Even though Tang En had thrown out the statement that "you're not a man if you lose," he was still worried. He might look confident on the outside, but the pressure on his heart was no less than anyone else's. After all, if they lost, the pressure on the players would only last until they reached home from the field, while the pressure on the manager could last for several days. So, he could not be careless.
Other than using words to motivate the players, he had to think of other ways.
The entire Inter Milan team had arrived in Nottingham. Mourinho joked in an interview at London's Heathrow Airport that he did not feel like they were playing an away game because there were too many things he was familiar with in England. On the television screen, Mourinho had a relaxed smile on his face, looking confident. And he did not care that the reporters had mentioned Nottingham Forest's two away goals in front of him.
"I think it's a good thing for us. Yes, Nottingham Forest has two away goals, and at the same time, they only have two away goals. But we're different. Our away game hasn't started yet. Why can't we score three goals in the City Ground stadium? "
Looking at his tone and demeanor, it really made people suspect that the one with the away goal advantage was not Tony Twain, but him …
※ ※ ※
"This is psychological warfare." Tang En snorted. "Mourinho is really unoriginal. He's regressed after staying in Italy for so long. He used to be like a sharp-tongued kitten. "
In his own office, Tang En did not have to worry about the walls having ears, nor did he have to worry about the paparazzi sticking their miniature cameras and microphones into his domain. So, he could mock Mourinho without fear.
Kerslake laughed out loud when he heard Tang En's analogy. He did not like or dislike Mourinho personally, but he clearly did not like "the enemy, Mourinho."
After commenting on his opponent, Tang En turned his gaze to his assistant, Dunn.
"Dunn, is the thing ready?"
Dunn nodded and handed a disc to Tang En. Tang En did not put it into the disc player. Instead, he held it in his hand and played with it repeatedly. The disc reflected his face, a little blurry.
"I've decided to show them this 20 minutes before the game starts." He rolled the disc on his index finger.
"What's that?" Kerslake was a little curious.
"It's not a good thing for us." Tang En glanced at Dunn. In fact, he was telling Dunn that it was not a good thing. That could be the biggest failure he had encountered since coaching Nottingham Forest alone. He wanted to save Dunn's face and did not want to make it too obvious.
"It's the 2008/09 Champions League quarter-finals, Nottingham Forest's home game against Inter Milan." Dunn introduced himself.
"Ah, that game …" Kerslake was completely lost. That game was a painful memory. If he could, he did not want to think it. "Tony, you … why do you want them to see that?"
"Let them relive their dreams." Tang En shrugged.
"That was a nightmare …" Kerslake mumbled.
"Reliving the good dream will only make them lose the motivation to move forward. "Dunn Dunn Dunn Star.
Kerslake knew that Tang En was a man of his word. His lips twitched a little, but he did not say anything else. He glanced at Dunn sympathetically. After all, Dunn was the one who personally directed the match … He suddenly realized what it meant to "do whatever it takes to win."
Dunn had no objections. "Tony discussed it with me and I agreed. I also think it's a good idea. "
Dunn had personally edited, produced, and burned the disc to meet Tang En's requirements. To make the images more impactful, he had to watch the game many times and choose the best scenes to edit together. For Dunn, it was like looking into a mirror and repeatedly watching his most embarrassing moments, analyzing his own shortcomings under a microscope. No one liked that feeling.
But for the team, Dunn had to do it.
Kerslake felt it was hard being Tony's assistant. Fortunately, it was Dunn and not him.
"It's settled, everyone. Let's give Mourinho a lively welcome party! "
※ ※ ※
On the day of the game, the City Ground stadium was crowded. A large number of fans walked along the banks of the Trent River to the City Ground stadium. Many fans had already appeared in the stands. Among them were Nottingham's most hardcore fan group, John and Bill from the Forest Bar.
They arrived at the stadium early and were busy hanging banners.
"Welcome back to England. Welcome to the City Ground stadium, José!"
The first sentence made it seem that Mourinho was friendly with them. But the next sentence exposed the hostile relationship between the two sides. "You won't win this time either!"
The Inter Milan fans were not to be outdone. They had their own way of fighting back.
