Ibišević's hat-trick quickly caused a sensation in the English Premier League. Other than the fact that he was the only player to score a hat-trick in the round, there was also his celebration. It did not matter if they did not understand it at the time. After his special explanation after the game, everyone knew who he was targeting.
What was Carl Spicer's reaction to it?
He did not comment on Ibišević's hat-trick in the latest issue of "Football Matters …". He went to talk about other things. For example, after Manchester United unexpectedly lost 0: 2 to Fulham in an away game, Ferguson angrily said that this would be his last season at Manchester United.
Although the topic of Ferguson's retirement was also a gimmick, Sky TV still received a lot of dissatisfied calls from the audience after the show was broadcast. They unanimously expressed that they wanted to see what Carl Spicer had to say about Ibišević's hat-trick.
It was said that most of these calls came from the Nottingham area.
Carl Spicer heaved a sigh of relief when he heard the news. At least it was not the whole country who wanted to see him make a fool of himself. The people in Nottingham were all Tony Twain's lackeys. They were not worth mentioning at all!
So, he did not respond.
But this did not stop Tony Twain from mocking him in his own column. In his latest column, Tang En told his readers a story about a "cowardly tortoise." Even a fool would know who he was talking about.
Although Carl Spicer was temporarily silent, it did not mean that no one continued to question Ibišević.
The Sun called Ibišević's hat-trick "magical," but also believed that he was able to score mainly because Nottingham Forest's opponents were too weak. The countdown to relegation had begun the moment Norwich City was promoted to the Premier League. It could only be said that Tony Twain and Ibišević were very lucky. When they needed to score the most, the league's weakest team came to their door.
So, the performance in this game could not prove anything at all. If Ibišević wanted to tell others that their doubts were wrong, he still needed to continue to score goals. If Tony Twain did not want to shave his hair after the league ended, he had to ensure that Ibišević's form remained excellent. This was not something that could be easily done.
Therefore, The Sun came to their own conclusion — it was too early for Tony Twain to mock Carl Spicer. If Ibišević did not score in the next game, then his current taunts would be returned to him by the shrewd Spicer.
The pressure was actually all on the players and the team. It was not a wise move to make such a high-profile bet with Carl Spicer.
In fact, what they said made sense, but in Tang En's eyes, it was all nonsense. Professional footballers were accompanied by endless pressure from the moment they entered this circle. As a striker, he would definitely feel pressure as long as he did not score a goal in a game, regardless of whether he had made a bet or not. Therefore, a player with good psychological quality would definitely have his own way of reducing stress. There was no need for the media to worry about these things.
Tang En was not worried about Ibišević's mental endurance, especially after seeing his performance in the previous match.
Whether he was in good or bad form, Ibišević's mental state was not a problem. Tang En had already confirmed this matter.
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There would be no matches for the next two weeks as the Premier League had to make way for the national team matches. During this time, Tang En would not be idle. He had to go to Switzerland to participate in the UEFA Champions League group draw ceremony.
After the drawing ceremony, he had to rush back to Nottingham to celebrate his forty-second birthday with his wife, Shania. Even though he said that he would always be forty years old from now on, the reality was so cruel! In the blink of an eye, he was already 42 years old!
This year's draw ceremony and last season's UEFA Champions League award ceremony were held in Monte Carlo, Monaco. In Europe's famous gambling city, Europe's powerhouse coaches and award-winning star players gathered together.
The most popular coach and the most popular player all came from the same club — the Spanish powerhouse, Barcelona.
When Guardiola appeared on the streets of Monte Carlo under the night sky with Messi, it immediately caused a commotion among the reporters and fans who had been waiting there for a long time.
The young manager was at the helm of last season's UEFA Champions League champion team. He led Barcelona to rise again, defeating Real Madrid domestically and making a name for himself in the European football world in the Champions League, where he had the last laugh.
Messi, who was also young but had long become famous, finally won a Champions League trophy that truly belonged to him. He was the biggest contributor to Barcelona winning last season's UEFA Champions League, and he was also last season's top scorer in the Champions League. This summer, he was also crowned the king of the world in South Africa. For a time, he was in the limelight.
His name was celebrated everywhere, and his huge advertising portraits were inserted all over Europe. Wherever he appeared, there were cheers and praises. Every time he took the ball on the field, it would bring him huge cheers. Even the opposing fans had to pay tribute to such a football wizard.
In the past, Argentina was always looking for a successor for Maradona. Such a move was simply wishful thinking in the eyes of outsiders, and it was also a little funny — all the players they chose as successors did not do well. But now, Argentina no longer continued to look for Maradona's successor, because they had just announced this summer that Messi was Maradona II!
