woke up again, he would go to Wilford and start the day's training work.
Every time he came to the training base, George Wood was already warming up.
McClaren announced the full squad list for the final game against Croatia yesterday. Nottingham Forest occupied two of the twenty-five players — David Beckham and Aaron Lennon.
George Wood's name was not there.
Although George Wood was not a regular member of the national team, even a fool would know what it meant to remove his name before this important game. Whether it was the England team during Eriksson's or McClaren's time, George Wood had never been put in an important position except for some insignificant warm-up games in the starting lineup and garbage time substitutes.
He sat on the bench for five games at the World Cup in Germany and did not get a second of playing time.
England played twelve games in the UEFA European Championship qualifiers, and George Wood got a total of one hundred and eighty minutes of playing time, an average of fifteen minutes per game. He had never been put in an important position like he was at Nottingham Forest. The manager did not trust him, and there was no place for him in the tactical system.
But George Wood did not publicly express any dissatisfaction in front of the media. Perhaps he had not learned how to fight for greater benefits for himself in the national team?
Instead, some Nottingham media looked over and publicly questioned McClaren if the manager was biased against the players who came out of Nottingham Forest. McClaren's answer was, "The England team has gathered the best players in England. Each of them may be a core player at their club, but you can't ask these core players to continue to be the core when they come to England."
At first glance, it sounded reasonable, but after careful consideration, it was clear that McClaren was simply brushing off the group of reporters. No one asked George Wood to have a core position in the England team, but he did not even have the minimum playing time. Every time he played, he was either sent on to waste time if they won, or replaced on to waste time if they lost … In any case, it was just to waste time. If the game was very intense and cruel, and the outcome could not be determined until the last second, George Wood was bound to sit on the bench until the end. Some nosy Nottingham media collected information from those games and came to this conclusion — McClaren must have a grudge against George Wood!
In fact, it was not a grudge, but it was certain that he did not trust him and did not put him in an important position.
McClaren did not trust the players trained by Tang En. McClaren would not put the players trained by Tang En in an important position if he could.
"George." Tang En saw Wood warming up alone on the training ground. He actually did not approve of this kind of warming up in advance because it would needlessly consume physical energy and affect the effect of future training. But for a biochemical robot like George Wood … it was not too big a problem.
He walked forward and stood next to Wood, watching him finish a set of warm-ups.
"It's the national team's match day, but I see you warming up here. It's actually quite rare … "Tang En laughed.
It was indeed rare. Although he did not play much in the England team, he would basically still be on the most important list. After all, he was the captain of the European champion team and was a defensive midfielder favored by countless people. If he were placed in other national teams, he might have long been an immovable main force. It was only in England that he was somewhat helpless. The "Double Virtue problem" was enough to give every manager a headache. If there was another Wood, the "Double Virtue" would become "Three Virtues."
Wood said in a muffled voice, "This is not bad. I can't play in the game anyway." He put on his jumper and stood in front of Tang En.
He was not in high spirits. It seemed that he was also affected by the big name list. It was a crucial game, and it was the game that countless professional players liked to encounter the most — because it could prove their ability, turn the tide, and become the hero of the whole country. It was even more so for someone like Wood, who liked to constantly challenge his limits. The stronger the opponent, the more difficult the game was, and the more excited he became. However, McClaren deprived him of the right to look forward to playing in the game more than ten days before the game.
Tang En was amused when he heard him say so. "I thought you didn't care about this kind of thing at all."
Wood glanced at him.
Tang En was still laughing. "Because you never expressed your dissatisfaction anywhere, everyone thought you were an honest person who was easy to bully. Sitting on the bench will become a habit, George. If I were you, I would jump out and accuse McClaren of not knowing how to use people. From then on, I would announce that if he was not dismissed, I would not join the England team … "
"I'm not you." Wood glanced at him. "But I'm really unhappy. I'm not happy in … the England team, and I've thought about not going. "
Tang En was still a little surprised that Wood would actually say such a thing. It looked like his days in the national team were really not easy.
"I hate being a substitute. If McClaren had said directly that it was for me to be a substitute, I would have simply refused him. But he didn't say … At the very beginning, people from the Jamaica Football Association also came to me and wanted me to play for Jamaica. At that time, I refused … Now that I think about it, it might have been better to go to Jamaica. "
Tang En was silent.
He had heard countless similar stories: a certain star player had no choice but to change his nationality because the domestic competition was too strong. He played for a weak country just to be able to participate in the World Cup or some other continental cup. This kind of situation occurred most often in Brazil.
In fact, George Wood also had Brazilian nationality, but when he became famous, the Brazilian Football Association did not even look at him because there were too many geniuses in Brazil. They did not care about George Wood far away in England.
Tang En was silent for a moment and comforted him. "Your choice is right. There's no way to win what you want to go to a place like Jamaica. It's better not to go. Don't worry, in England … If England can't qualify this time, McClaren's days in that position won't be long. Maybe it'll be better with a change of manager. "
"What if it's not better?" Wood looked up and asked.
Tang En did not know how to answer. It was not impossible. Some players had to announce their retirement from the national team early because they could not be put in an important position. From then on, they lost the chance to show themselves on a larger world stage.
He could not say to Wood, "It's not bad to concentrate on playing for the club. It can also help you maintain your form for a longer time." This was because he also hoped to see Wood display his abilities on a broader stage and amaze the whole world.
"Things will get better." Tang En did not know what the future would be, so he could only comfort him.
It gradually became lively outside. The players and coaches who came to train arrived at the base one after another.
Tang En planned to go back to his office to deal with some trivial matters. He was just about to turn around when he heard Wood say, "If … McClaren leaves, will you go?"
Tang En understood the meaning of Wood's words. He looked at Wood with some doubt. "Then I'll have to give up my current job. Would you like that?"
Wood thought about it and shook his head. "Forget it. If you don't go to the England team, I won't go either. If you're not here … I won't have a job. "
Tang En laughed. "When did you learn to joke, George?"
Wood did not say anything. He turned and walked to the locker room.
Tang En also felt bored. He stood there and watched Wood's back as he left. Then he turned and walked back to his office.
His ability to predict had long expired, so he could not know whether England could break through Croatia this time. He also did not know if McClaren would be dismissed. He did not know who his successor would be if he was dismissed. He did not know if that person liked Wood's style of football … There were too many questions.
But now he especially wanted England to lose the key game and lose the ticket to the UEFA European Championship finals.
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