A group of Inter Milan fans hung a banner with the score written on it at the bottom of the stands. The score on it was 2: 0 and 3: 0. 2: 0 was Inter Milan's home score, and 3: 0 was their record at the City Ground Stadium.
Ever since Nottingham Forest entered Tony Twain's era, no team had ever scored three goals at the City Ground stadium and prevented Nottingham Forest from scoring a goal. Mourinho had done it.
The incident was not worth mentioning at first, but due to Tony Twain's repeated provocations, the Inter Milan fans simply used bloody colors to provoke the Nottingham Forest fans, as a form of retaliation against their constant provocations.
The two games, especially the home score, were indeed "painful memories" for the Nottingham Forest fans.
They had allowed the opponent to score five goals in both home and away games, while they did not score a single goal. In the game at the City Ground stadium, the Forest players had been holding back their energy and wanted to give Inter Milan a taste of their own medicine when they returned to the home ground. Who would have thought that Inter Milan would seize the opportunity when the Forest team was eager to press on to attack and score a goal? After being three goals ahead, Inter Milan became more and more relaxed as they played, while Nottingham Forest became more and more anxious. While the entire team was counting on their acting manager, Dunn, to stand up and turn the tide, Dunn looked at the field helplessly. He did not know what to do at all. He usually prepared a head full of football technical and tactical knowledge, but it was of no use at this moment.
In the end, the team became more and more chaotic as they played. Inter Milan continuously seized opportunities to score and completely defeated the fighting spirit of the Nottingham Forest players by 3: 0. Then the game entered garbage time.
After the game, the local Nottingham media angrily said that if Inter Milan scored another goal, the Nottingham Forest players would collectively raise their hands and beg for mercy.
Even the Forest fans, who almost never booed their own team in the stands, could not help but let out ear-piercing boos.
After that game, countless Nottingham Forest fans gathered in the major bars to talk about the same question.
What would it be like if that guy, Tony, were still around?
Now they had a chance to find out.
※ ※ ※
The buses of the players from both sides had already arrived at the stadium for the pre-game warm-up. But the Nottingham Forest players arrived earlier. When they entered the stadium to warm up, only about a quarter of the people were seated in the stands. The Inter Milan players had just set off from the hotel where they were staying.
When the Inter Milan players arrived at the stadium on the bus according to the normal time to warm up, they found the Nottingham Forest players preparing to leave.
This surprised some people because, according to the usual practice, everyone came out to warm up together. Why did the Nottingham Forest players finish warming up so early? There was still more than half an hour before the start of the game. What were they doing in the locker room now? Taking a shower and then going to bed?
The Nottingham Forest players brushed past the Inter Milan players and did not care about the puzzled looks of the Inter Milan players.
Of course, all of this was arranged by the boss. He asked the team to take advantage of the home team's advantage to enter the City Ground stadium early to start warming up and then return to the locker room. He had a mysterious and wonderful thing to show everyone …
Everyone was guessing what the boss meant by suddenly racking his brains to show everyone a "movie" half an hour before the start of the game. Who would still be in the mood to watch a movie at this time?
Tang En smiled and did not speak. After everyone entered the locker room, he turned off the lights and turned on the DVD player and television.
After a brief black screen, a voice rang out in the narrow space of the locker room.
"Ibrahimović!! Ibrahimović!! A beautiful volley shot after a turn! Just three minutes into the game, Inter Milan has an incredible lead! Now Inter Milan is leading Nottingham Forest with a total score of 3: 0! Poor Nottingham Forest … Of course they hoped to bring down Inter Milan at home, but they did not expect to concede another goal. This game is not easy to play … "
Many of the Forest players in the locker room had a change of expression. They might have made a lot of guesses, but no one expected the boss to show them this … The players who had experienced that game would not easily forget that kind of humiliation — the home fans in the stadium were booing the team they originally supported. They clearly had the strength but could not do anything. They could only run around behind the opponent's ass. The pace of the game was in Inter Milan's hands from the beginning. They did not even have the strength to fight back.
Even the Forest players who had not experienced the game did not have to worry. Dunn's excellent editing was enough to give them an immersive experience of that 0: 3 game.
