Because Ibišević was a target that was added later, and because of his poor performance in the recent season, his transfer fee had shrunk significantly. Therefore, the Forest team only spent 15 million euros, or about 14 million pounds, on the striker position, which was originally thought to be the most expensive. Counting the cost of Bentley and Fernández, and an additional five million pounds, there was still 16 million left in the 55 million transfer budget.
What could 16 million be used for?
Twain still decided to add to the right back position. The right back position had become a common pain in the world. Now, a good right back was too difficult to find. Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos, Barcelona's Dani Alves, Inter Milan's Maicon, Arsenal's Bacary Sagna … They were all considered the world's top players, but Nottingham Forest would never be able to buy such players.
Twain could only start with younger players who were not as famous as them.
After screening, he set his target on Monaco's defender, Nicolas N 'Koulou.
The 20-year-old Cameroonian youngster had been playing as Monaco's main force for a season. In the 07-08 season, he went to the Ligue 1 team, Monaco, for a trial. He was recognized by Monaco and signed a contract with him. In the second season, he played in Monaco's First Team. Subsequently, in the 09-10 season, he became the main force.
Nkoulou could play in both the right back and center back positions. As a center back, his height of 1.80 meters was a slight fly in the ointment, but he did well in the right back position. When he played for the Cameroon Olympic team, he also played as a goalkeeper once. He could really be considered a "versatile player."
In fact, Nkoulou had been noticed by Nottingham Forest's scouts two years ago, and the Forest team had asked him to come to England for a trial. But at that time, he chose to go to Ligue 1 to try his luck and did not accept the Forest team's invitation.
Nottingham Forest was not the only one who was optimistic about his future. Wenger's Arsenal had always been ahead in plundering young talents from all over the world, and they had long been interested in Nkoulou.
This summer, the two clubs made their moves at the same time. Nottingham Forest had a bit of an advantage because of their previous contact with Nkoulou.
AS Monaco knew that their small temple could not keep a player like Nkoulou, so it was better to sell him for a good price as soon as possible than to force him to stay. Nkoulou had also expressed his desire to play in Europe's top leagues. Ligue 1 could no longer satisfy him.
They compared the offers from Nottingham Forest and Arsenal and decided to raise the price of Nkoulou to twelve million pounds.
Arsenal rejected their counter-offer. In Wenger's eyes, it was crazy to sell a 20-year-old player who had not proven himself in a European competition for 12 million pounds. After all, Nkoulou was not a particularly talented player like Messi, Bojan and Wilshere. It was not worth it to pay 12 million for such a player.
Tony Twain also rejected this offer. However, he made another offer — eight million pounds.
Monaco thought it was too cheap, and they countered with eleven million pounds.
So, the Forest team made a bid of nine million. This time, Allan Adams personally flew to Monaco with the offer.
After some haggling, Monaco agreed to sell Nkoulou for nine and a half million pounds.
Arsenal heard the news from somewhere and also offered nine and a half million pounds, wanting to snatch Nkoulou away.
Tang En flew into a rage. He thought that Monaco had deliberately leaked the news so that they could continue to raise the price. However, he did not expect Arsenal to be smart and only offered nine and a half million, not a single cent more.
Twain was worried that Nkoulou would choose Arsenal and not himself. Ever since Nottingham Forest had been promoted to the Premier League, they had clashed with Arsenal many times in the transfer market. He had spoiled Wenger's plans, but Wenger had also snatched a number of people he valued.
However, this time, he won against Wenger.
Nkoulou knew and was more familiar with Nottingham Forest. Furthermore, this was not the first time Nottingham Forest had approached him. Back then, he had almost become a member of the Forest team. Emotionally, he was more inclined to Nottingham Forest than Arsenal, which was famous for putting young people in important positions.
Nkoulou was a sentimental person. Tony Twain played the sentimental card and finally succeeded in getting Nkoulou to sign the contract.
Then, both clubs announced that the twenty-year-old right back, Nicolas Nkoulou, had transferred to Nottingham Forest for nine and a half million pounds, signing a five-year contract.
