On December 12, 2003, one of the greatest managers in Nottingham Forest's history, Tony Twain, returned to the position he was best at after a half-year hiatus. He appeared in the manager's seat at the City Ground Stadium. When he returned, no one talked about his unlucky predecessor, Collymore. It was as if the City Ground stadium was reserved for Tony Twain.
It was an ordinary English League One game (there was no English Champions League at that time, so the League One was a second-tier league). After losing six games in a row, Nottingham Forest played a home game against Crystal Palace, who were ranked one place lower than them but aggressively planned to defeat them. Nottingham Forest fell behind first and then made a comeback, ending the embarrassing six-game losing streak.
Ever since that match, he had never left his post. Tony Twain had always been the manager of Nottingham Forest, and the team was branded with his arrogant and unruly symbol. Even when he was recuperating from his heart disease for half a year, the team did not lack his influence. He led his Forest team to sweep across Europe, winning two UEFA Champions League titles and two English Premier League titles.
So far, Nottingham Forest, one of the earliest professional football clubs in the world, had two most glorious eras in its history. The first glorious era was after Brian Clough came to Nottingham Forest. Under the leadership of the most unique manager in English football, the originally unknown Nottingham Forest soared to the sky and won one English Premier League title, two UEFA Champions League titles, one UEFA Super Cup, and also created an unbeaten record of forty-two games in the English Premier League. This record was only surpassed by Wenger's Arsenal twenty-six years later with a new record of forty-nine games.
The second glorious era undoubtedly began on December 12, 2003. Tony Twain, a previously unknown player, led the Forest team to a red whirlwind in the City Ground Stadium. So far, they had won two English Premier League titles, two UEFA Champions League titles, two UEFA Super Cup titles, one FIFA Club World Cup title, two FA Community Shield titles, and one EFL Cup title. But in terms of the number of titles, he had surpassed his predecessor, Brian Clough. Furthermore, Clough had already passed away, and Tony Twain was only forty-five years old. As a manager, he was still considered young. There was still a long road ahead of him. People believed that the Forest team could continue to be brilliant under his leadership and create the most glorious Forest dynasty in history was just around the corner.
In the blink of an eye, ten years had passed.
As the only manager in the history of the club who could be compared to Brian Clough, his tenth anniversary must be celebrated. The club had already decided to award a commemorative trophy to Tang En. Unfortunately, on December 12th, Nottingham Forest's match was not on their home ground, so the trophy could not be presented in front of tens of thousands of spectators before the match.
On 12 December 2013, in the 17th round of the English Premier League, Nottingham Forest challenged Liverpool in an away match.
This was Tang En's first match in the ten years since he had officially taken charge of Forest's First Team. Although he had become the acting manager of Nottingham Forest as early as January 1, 2003, that was only "acting". In addition, he had been dismissed by Evan Doughty halfway through, so it could not be considered as part of his official coaching career. Even Tang En was unwilling to include that half a season of failure in his own ten years, even though that half a season occupied a very important position in his life and left behind countless precious memories.
The Nottingham Evening Post and other local media outlets had specially published a special issue to review Tony Twain's ten years of experience. To the people of Nottingham, there were too many things worth remembering in these ten years. It was as if they had had a wonderful and long dream. Ten years ago, if someone had said to them, "Your team will definitely return to the top," they would have thought that person was deliberately mocking and ridiculing them. But now, those honors were quietly placed in the club's Hall of Fame, telling them that this was not a dream, but a reality.
All of this was thanks to that forty-five-year-old man. As a manager, he was only forty-five years old. He was very young, and the honors he had received had already made many older managers jealous. But as a man, forty-five years old was already considered middle-aged. They hoped that he could continue to work in the future, the longer the better. This was the greatest wish of all the Nottingham Forest fans.
A publisher approached Tang En, hoping to publish his autobiography on this day that was worth a few years. Tang En's writing was not bad. He often wrote columns in the newspapers, but writing a book was too time-consuming for him. A manager of a Premier League club was already busy enough. How could he have time to write a book? So, he handed this matter over to the reporter, Pierce Brosnan, who knew him best. Although it was said that he would dictate and Brosnan would take notes, in fact, he did not do anything. Brosnan used all the information he had recorded over the past ten years to form the book. The only thing that could be considered as Tang En's original work was the title of the book.
"Ten Years."
Well, strictly speaking, even the title of the book was not his original work. When the publisher asked him to think of a title for the book, the title of the song by Eason Chan popped up in his mind. He felt that this was a kind of fate, so he used it.
At first, the publisher felt that the name was not imposing and was too low-key. It did not match Tony Twain's "identity as a madman." They wanted Tang En to change it, such as "The Forest Emperor," "Lion King's Heart," "Godfather of the Champions," "We are the Champions." These kinds of straightforward and common names were easy to understand.
But Tang En rejected them all.
"Since I'm a madman, how can I be considered a madman if I can't even insist on a title that I came up with myself?" His words left the publisher speechless. He was indeed a madman.
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"Tony, I've thought about it. How about we hold a press conference in Nottingham the day before the game and award you the trophy? "Three days before the game, the club's chairman, Evan Doughty, found Tang En.
"Why?" Tang En felt strange, because the original plan was to award the trophy after the game.
"Uh, I'm worried that if we lose that game, you won't be in the mood to receive the award in front of the media."
Tang En laughed.