Ibrahimović scored a goal in the opening three minutes.
Santon then scored another goal at the start of the second half. By this time, Inter Milan had a 4: 0 lead over Nottingham Forest and had two away goals. If Nottingham Forest wanted to advance, they needed to score at least five goals in the remaining 40 minutes and could not let the opponent continue to score. It was an impossible task for a Forest team like that.
Finally, there were fans in the stands who could not stand the torment of such a scene and let out ear-piercing boos. Then the sporadic boos joined together and finally became the mainstream sound that could not be stopped. The commentator's voice was even more ear-piercing among the boos. "Ever since Tony Twain became the manager of this team, there has never been a game to see such a scene. The so-called most loyal fans in the English Premier League actually booed their own home team … I don't even know what to say … The performance of the Nottingham Forest players is really terrible! "
The players who had played in that game seemed to have returned to that day and experienced that scene. It made them all lower their heads and did not want to look at the television screen again. If possible, they even wanted to cover their ears. The boos were too ear-piercing, as if there were needles pricking their hearts.
And the players who joined the team later also understood after watching such a game — for Nottingham Forest, which was still the defending champion at that time, Nottingham Forest, which used to have unlimited glory and was not afraid of anything and thought that the whole world was in their hands, this blow was really too heavy …
Amidst the ear-piercing boos, the commentator's cry for the goal rang out again. "The third goal! Who is it this time? Samuel! In the chaos in front of the goal, Samuel fought for the ball, and there was not a single Nottingham Forest player beside him! This is inconceivable! … 3: 0! Inter Milan leads Nottingham Forest with a total score of 5: 0! There are still 20 minutes left in the game, but I have to say … look at the performance of the Nottingham Forest players. This game has already entered garbage time in advance. "
No one could still stare at the screen indifferently after hearing such words, except for Tony Twain.
The coaches, including Dunn and Kerslake, all looked away from the television screen. They also did not want to relive the nightmare of the past.
Twain was really a demon, forcing them to recall such a cruel game. And he was still smiling — the light from the television screen reflected on Twain's face. That expression should be a smile!
After the edited version of the game finished playing, Twain did not immediately turn on the lights. Instead, he used his hoarse voice to tell everyone his purpose in doing so in the dark.
In such an environment, his voice seemed to come from the depths of hell. It was hoarse, sometimes low, sometimes sharp, and very uncomfortable to listen to.
"Is there anyone still guessing why I'm showing you something like this? I know that game is definitely not a 'good memory' for some people. I just want you to know that some defeats can be laughed off, but some defeats absolutely cannot be forgotten! If the enemy wants you to be humiliated, what do you do? Should I just crawl under his pants and crawl under his crotch? No! That's not our style! You should use your heads to push their breasts when you crawl under his pants! Push them to the ground and then use your feet to step on them! Go stomp! Go crush them! Until the yolk comes out! If you don't want such a game to happen to you again, if you don't want your own supporters to switch sides and cheer for the opponent, if you don't want the enemy to ridicule you as a group of women wearing thong underwear after defeating you, then remember this game for me! We lost 0: 3! It's like being pinned down under 11 strong men and being gang-raped, with no power to fight back! Do you like being gang-raped? I don't like it anyway! I feel disgusted! "
After Twain finished speaking, he turned on the lights in the locker room.
The sudden return of light made many people a little uncomfortable. They covered their faces with their hands and squinted their eyes to hide in the shadows.
"How does it feel to be back in reality?" When Tony Twain spoke again, his tone and emphasis took a 180-degree turn. There was no longer the previous sternness and reprimand. His squinted eyes and smiling appearance was really harmless. But those who knew him knew that the more Tony Twain behaved like this, the more dangerous he was. "Many of you must be relieved in your hearts. Fortunately, it was just a dream, right? But dreams and reality are closely linked. Now that Inter Milan is knocking on our door, is this a dream? If you're not careful, the nightmare just now will reappear! I don't want to hear the home fans booing in my own stadium. Never in my life, ever! You know what to do, right? "
"Yes, boss!" Would there be a fool who said "don't know"?
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