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While bringing in players, Nottingham Forest was also selling players. After all, one way to control costs was to control the salary budget. If there were too many members of the First Team, just paying the salaries would be a huge burden for the club.
Sun Jihai was the first person to leave the team. Before the end of the season, Twain had already informed him in advance that even if his contract expired, the Forest team would not renew it. He hoped that he would quickly find his next team before his contract expired in a year.
Sun Jihai was a sensible person. He also knew that he did not have the strength to continue to stay in a team with the goal of becoming champions. He really wanted to stay in the Premier League, but the reality was cruel. Until July, all the Premier League clubs that were rumored to be interested in him remained at the stage of rumors.
His agent told him that there were now two paths in front of him. One was to return to China to play football and treat his last two years as retirement. The second was to lower the standards and play in the English Football League Championship for another two seasons before retiring.
Sun Jihai did not intend to return to China. He rejected even the invitation from his former team, the Dalian team that had nurtured him. He chose to go to the English Football League Championship and signed a two-year contract with Sheffield United. When his contract with Sheffield United expired, he would be thirty-five years old. If he was in good form and could guarantee a stable number of appearances, Sheffield United would renew his contract for another year.
In order to get Sun Jihai, Sheffield United paid a transfer fee of one million pounds for the Forest team. Although Sun Jihai was already thirty-two years old, he was still a "championship-level player" who had won two European championships and one league title with the team. In Asia, he was the Asian player who had won the most top European honors with the team. Park Ji-sung at Manchester United was second.
Chimbonda had thought that Nkoulou's arrival would lead to his departure. Even though he had just renewed his contract with the Forest team. This was just a means to prevent the player from leaving on a free transfer after his contract expired. Tang En took the initiative to find him after training one day and had a private conversation with him to dispel the doubts in his mind.
Tang En told Chimbonda that no matter what, he was still a member of Nottingham Forest during the contract period. The team needed his experience and ability in defense. After all, Nkoulou was still young and was only a rotational player.
Tang En's change in attitude toward Chimbonda stemmed from the previous season. The team was not doing well recently, but Chimbonda's performance was admirable. His stable play as a right back was a guarantee that the team could eventually finish fourth in the league. Rafinha had some injuries last season and his attendance was not high. Most of the time, it was up to Chimbonda alone. The old Chimbonda's level did not decline as quickly as Tang En thought. He still maintained a high level last season.
Perhaps it was because his mentality was right, but Tang En looked at Chimbonda in a different light.
People say that a friend in need is a friend indeed. In the team's most difficult 07-08 and 08-09 seasons, Chimbonda helped the team with his stable play. Now it was time for the team to repay Chimbonda. The team gave him a new contract last winter. This summer, Tang En told him that he could play here with peace of mind until he retired. When that contract expired, Chimbonda would not be able to continue playing even if he wanted to.
Tang En was doing something with a long-term goal. He wanted to cultivate the players' sense of belonging and loyalty to the team as much as possible. Unless it was someone he wanted to drive away, he hoped the players would still have feelings for the team when they were old. Just like other big teams, they have a special culture to keep their own players.
Tang En hoped that a few years later, a Paolo Maldini, a Ryan Giggs, a Gerrard would emerge from Nottingham Forest.
Other than Sun Jihai, Martin Petrov was the second Forest player to leave in the summer.
Tang En spent 10 million euros plus a player exchange to bring in Ibišević, and the player who was exchanged was Martin Petrov.
Hoffenheim was interested in Petrov, while Nottingham Forest was very interested in Ibišević. Both sides found common ground in this regard. In fact, this was also the main content of the meeting between Tang En and Rotthaus.
Martin Petrov was mentally prepared to leave the Forest team. Going to Hoffenheim was not bad for him. Hoffenheim had now gotten rid of the "promoted team" hat and became a mid-table team in the Bundesliga. Playing for that kind of team was not a disgrace to him. Furthermore, Hoffenheim's boss was rich and could meet his requirements in terms of remuneration.
After the clubs reached an agreement, the players also reached an agreement with the team. The deal was successfully completed.
