"Hurry up and forget about the league title from three days ago. Don't think you can be satisfied with the league title." On a new day on the training ground, Tang En was lecturing the team.
After winning the league title, he sensed that there was some slackening within the team. It must have something to do with the league title. This title made some people feel that the season's task had been completed. No matter how they played next, they at least had a title in their hands and could have a happy holiday.
Tang En did not think so. Winning the league title was certainly worthy of celebration, but it was not a reason to slack off in preparing for the Champions League.
"The league title is delicious, but there's an even more delicious cake waiting for us. The Champions League title — don't you want to have a taste of defending it? "Tang En waved his arms, painting a beautiful picture of the future for everyone. "Don't slack off! It's hard to tighten it after you've loosened it. Now there are people outside saying that Nottingham Forest winning the league title and Chelsea winning the Champions League title is the best result. They're all bullsh * tting! Why is it the best result to give the title to someone else? We've worked hard all the way to the final. Is it to fulfill someone else's good deeds? Since we're in the final, we must win the championship. The runner-up is a failure! "
At the end of the lecture, Tang En handed over the command of the training to Dunn and Kerslake, and then returned to his office. Allan Adams was already waiting for him there. They were going to discuss plans to go to the Far East for gold in the summer.
Tang En knew the impact of using precious training time to fly halfway around the world to play commercial games in the summer. He had seen many precedents in this regard. But this time, he had to obey the club's arrangements.
In the previous seasons, when he needed to buy players, the club's finances would always try to satisfy him. Now that the team had achieved results, they naturally had to repay the club's finances. Moreover, the club's finances were tight after the new stadium was built. They needed to get some money from other places to temporarily ease this tight situation. Going to Asia to play commercial games was the fastest way to see results.
Therefore, he could not say no this time.
"We've already contacted them. Now we've launched promotions in four countries — China, Japan, Thailand, and Malaysia." Allan did not exchange pleasantries after seeing Tang En and went straight to the point.
"Four countries?"
Allan nodded. "Four countries, five regions, and one Hong Kong. Five matches. Let's just treat it as a pre-season warm-up. "He smiled at Tang En. He was aware of the differences between him and Tang En on this matter.
Tang En considered it for a moment. That way, the season would basically consist of these five matches. After such a long flight, the team's stamina would not be able to take it no matter how many matches they played.
"Are there any other activities apart from the competition?" Tang En knew that the team had traveled thousands of miles to Asia. It was impossible for them to return after just five matches. Allan would not be so honest.
"Yes, there are three more business events and a charity dinner. In addition, Beckham has some specific business arrangements … You know, he is always the most popular person. "
"Sounds like a busy summer." Twain shrugged.
After discussing Allan's work, Allan asked Tang En in a casual manner, "Tony, the Champions League on the 21st …"
"You want to ask how confident the team is in winning?" Twain guessed what he was thinking.
Alan nodded.
"Wouldn't it be more effective to promote the Double Champion title?"
Allen smiled. "You're a smart man, Tony."
"Ha, even if it's not for some commercial publicity, I must get this championship title!" Tang En clenched his fist. "So you can rest assured. If I say it's the Double Champion, then it's the Double Champion."
Allan glanced at the team training outside, stood up, and extended his hand to Tang En. "Then Evan and I will be waiting for your good news, Tony."
After shaking hands, Allan said goodbye. Tang En went out and returned to the training ground to continue supervising the training.
※ ※ ※
After the league tournament ended, the English media could focus their firepower on hyping up the Champions League final. Unlike last year, this year was England's "civil war," which gave the English media a lot more topics to hype up.
Moreover, the media was determined to provoke a pre-match war with these two managers.
The Sun published a large photo of the two men on the sports page. In between the two photos was a sentence:
Grant? Who was that?
That was what Tony Twain had said to express his contempt when Grant had just taken over as Chelsea's manager. At the time, his words were quite marketable because everyone thought Grant did not have the ability to lead Chelsea, especially with his predecessor's character. He had left a very deep mark on the team.
