Statement of apology: Due to my negligence, I actually forgot the most important year-end competition, the FIFA Club World Cup. I apologize to all of you here. Since the VIP chapter had already been updated, there was no way to modify the existing chapter. So, I can only make an additional explanation here:
Nottingham Forest defeated Boca Juniors 4: 3 in the FIFA Club World Cup held in Japan and picked up the FIFA Club World Cup. They became this year's No. 1 in the FIFA Club World Cup.
Once again, I apologize to all of you and sincerely thank my friends for reminding me.
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When the competition schedule is dense, you will feel that time passes very quickly. It is the same principle that once a person is busy, they will forget the passage of time.
Unknowingly, in the constant campaign, time had already crossed the end of the year and the beginning of the year. The Nottingham Forest Football Club's commemorative calendar at Tang En's home was also changed from 2007 to 2008.
The Premier League and FA Cup came one after another. Thanks to the reasonable arrangement of the training plan, the Forest team's fitness did not have any problems during this period, and their condition was maintained very stable.
From the Premier League on December 1st until January 3rd, Nottingham Forest won seven consecutive games. Their league ranking also went from third to first. The brilliant six consecutive wins in December earned Tang En the Premier League Manager of the Month, and Nottingham Forest the Team of the Month. However, the Player of the Month award went to Manchester United, and Cristiano Ronaldo was elected.
And the year-end drama, the results of the worldwide and European selections were also out.
2007 was not considered the year of the World Cup. Although there was the Asian Cup and the Copa América, these two competitions were not great for the football world centered on Europe.
As an important reference for these awards, the performance of the UEFA Champions League team and players was the most important.
As the UEFA Champions League winner, Nottingham Forest was favored.
Nottingham Forest won the honor of this year's best club in the world. The team's core player, Franck Ribéry, was chosen by the French newspaper L 'Equipe as the winner of this year's "European Ballon d' Or." Although Kaka's performance was equally outstanding, AC Milan was able to break into the final almost because of Kaka alone. But Kaka lost in the collective honor.
Franck Ribéry also won the "World Football Player of the Year" award chosen by the United Kingdom's World Football Magazine.
The competition for the "FIFA World Player of the Year" award was very fierce.
Because the selection mechanism was different from the more professional European Golden Ball Awards, FIFA's best player was voted for by the managers of the national and regional teams affiliated to FIFA. It was not to say that a country's manager was the most professional. Think about China? Therefore, many managers did not actually vote based on a person's performance in the past year, but only voted for the name they were most familiar with.
Kaka had an advantage in this regard. His reputation in the world was higher than Ribéry's. Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi were also higher than him.
Kaka's performance in the Champions League and league tournament was obvious to all. An AC Milan with him and an AC Milan without him were two completely different teams.
Cristiano Ronaldo also helped Manchester United pick up the English Premier League title last season, which they had lost for two years. At the same time, in the second half of the new season, he was in better form and was currently the top scorer in the English Premier League.
Messi benefited from Barcelona's powerhouse background and his identity as "Maradona's successor." In fact, in terms of results, he was not as good as the above three this year.
The final result was that Kaka beat Franck Ribéry by a narrow margin to be named the FIFA World Player of the Year. Ribéry came in second and won the Silver Ball Award, while Portugal's Ronaldo won the Bronze Ball Award.
For Franck Ribéry, even such a result was enough for him to be happy for a long time. A few years ago, when he looked at the sea from the dock and did not know where his future lay, he did not even dare to think about today's scenery. But now, with Twain and Nottingham Forest, this dream of advancing to the next round had become a reality. He became one of the hottest young people in the world of football. He was the European Footballer of the Year, and he was the well-deserved new core of the French national team. His career had reached its peak.
George Wood was on the shortlist of twenty players, but he did not win any honors, which had to do with him being a professional defensive player. In today's football, defense was not flattering. As a defensive player, it basically meant that he had no chance of winning any major individual awards. Cannavaro's FIFA World Player of the Year was not so much a personal reward for him, but a reward for Italy's entire rear defensive line. As the captain of Italy, he was just a representative of this outstanding collective.
Only the FIFA World Player of the Year was the most important show. After the award ceremony, there were some messy small awards — perhaps others would not agree with this view, but in Twain's eyes, they were some insignificant awards. Even when he was named the World Manager of the Year because he led Nottingham Forest to win the UEFA Champions League, he did not show much joy.
He felt it was a matter of course. He could not think of anyone else other than himself who was qualified to stand on the stage to receive the award. The second reason was that he was still protesting injustice for Ribéry. He did not hate Kaka winning the award. He felt that Ribéry was more qualified than Kaka to pick up the gold medal this time.
Therefore, his speech on the stage to receive the award seemed a little arrogant and resentful.