This time, no one would ridicule the Argentines for being wishful thinking again. Even the Brazilians had to marvel at Messi's strength when they faced him. Kaka suffered from injuries and his performance in the last two seasons was not as good as before.
Such a humble young man showed a shy smile in front of the reporters' flashes. He was not like Maradona at all … At least the king of the ball would not be so modest and shy.
2010 was a bumper year for Messi. He not only won the domestic league title and the UEFA Champions League title with Barcelona, but also led the team to the World Cup title as the core of Argentina. With such an achievement, there probably wouldn't be a second person in the football world in the next ten years. It was no wonder that everyone now agreed that Messi was the "king of football" of this era.
From the place where they got off the bus to the entrance of the hotel, Messi and Guardiola walked for about five minutes on the short 15-meter red carpet. They had to stop constantly to let the reporters and fans take photos, answer questions from the reporters, and satisfy the fans' autograph requests. Even with the police on the scene to maintain order, the scene was still a little chaotic.
Pierce Brosnan was crowded with two reporters from the Catalan region of Spain. When they saw the scene, they were a little proud and said in English, the world's lingua franca, "In the world, only Barcelona and Messi have such appeal!"
Tony Twain entered the door before them. As the hottest young manager in European football a few seasons ago, he was now defeated by the younger Guardiola. When he appeared, there were not many people at all. Only a few British reporters came up to ask a few questions and let him go. Such a scene would have been unimaginable two years ago. At that time, Tony Twain was the darling of the media wherever he went. He was synonymous with "sensational news."
Now his limelight was all stolen by Barcelona.
He chatted at the door with Ferguson, who had entered a step ahead of him, and was asking if he was really going to retire. Ferguson half-jokingly said that he was going to retire and recommend Tony to coach at Manchester United.
At this time, Guardiola and Messi arrived.
The commotion at the scene was so loud that it interrupted the conversation between Twain and Ferguson. They could not help but turn their heads to look. Twain did not look at Messi at first glance, but at Guardiola. He smiled at Ferguson and said, "Look, your best successor is here."
Ferguson snorted, "Do you think Barcelona will let him go?"
Twain asked with a grin, "Then why do you think Nottingham Forest will let me go?"
"You're more likely than him."
Twain shrugged and did not intend to continue the discussion on the issue.
He and Ferguson looked at the bustling scene in front of them for a while and felt bored. They were not groupies. What was there to watch the bustling scene?
As he turned to leave, Ferguson smiled at Twain. "I lost to them in the semi-finals last season. Hargreaves and Carrick could not defend against Messi. At that time, I thought it would be good to give me a George Wood."
"Ha." Twain touched his nose. "I'll help you take revenge. I'll keep Wood for myself!" Of course, he knew what Ferguson meant. England's powerhouses had coveted Wood for a long time. Wenger would occasionally talk about George Wood when he spoke to him on the phone. He never hid his concern for the kid. From the time Wood first played against Arsenal in the youth team, he wanted to rope Wood in, but was unfortunately rejected. Now that he thought about it, he regretted it.
"You lucky bastard …" Ferguson muttered as he walked into the hall with Twain. They left the hustle and bustle behind.
※ ※ ※
In fact, when Guardiola was surrounded by the reporters, he had already noticed the two people standing on the steps. He even made eye contact with Tony Twain once. Next to him, Ferguson was as cunning as an old fox, his eyes erratic.
Ever since Tony Twain took over, Barcelona and Nottingham Forest have had many grievances. Guardiola had been reluctant to waste time in a war of words after he came up, so he had been very low-key. Even with his arch-rival, Real Madrid, he rarely spoke tough words. It was always "Schuster is very good, I'm sorry about his resignation", "Ramos is an excellent manager, I believe he can succeed at Real Madrid" … and other such proactive statements.
It even gave people the impression that he was a little soft. But perhaps it was because of this characteristic of not being distracted that he could pull Barcelona back from the abyss and return to the top.
Compared to him, Tony Twain was simply a mad dog. Everyone hated him, but everyone was afraid of him — afraid of being bitten and getting rabies.
Therefore, even though the relationship between the two teams had eased after Guardiola became Barcelona's manager. But following Tony Twain's public questioning of Barcelona's UEFA Champions League win in the media this summer, the relationship between the two clubs suddenly became tense.
Guardiola still adhered to the style of not fighting a war of words with other managers, but his men were not easy to deal with.
Eto 'o was the first to jump out and scold Tony Twain for using this method to attract attention because he was ignored by the media, which made him unhappy.