"Don't laugh, Tony. We have to be prepared for both sides, don't we? "
Tang En continued to laugh, "Ha! If you give me that crystal cup before the game, then what's there to be prepared for? Before some important games, the media has Plan A and Plan B, but they won't announce the team's failure in advance before the game starts. You can rest assured. " Tang En patted Evan's shoulder. "The situation you're worried about won't happen, because we won't lose at all. I don't want to receive this award after losing the game. "
"Liverpool's home ground is very difficult to play."
"It's not like we didn't beat them at Anfield. Is it because it's my tenth anniversary that they suddenly become the most difficult fortress in the world to conquer?"
"But our team's recent performance … and George Wood's condition …"
Tang En shook his head and interrupted his doubts, "No problem. The team and him are fine. "
Evan still had some doubts, but Tang En pushed them away. "You have to believe me, Evan. That's my tenth anniversary. How can I allow anyone to mess with it? There's good wine when friends come, but only guns when wolves come. "
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"Anfield is the most demonic home ground on the planet!" Chris Bascombe, a senior reporter for the Liverpool Echo, predicted the game two days later in his column. "Our relationship with Nottingham Forest is not very good. We have no reason to let Tony Twain enjoy an anniversary dinner at Anfield."
This old man once listed his top ten wishes for the 2009-2010 season in his column. One of them was "I hope Tony Twain completely leaves the Forest team manager position because of a heart attack." In addition, he hoped that Abramovich would go bankrupt, and Chelsea would have no choice but to sell Lampard to Barcelona and Terry to Liverpool. This way, "the Premier League can start a fair and reasonable competition."
It could be seen that he was a firm supporter of the Kop, and at the same time, he did not like Chelsea and Tony Twain very much.
In fact, there was no need for him to add fuel to the fire in his column. Few Liverpool fans would have a good impression of Nottingham Forest and Tony Twain.
Liverpool could only participate in the UEFA Europa League for several years in a row and became the laughing stock of the European powers. This was all thanks to Tony Twain and his Nottingham Forest. Going back a little further. Question: The Liverpool giants, who once dominated Europe, were defeated by the same opponent within a year. They were eliminated in the Premier League, the EFL Cup, and the Champions League. Who gave them the credit?
Answer: Brian Clough and his Nottingham Forest.
With this relationship, although both sides were in the "red camp" in English football, every time they competed, it was like a derby. Liverpool hoped to use the victory in the Premier League to prove that they were not weaker than Nottingham Forest. Why could they play in the Champions League while they could only participate in the UEFA Europa League? And Nottingham Forest had always followed the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Since they were not happy with them, they naturally did not need to be polite with them.
In addition, the debate about who was the best midfielder in England, Gerrard or George Wood, had never stopped between the supporters of both teams. In the past, the Chelsea fans also joined in and supported Lampard. Later, as Lampard grew older and lost his position in the national team, the Chelsea fans sensibly withdrew from the group.
The Liverpool supporters thought that Gerrard was more well-rounded, perfect, and had no shortcomings at all. Whether in England or Liverpool, he was a well-deserved core player. Of course, he was the best in England. And although George Wood's defense was slightly better than Gerrard's, his offense was too far behind. His scoring ability was a far cry from Gerrard's. There was no way he could be compared to Gerrard at all. In England, George Wood appeared more as Gerrard's assistant.
The Nottingham Forest supporters thought that Wood's midfield defense was unparalleled in the world and that his offense had improved rapidly. He was younger and had a lot of room for improvement. On the contrary, Gerrard had already been set in stone. Coupled with the fact that Liverpool was always suppressed by Nottingham Forest in the Premier League and the team's results were not ideal, Gerrard's achievements were basically set in stone. On the contrary, Nottingham Forest had won too many titles under Tony Twain's leadership. George Wood also constantly refreshed his honor list. He was bound to get more honors and achievements in the future. He could definitely reach a peak that Gerrard had not reached.
In any case, the fans, experts, and reporters who supported their respective teams had their own opinions and often launched such debates. But this kind of debate did not affect the relationship between Gerrard and Wood. There was no negative impact caused by this kind of debate in the national team. Gerrard and Wood's "double Wood" combination was obviously better than the "double Wood" combination he and Lampard used to have. Wood was a midfielder who could be paired with anyone. He could attack and defend. He could be the core and also be an assistant. This was what Capello liked most about Wood. So, although he was bound to assist Gerrard when he and Gerrard played at the same time, Wood could rotate anyone's position in the national team except for Wood. Gerrard sometimes needed to give up his position to someone else to partner with Wood, but the media had never hyped up the topic of "who would partner with Gerrard".
Wood was not a person who liked to fight for the title of "who is the best in English football". Gerrard obviously did not need to fight for the first place. His position had long been established.
This kind of debate was nothing more than a topic for the fans to talk about after meals and an excuse for the media to hype up the game between the two teams.
"Nottingham Forest has not been in good shape recently. Their core captain, George Wood, seems to have some problems. I don't hide how happy I am to see this. I just want the opponents to have problems themselves. " Bascombe continued in his column, "The arrangement of the game schedule is really bad for Tony Twain. His tenth anniversary will be played at the Devil's Stadium. If it was at the City Ground stadium, he might be able to accept the club's award before the game. That must be a very glorious thing. Unfortunately, Manager Twain can only fantasize about it in his heart now. "
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