He said, "I'm very happy to win this award. This shows that the path I've chosen is right: victory, continuous victory; championship, continuous championship. As long as the team can win more championship titles, individual honors are not suspense at all … But there will be some surprises … In short, thank you FIFA for giving me this award. Thank you! "
Nottingham Forest's offensive core, Ribéry, did not complete the Grand Slam. Winning the UEFA Golden Ball, FIFA World Player of the Year, and FIFA World Player of the Year was the only blemish. Other than that, the Forest team was so perfect that no one could find fault with it.
A year full of glory had passed, and there was a new year with endless challenges. All the glory would soon pass, and these things could not help the Forest team gain any benefits in the new year.
In the first round of the league tournament in the new year, the Forest team won, increasing their winning streak to seven games.
In the FA Cup, Twain still sent the second team to play and met Roy Keane's Sunderland team.
Because the two teams were in different situations, the importance and attitude of the game were different. Twain made it clear that he wanted to train the team. Keane hoped to break out of the team's current predicament through a breakthrough in the FA Cup — 21 rounds had passed, and his Sunderland team only had 17 points, ranked third from the bottom of the league and in the relegation zone.
Avoiding relegation was important, but Keane hoped to use a victory to boost the team's morale, even if it was just a FA Cup game. As long as they beat the powerful Nottingham Forest, he had a way to lead the team out of its predicament.
Twain certainly would not go easy just because the opponent was Roy Keane. Although he had sent out second-string players, in Keane's eyes, these second-string players were more terrifying. For Nottingham Forest's main players, the FA Cup could not stimulate their fighting spirit, but it was a great opportunity for the second-string players to perform in front of Twain. No one wanted to have only one chance, and no one wanted the team to lose because of their performance. So, this game was very dangerous for Sunderland. The only thing Keane could rely on was to send out the strongest lineup and fight to the death with the opponent at home.
He won.
After 90 minutes of very intense fighting, Sunderland narrowly beat Nottingham Forest 3: 2. They had successfully advanced to the next round of the FA Cup.
Having lost the last chance to train the youngsters, Twain began to seriously consider loaning out some promising players who were destined to have no chance to play in the current Forest team for training on the long road back to Nottingham from Sunderland.
The youth team's Adriano Moke had already been loaned to Sunderland at the beginning of the season. He was now a regular player in Sunderland's First Team. Although he could not guarantee to play in the main team, he was not a fringe player who sat on the bench. In this FA Cup game against Forest, he was in the starting lineup and played the entire game. His performance was not bad. Twain was constantly paying attention to Moke's performance during the game. He was a little independent … But he was a youngster. They still had time to correct these bad habits. Think about Cristiano Ronaldo, who had just arrived at Manchester United, and look at him now. He did not seem like the same person at all.
He wanted to loan out some of the youth team players, even if it was a team in the English Football League Championship. He felt that for those people, just participating in training at the Wilford training base and playing in the FA Youth Cup was no longer enough for them to improve. If they wanted to go to the next level, they had to go out and play in a competition, a real competition.
This matter had to be done when he returned to Nottingham. In addition, with the opening of the winter transfer window, did Nottingham Forest have any players that needed to be bought or sold?
At the moment, Nottingham Forest's rotation system was more mature. Every position had someone with decent ability. Ribéry had returned from his injury, and Pepe's injury was also developing in a better direction … He thought about it. There did not seem to be any players that needed to be brought in urgently.
So, he decided to focus his attention on those players who were still very young and could be bought and loaned out for development.
There were many restrictions on these types of players, so they were not very easy to find. First, they had to be young enough to have time to wait for an opportunity. Secondly, they had to have enough talent to move Twain. Mediocre people were not worth spending a few years to develop and wait. Thirdly, they had to be not famous and would not bite off more than they could chew. Twain did not want the kind of people who wanted to be the boss the moment they came. Lastly, it would be better if they could be cheap. Forest's new stadium had already broken ground and begun construction. The liquid funds available on the club's account were pitifully little. Something like offering tens of millions of euros for a young genius was something that Twain could not do even if he did not want to.
Once filtered by these conditions, most of the young geniuses who were already known to the world would fall off the horse. For example, Dos Santos and Bojan Bojan, who were produced from Barcelona's La Masia training camp; Carlos Vela, who was on loan from Arsenal, and Wilshere, who had recently become popular in Arsenal's youth team; Benzema and Nasri, the current hot young French geniuses; Rossi, the treasure of the Italian national youth team; Pato, who had already been snatched by AC Milan … and so on. Twain could not snatch these people. He did not have the financial resources, and they might not come.