Even Tang En himself did not expect that Grant would lead Chelsea to stumble all the way to the Champions League final. This was the first time in the history of Chelsea Football Club that they had reached the Champions League final. Even such a powerful manager as Mourinho had not accomplished such a feat. In a sense, the final had not been played yet, but Grant had already created club history.
With such a contrast in results before and after, The Sun's intention of using this sentence again was obvious — to provoke a new round of war of words between the two managers, and to ridicule Tang En, provoke him, and force him to come out and make another shocking statement.
It was certainly not enough to rely on just one headline. The Sun also recounted the feud between the two teams in recent years and the results of their confrontations. Tony Twain's team naturally had the upper hand, but this also aroused further hatred from the Chelsea fans toward Nottingham Forest. In particular, Tony Twain's smug and arrogant manner of looking down on everyone was further engraved in the hearts of the people through the media's embellishment. The media could not wait for the Chelsea fans to think that Tang En felt that there was no need to play in the final because his team was bound to win.
The supporters of the two teams were not idle these days either. One by one, they showed up to express their views on the game.
John Motson wrote in his own column on the BBC website that he was more optimistic about Nottingham Forest's chances of defending the title. Although defending the title was difficult, Tony Twain and his team were used to creating miracles. Moreover, the game between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United had already shown the world the team's resilience. Therefore, he believed that the final victory would definitely belong to Tony Twain and Nottingham Forest.
Although Mourinho was far away in Portugal, he still paid close attention to the team he had once coached. Although he was still dismissive of Grant, emotionally, he supported Chelsea to win the title. His reason was very much his style — this is the team I left behind. I've laid the foundation for this team for three years. Now, that kid Grant doesn't have to do anything. He just has to follow my instructions, and it's time to reap the fruits of his labor. But I'm still proud of the performance of the Chelsea boys. What? Ever since Tony Twain came to power, Chelsea had not won against Nottingham Forest? That's not a problem. On the night of May 21st in Moscow, this embarrassing record could be officially made an end of …
With such a strong atmosphere of a big battle, Grant finally could not hold it in. In an interview with Sky TV, he talked about his personal feud with Twain. In fact, it was a big outpouring of bitterness and a counterattack. First of all, he complained that he had never been recognized. Even if he led the team to the Champions League final, the media was still talking about whether he would leave at the end of the season.
"Mr. Abramovich has just signed a new three-year contract with me. We are now very hopeful of winning the Champions League. Mourinho's Chelsea has not even reached the Champions League final. I don't admit that the failure of the league tournament had anything to do with me. I owed too much in the first half of the season. I've been paying off the debt since I took over this team. I think it's already very good that I've gotten to this point. I don't understand why you're still talking about my successor … "
Then he talked about the famous "who's that?" incident. "Tony Twain is a manager with a lot of character. He's always casually evaluating others like this. I think we're all used to it. But I'm very happy that I have a chance to prove 'who I am' in front of him now. " These words contained a lot of resentment. Clearly, the anger of being tricked by Twain had been accumulating in Grant's heart. It was growing, just waiting for the right time to burst out.
The right time was the Champions League final. What could be more satisfying for Grant than to defeat the insufferably arrogant Tony Twain and his team in the Champions League final and then lift the championship title?
After Grant spoke, Tony Twain also jumped out to meet the challenge. He wrote in his column:
"… I'm very happy that Mr. Grant finally understands his situation. He said he's happy to have a chance to prove 'who he is' in front of me now. It shows that he himself understands that he needs to prove to me and only know who he is after getting my acknowledgement. "
These words provoked Nottingham Forest's supporters to laugh, but it almost made Grant fly into a rage. Clearly, he had only been thinking about how to defeat Twain and had accidentally fallen into Twain's verbal trap.
As a result, he once again fought back in the media. This time, Twain did not accept the challenge. "I deeply detest the act of using words to attract attention before a match, so I don't intend to quarrel with Mr. Grant in the media. The ownership of the championship trophy is not based on who can spit more saliva. I won't participate in this kind of senseless hype anymore. I'm really sorry. "
These words made Grant speechless. He had never seen such a shameless person. Previously, he had happily engaged in a war of words with him, but after gaining an advantage, he immediately turned his back on him. This excuse was dignified, but it did not match his image at all!