To this, Twain's reply was: I can't wait for the media to ignore me. Do you think everyone is like you, who likes to scold their teammates to attract the media's attention?
Eto 'o was so angry that he almost announced that he and Tony Twain were irreconcilable.
Valdés was also very unhappy with Tony Twain's questioning, but he chose another method to counterattack — "sarcasm and ridicule." He said that no matter what, they were the kings of Europe, and where was Nottingham Forest last season?
So, Tony Twain asked in return, "When we were defending the UEFA Champions League, where was Barcelona?"
Barcelona's defensive midfielder, Keita, expressed his disdain for Tony Twain's team. "I think even if they had the chance to participate in the Champions League and were lucky enough to make it to the finals, we could still win easily. This Forest team is no longer the Forest team that defended the Champions League two seasons ago. "
Then, Twain said the famous words that caused him to be fined by the UEFA. "In the new season's Champions League, I can't wait for us to be drawn against Barcelona. Come on, use the unspoken rules on me! "
Only Messi was more restrained. He did not express any opinion to Twain's words. But everyone believed that if Nottingham Forest really had the chance to meet Barcelona, this little Argentine would work harder than anyone else.
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Before the draw ceremony, it was the award ceremony. The previous champion, Barcelona, was the biggest winner without a doubt. Messi alone took the two awards of the best player and best striker. The best defender was won by Barcelona's right back, Daniel Alves, and the best midfielder belonged to Barcelona's Iniesta. Only the best goalkeeper had no chance with Barcelona. The UEFA gave the award to Juventus' Buffon.
Guardiola was elected as the best manager and chatted amiably with Platini on stage. It looked like the two had a good chat.
The UEFA had once wanted to focus on nurturing Tony Twain, but Twain was too tactless and had embarrassed the UEFA time and time again. His big mouth was not afraid of anything, and once he started scolding, even God could not do anything about it. They had no choice but to quickly draw Twain into the opposing camp. In the eyes of the UEFA, the English football scene, which had always produced managers with personality, was the most unpopular. Tony Twain's appearance only further proved the correctness of this "law."
Now they could breathe a sigh of relief. Guardiola's rise filled the void left by Tony Twain's departure. The UEFA finally had a positive image that they could use.
Twain was not interested in these things. He did not care about the UEFA doing publicity for him because he did not want to be someone else's arch. When someone did something bad, the first person to be scolded must be the arch.
He was only interested in the results of the draw.
The draw was jointly hosted by the football legends from various countries and the players who had won the award.
The players went to draw teams, and the legends drew the teams' groups.
The teams were drawn one by one and went to the groups they were supposed to go to.
Nottingham Forest was stripped of the seeded team's qualification due to their recent absence from the Champions League for a season and an average performance in another season. They were placed in the second tier.
So which team would they be placed with?
"Nottingham Forest." Guardiola raised the note in his hand and showed it to the audience. There was a burst of laughter below the stage. For this man to draw Nottingham Forest, it really felt like fate was playing with it.
Twain whistled and did not care about the coaches and managers who turned their heads to smile at him.
The next group to be drawn was Nottingham Forest's group.
"Group C."
As soon as this name came out, everyone present turned to look at Twain again.
The seeded team in Group C was the Serie A powerhouse, Juventus. In the 08-09 UEFA Champions League, the defending champion, Nottingham Forest, was drawn with Juventus in the group stage. At that time, Forest lost to Juventus in an away game and could not win at home. They were completely dominated by Juventus and had no chance at all.
Everyone thought, with Tony Twain's vengeful character, how could he let Juventus off so easily? Now, the UEFA gave the two teams a chance to resolve their feud, or to continue to make it bigger and bigger.
After the draw was over, Twain found out that his team had entered the group of death.
The four teams in Group C were seeded teams, Juventus, Nottingham Forest, Celtic, and Atlético Madrid.
Twain discussed this issue in an interview after the draw. "Group of death? That depends on which angle you look at it from. To me, this is nothing. But to my opponents, this is really the group of death. "He turned and left after saying this. He looked like he was not in the mood to play a brain teaser game with the reporters.
Unfortunately, he was not sent to Group A by the UEFA's unspoken rules. The seeded team in that group was Barcelona.
But it was also good. Twain had a chance for revenge. After two years, he still felt unhappy when he thought of the ecstatic look on Juventus' face after they defeated the Forest team at home.
They lost to Juventus in an away game and were forced to a draw at home by the Old Lady. It seemed like the beginning of Nottingham Forest's slump in the European arena. Now, Twain had a chance to return everything to normal.
Group of death?
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