He did not need to worry too much about the work of finding outstanding geniuses. Nottingham Forest could already afford to support scouts all over the world. In addition, they also had a partnership with SI, a company that also used many amateur and professional scouts. In addition to producing FM, they also followed the original agreement to create another version of the player database for the Forest team. It was slightly different from the FM database, which was more particular about gameplay. The numbers in this database were more rigorous and had more reference value.
With the start of the winter transfer period, Twain needed to speed up the work.
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When Twain told his team of scouts that he needed a list of potential players between the ages of 14 and 16 from all over the world, a compiled report appeared on his desk two days later.
He did not study the report during training time. Instead, he brought it back to read with Dunn.
Twain first set his sights on the United Kingdom. On one hand, the pavilion closest to the water enjoys moonlight first. On the other hand, it could also play a role in weakening the opponent. Next, it was the European Union region, the Americas, Africa, and finally Asia.
By the time he finished reading the report with Dunn, it was already late at night. Although they were tired to the point of dizziness, they finally confirmed a few candidates. These players' names were circled with a red pencil. The next day, they would be handed over to the youth team manager. Then, after confirmation, the Forest Football Club would put forward a purchase application to the clubs of these players, or directly find the other party to sign a contract to let them become a member of the Forest team. There was no need to observe anything anymore. Some of these people were people that the Forest team's scouting system had been observing for a long time.
Two days later, the Forest team's acquisition of foreign players began on a global scale. Among these names, how many would eventually come to Nottingham as Twain had hoped? He did not know. It was like casting a large net. No one knew what the harvest would be until it was scooped up.
In London, England, Crystal Palace's genius John Bostock, who had just turned 16 years old, was facing the first choice of his life. Should he sign a contract with Crystal Palace, the club that nurtured him, and become an official member of the club's youth team? Or should he sign a contract with Nottingham Forest, which had appeared out of nowhere, and join the UEFA Champions League team?
In Glasgow, Scotland, a man who claimed to be a Nottingham Forest scout came to the home of Rangers' 16-year-old John Fleck. He brought a contract from Nottingham Forest to the main member of Scotland's U16 national team.
In the capital of Mexico, Mexico City, the father of Cruz Azul's 15-year-old midfielder, Galván Martín, received a call from the United Kingdom. The caller claimed to be a Nottingham Forest scout and was very interested in his son.
In the port city of Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, the famous Grêmio Football Club received a fax from Nottingham Forest, hoping to have a serious discussion with them about the future of Grêmio's youth team's center back, Gérson Vieira, who was not yet 16 years old.
The same fax was placed on the desk of the Colo-Colo club manager in Santiago, Chile, but the player's name was changed to Nicolás Millán, Colo-Colo U16's number 10.
…
And many more young people around the world.
How many of these people would eventually become the current Fàbregas, George Wood, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Kaka?
Twain did not know that no matter how talented these young people were now, the road to becoming a superstar was still very long for them. Talent and ability alone would not guarantee success. Sometimes, some luck was needed, but it was more of the effort they put in on the road to becoming a superstar.
This was the reason why Twain had to cast his net all over the world. He could not guarantee that every young child who was described in the scouting report as "the second Maradona," "the second Zidane," "the second Ronaldinho," "the second Ronaldo" … would really get what they wanted. The scope of the search was large, and there were many of them. Even if the final elimination rate was high, it could still guarantee that one or two would stand out.
Arsène Wenger's ability to recognize talent was not news in the international football scene, but he could not guarantee that all the players in Arsenal's youth training camp would become world-famous superstars. Compared to the young people who were given up by Wenger halfway through, there were definitely not many who would succeed in the end …
Twain had once thought that if he had transmigrated a few years earlier, would he have used his advantage in information to capture Messi, who was still in Argentina without the money to treat his dwarfism; Kaka, who had almost given up on football after injuring his spine while diving in Brazil; Wayne Rooney, who was still showing his talent at Everton; and Cristiano Ronaldo, Cesc Fàbregas, Jack Wilshere, Carlos Vela, Bojan Korzić … and other devilish geniuses, amazing prodigies, all in one fell swoop?
That was practically the dream of most FMER players. To see the star players who would dominate a region in the future all gather under him and work for him. Perhaps it was something that made people excited just thinking about it.
But it was just a thought.
In fact, the current situation was not bad, because there were more possibilities in the future. A future that he was gradually becoming unfamiliar with would give birth to those geniuses he had never heard of? It was just like a treasure hunt: knowing where the treasure was and digging it out; and not knowing where the treasure was, searching the entire world to finally find a gem.
Twain thought that for himself, the latter would give him a greater sense of accomplishment.
George Wood was the first gem that he had unknowingly dug out. The first time and the nth time had a completely different meaning, so he did not intend to let go of George Wood.