※ ※ ※
Although Twain had fully expressed his contempt and disdain for Grant in the war of words, he was not stupid enough to believe that Grant was such a weak opponent. The credibility of Mourinho's words was not high. To be able to bring a team that had undergone a major change in personnel in the middle of the season to the Champions League final, it was not something that could be done just by relying on the team left behind by the previous manager.
Twain had fully inherited the glorious tradition of the older generation of revolutionaries. When dealing with an enemy, he first despised him strategically and then valued him tactically. He said disdainfully, "Who's Grant?" In fact, ever since he discovered that the results of the team led by Grant were getting better and better in the Champions League, he had taken note of this opponent. At that time, he did not know whether Grant's team would definitely be able to reach the Champions League final. He only treated him as a possible opponent in the future. Now, it came in handy.
Nottingham Forest's coaching staff was collecting and sorting out the latest information on Chelsea, such as Ashley Cole being injured in training, Lampard's mother passing away, and so on. As long as it was information that could affect the match, it would be sorted out and placed on Twain's desk.
Although he had dealt with Chelsea many times and was no stranger to each other, Twain believed that the match on the night of the 21st would be different from any previous match. Entering the Champions League final for the first time, Chelsea would be like a pack of hungry wolves. Even without their manager Grant's encouragement, they would be filled with fighting spirit.
This time, they were facing a very strong opponent, and it would not be an easy match. The psychological battle was over. The title still depended on the final performance of both sides on the field.
Spitting at each other would not determine who would be the champion.
During training, Nottingham Forest focused on strengthening the tactical drills of infiltration in the middle. Nottingham Forest started off by relying on two flanks. Although the flanks were still strong, they had been thoroughly studied by their opponents. Chelsea would certainly be on guard when the time came. Then, when they focused on defending the two flanks, the Forest team would unexpectedly play in the middle. They believed that it would have a miraculous effect.
In addition, set pieces would always be a wonderful way to break the deadlock. They had to practice them. At the same time, Twain considered the various situations that could arise and decided to let the team practice more penalty kicks. Although he did not want the match to develop to that point, they had to be well prepared, right? In case they were really dragged into the penalty shootout, it was better to be prepared than to be caught unprepared.
As the day of the match approached, the war of words on all sides became increasingly intense. The training bases of the two teams were surrounded by reporters from all over the world. The two managers, however, had quieted down. There was no war of words between the two of them. When interviewed by reporters, they also avoided talking about such personal grievances. They only talked about the team's current training situation, the players' condition, and the outlook for the final. These were well-behaved and unnutritious topics.
Compared to the fiery showdown between the managers, the players were much more peaceful when they talked about this match. It was just a final.
Beckham admitted in an interview that he did not expect his first season after joining the Forest team to be so wonderful. Not only did they win the league title, but they also had hopes of winning the Champions League. He thought it was wonderful. When he decided to transfer to Nottingham Forest, he never thought he would have the chance to stand at the top of Europe again. This also showed how wise and correct his decision back then was.
The media naturally flattered him again.
In addition to preparing for the Champions League, Twain found that he had suddenly developed a habit in a short period of time — he began to pay attention to the gossip newspapers like Kerslake. From those newspapers, he could always find news about Shania. Compared to her secluded life when she first went to Los Angeles, Shania had recently become much more active, frequently attending banquets, dances, and business events.
Of course, most of the time, she would be accompanied by the Hollywood playboy, Colin Farrell. They seemed to be very close.
Every time he saw news about Shania, Tang En would feel something growing in the depths of his heart that made him worried. He was afraid that one day, it would suddenly break free from his control and rush out. When that time came, he could not say for sure what the consequences would be.
As the Champions League final approached, this kind of emotion had a greater and greater impact on Twain, to the point that he could not help but think about it when he was alone. Twain felt that something was very wrong with him. Very wrong. If this continued, it would be extremely disadvantageous to the team's preparation for the final. He had to find a way to solve it.
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