Nicolás Millán and Victor Moses were loaned by the club to two newly promoted teams in the Premier League, Southampton and Norwich City, just as they had said before.
Tang En hoped they could rely on their own strength to fight in unfamiliar teams, gain valuable experience, get training, and grow into the players he needed.
Adriano Moke was the same as them. He was loaned by the club to another Premier League club, Blackburn Rovers. Since selling Bentley, Blackburn Rovers had always wanted to find another player on the right flank. They were very interested in the skillful Moke. Tang En agreed to Blackburn Rovers' loan request based on the principle of letting the young man receive more training and experience more games.
And Moke himself was no longer the proud and arrogant youth who was disgusted with being loaned out and playing in the reserve team. He also thought that going out on loan to play games was the best way to improve his level at the moment. He agreed to go to Blackburn Rovers to play for a season.
This summer was basically like this. Tang En did not carry out a major clean-up of the lineup because there was no need for it. His players performed well last season. Otherwise, he would not have the opportunity to return to Europe after a year. The players he brought in were only to supplement the slightly lacking strength in a few positions, such as the two flanks and the forwards. The overall structure of the team was retained, which was the main reason why Tang En was full of confidence for the new season. This group of players in the team were the ones he was most familiar with. He knew each of their characteristics and how to use them well.
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Another piece of good news, no less than the introduction of new players, was that van Nistelrooy could finally return to the field after a long recovery period after his surgery!
The Dutchman was injured on November 29, 2008, in the fifteenth round of the league tournament, during Nottingham Forest's 3: 1 home win over West Bromwich Albion. The recovery from the surgery took a whole year, not eight months as previously reported by the media. He only returned to the team after January 2010. But most of the time, he was still struggling with his knee injury. He had not been able to recover, and Tang En did not dare to send him on the field again. He did not even let him play in the reserve team matches. He was worried that his body could no longer withstand the torment.
Born on July 1, 1976, he was now 34 years old.
A year and seven months after leaving the team due to his injury, he finally put on his uniform and went on the field again. He came on as a substitute in the Forest team's friendly match against the Scottish Premier League powerhouse, Celtic.
Tang En gave him 30 minutes. Although he did not score, Tang En and the rest of the coaching staff were not concerned about van Nistelrooy's performance, but his knee. After the match, Fleming did a medical examination for van Nistelrooy and found that there were no problems with his knee after the surgery. Everyone was slightly relieved.
Tang En, who was in a good mood, even joked with the reporters who interviewed him the day after the match. "Our fourth signing of the summer has been confirmed!"
When the reporters asked in surprise who the fourth player to come to the Forest team was, Tang En laughed and revealed the answer. "Ruud van Nistelrooy!"
In the following match against the League One team, Walsall, van Nistelrooy was in the starting lineup and scored a penalty kick. This made the Forest fans rejoice.
It looked like the situation was developing in a good direction.
Tang En often joked with van Nistelrooy during training. It did not seem like the relationship between a manager and a player.
The players who had recently joined the Forest team were still a little surprised, but the veteran players would laugh and tell them, "This is a very normal thing. The boss is such a person."
But in fact, they were only half right.
The other half of Tang En's closeness to van Nistelrooy was that his relationship with van Nistelrooy was indeed better than that of the average player. There were many players in the Forest team now, but for Tony Tang En, there were not many players who had the memories of his two lives.
The departed Hierro, Albertini, Beckham, Edwin van der Sar, and Ayala all counted. The only one left in the team now was van Nistelrooy.
It was like an old friend beside him who had originally agreed to travel together. But after they set off, he was only interested in the scenery along the way. When he remembered his friend, he turned around and found that he was the only one left beside him.
It was an emotion that was difficult to explain to others. It was not a relationship where he paid and you came to play football for me.
Van Nistelrooy still had two years left on his contract with Nottingham Forest. Tang En hoped that van Nistelrooy could extend his contract for another year after it expired. By then, he would be 37 years old.
Then, after he retired from Nottingham Forest, Tang En must present van Nistelrooy with the best farewell match, just like he had promised Albertini.
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