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These poaching operations would not have results so soon. Other than waiting for further feedback, the team's other work had to continue as usual.
The youth team's center back, Aaron Mitchell, who was more than two meters tall, was on loan to the English Championship team, West Bromwich Albion. The 18-year-old right back, Gavin Kavanagh, was on loan to Wolverhampton Wanderers, also a English Championship team. Another 18-year-old midfielder, Lewis McGugan, was on loan to Stoke City. Mark Byrne went to Watford.
The few most promising players in Nottingham Forest's youth team had basically been loaned out. As for what they could learn in those teams, it was their own business. Twain did not look at the process. He only looked at the results. If they were successful, they would stay. If they were not, they would be sold.
These young people who left Wilford were also very clear in their hearts. From now on, they were no longer rookies waiting for opportunities in the youth team. They were birds who needed to fly out and make their own chances. Whatever the future was, it was all under their feet. As for how many of them could return here and stay in the end, that … was still a mystery.
The league tournament was still ongoing.
The Forest team that lost the FA Cup seemed to be haunted by bad luck. First, they faced Derby County in an away game. They dominated the entire game, pressuring the opponent's goal and bombarding it indiscriminately. In the end, they could only accept the result of a 2: 2 draw with the opponent. Against a weak team, Derby County, they did not get three points, which annoyed Twain. And what annoyed him even more was the behavior of the opponent's home fans after the game.
Due to the historical feud between Nottingham Forest and Derby County, seeing Nottingham Forest, who had won the UEFA Champions League title, be forced to a draw by the newly promoted Derby County, the Derby County fans were as happy as if they were celebrating a festival. As a result, Twain's dark face formed a sharp contrast.
Before this game, the Forest team had achieved seven consecutive wins and reached 50 points. In one fell swoop, they surpassed Arsenal with 49 points and Manchester United with 48 points to return to the top of the league tournament.
But with this draw, they were immediately suppressed by the winning Manchester United with a goal difference advantage — they both had 51 points, but Manchester United was first.
In the next round, the Forest team lost to Everton at home again. They were left behind by Manchester United and Arsenal, who both won, and returned to third place in the league tournament.
There were some ups and downs in the team's state, and Twain found the problem — the rotation system.
The rotation system was admittedly to allow the team to have sufficient stamina when competing in multiple tournaments, and at the same time, to ensure that most of the players had matches to play and maintain their form. But if the rotation was too frequent, it would leave the team's players at a loss — the lineup played well in the last game, but the manager changed to another lineup or even tactics in the next game. How could it ensure the continuity and stability of the team's overall state?
After Christmas, the team's schedule was actually not tight. In any case, the FA Cup had been eliminated early, and the knockout stage of the Champions League had yet to begin. There was only the league tournament, and with one match a week, there was really no need for the rotation system.
So, after losing the game against Everton, Twain temporarily gave up on the rotation system. At the very least, he gave up on the large-scale rotation system.
The situation quickly improved. In the last game in January, Nottingham Forest won 2: 0 against Middlesbrough in an away game.
During this period, there was a continuous stream of good news from the investment plan for the future.
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John Bostock accepted the Forest team's contract and chose to go to Nottingham Forest, which could offer a better contract after he turned 16. Of course, the Forest team's recent series of honors was also the reason why he made up his mind.
Although Galván Martín was in Mexico's famous and strong team, Cerro Azul, the attraction of Nottingham Forest and Europe's top football level was clearly greater. He agreed to join Nottingham Forest. But there was some trouble: Mexico stipulated that players under the age of 18 were not allowed to play abroad. Now, Martín was only 15. When he turned 18, he would have to wait at least three years. Was Nottingham Forest willing to wait? Twain nodded and waited.
The Forest team and Cerro Azul reached an agreement. Martín's permanent ownership belonged to Nottingham Forest, but he would play for Cerro Azul until he turned 18. Not only would his salary be paid by the Forest team, but the Forest team would also have to pay an additional sum of money to Cerro Azul every year as a "training fee."
Chile did not have such a rule, so Nottingham Forest spent 500,000 pounds to bring Nicolás Millán to England. He was first placed in Nottingham Forest's U16 youth team, and then they would observe him in detail.
They cast a wide net, and in the end, only these three players were signed. But Twain was very satisfied. The construction of the youth team and the discovery and purchase of young geniuses were normal and required long-term perseverance. So, the result of signing three players at once was already very good. Rome was not built in a day, and a youth training camp that was renowned in Europe and even the world could not be built in a day.
Nicolás Millán and John Bostock came to Nottingham Forest. Twain went to pick him up, met him, and introduced himself. Then he handed him over to the youth training director, but everyone knew that he would closely monitor the performance of these new young players.
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