A deafening song drifted into his ears. Tang En could not clearly hear what they were singing. His ears were filled with a rumbling sound, like raging waves crashing against the shore.
In front of him were tens of thousands of waving arms, as though he was in the lush Sherwood Forest.
Tang En found himself in the familiar City Ground Stadium. The stadium, which could hold up to 30,000 people, was currently filled to the brim. However, he was not in front of the technical area on the sidelines. Instead, he was in the stands.
In the stadium below, an intense match was ongoing. He turned his gaze to the home team's technical area and froze for a moment. He saw that he was there directing the match.
What was going on?
Tang En lowered his head to look at his hands. Unfortunately, he could not see any clues from them. If the man standing on the sidelines directing the match was Tony Twain, then who was he?
The other Tony Twain stood on the sidelines. He was a little nervous and a little excited. He clenched his fists in front of his chest and leaned forward, staring intently at the inside of the stadium.
Tang En followed his gaze and looked in. Then, he was shocked. He recognized West Ham United's away jersey.
Why West Ham United?
He looked at Nottingham Forest on the other side. Many of the players' faces were unfamiliar. Tang En did not see George Wood, Gareth Bale, Eastwood, Pepe … those people. He did not even see Albertini, Edwin van der Sar, or Hierro.
What kind of Nottingham Forest was this?
Nottingham Forest was defending while West Ham United was attacking. Tang En squinted at the person holding the ball for a while before he dared to confirm it was Joe Cole. Wasn't Cole at Chelsea? What kind of West Ham United was this?
Joe Cole intentionally controlled the ball in the midfield. Or rather, he wanted to show off his footwork skills in front of his opponent. Seeing this, Tang En snorted coldly. "Idiot!"
Faced with the Forest players' close pursuit, he still did not release the ball. Instead, he continued to dribble, trying to bring the ball out of the encirclement. When the Forest team's third player came up, the ball under Joe Cole's feet was intercepted.
The next scene was very familiar to Tang En, because this kind of scene often appeared before him, and the frequency was not low.
The Forest player intercepted the ball and passed it to his teammate, who then passed it forward. A third Nottingham Forest player suddenly cut in from a position parallel to the opponent's rear defensive line. His timing was just right. Even Tang En could not help but exclaim, "Beautiful."
The fans around him had already raised their arms and cheered.
The Forest striker received the ball behind West Ham United's entire rear defensive line, and the confused West Ham United players were still raising their hands to signal to the assistant referee and the referee that the player was offside.
The Forest striker, who had formed a lone striker, calmly pushed a shot into the far corner when he faced the goalkeeper. The football flew past the West Ham United goalkeeper and then bounced into the goal …
"Boom — —!!" It was as if a ton of TNT had exploded beside his ear.
"Forest, forest! Nottingham Forest! "
There was only one voice in the stands.
The huge sound waves not only impacted Tang En's eardrums, but also his heart. He felt a dull pain in his left chest and touched it with his hand. He didn't feel anything unusual. Instead, he used his hand to directly feel the strength of the heartbeat.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
It was quite powerful. It was as if the strength was about to rush out of his chest.
With his right hand pressed against his heart, Tang En's gaze nailed to the man below.
The man was not as excited as the players on the field, at least on the surface. He only raised his head and looked around the stands. Nottingham Forest's team song was already ringing from the stands. Tang En could even sing along — the melody was too familiar. He had heard it no less than a thousand times.
"The world is in our hands! We are England's best team! "
After looking around, the man opened his arms to the singing. He leaned back and raised his head, as if enjoying the moment.
Tang En seemed to hear the man's thoughts.
I love this sound! I love the smell here! I love this exciting scene! I love everything here! I love football!
In the stands, Tang En could not help but open his arms and close his eyes, listening to the chorus that was no different from noise to ordinary people. It was truly the world's best sounds of nature.
By the time Tang En opened his eyes again, the noise beside his ears had retreated like the tide. Instead, the sound of the tide came faintly from outside the window. What came into view was not the green field or the sea of people on the stands, but the white ceiling.
This was his home.
He only reacted after being stunned for about ten seconds. He was not in the City Ground stadium. He was just lying in one of the bedrooms of a mansion in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.
It was a dream.
Tang En gently removed his hand from under Shania's head, closed his eyes and covered his face.
He wanted to let himself fall asleep again. Perhaps that way, he could return to the City Ground stadium in 2003.
He already remembered which game it was — the FA Cup on January 3, 2003. Nottingham Forest, then still in League One (later the English Football League Championship), met the English Premier League team, West Ham United. That was Tang En's first official game as manager of Nottingham Forest. In the end, they lost 2: 3 to the referee.
Tang En did not know why he would dream of a game from so long ago. But now, he very much wanted to return to the atmosphere of that game.
Because he suddenly missed that feeling — opening his arms to embrace victory amidst the cheers of tens of thousands of people. It was as if the whole world was in his hands, and he was the master of everything. At that time, it would not be an exaggeration to say that he was a god.
Unfortunately, his efforts failed. After he woke up, his mind was unexpectedly clear, and he could not sleep no matter how hard he tried.
Not being able to find the feeling from back then made Tang En a little frustrated. He tossed and turned on the bed for a while. Afraid that he would wake Shania, he simply got up and walked to the open window in only his underwear. The sea breeze rustled the curtains, just like the tide outside, rising and falling.
Tang En was lost in thought as he looked at the gray sea outside the window.
After an unknown amount of time, he felt an extra layer of clothing on his body.
"Be careful not to catch a cold," Shania reminded him as she snuggled up behind him.
Tang En raised his hand and held Shania's small hand, feeling his wife's warmth.
The two of them did not speak again, quietly snuggling together.
After a while, Tang En broke the silence. "Shania."
"Yes?"
"Sorry …"
※ ※ ※
In fact, even though the media did indeed hype the news of Tang En becoming the new England manager for a few days, it was just to attract the attention of the public, it was just a gimmick. Any reporter with a little bit of sense would not think that Tang En would really take that position. There were a lot of candidates for the new England manager in the media, and Tony Twain was the one with the lowest possibility. It was very simple, no one believed that the Football Association would hire someone who they could not control to manage the England team. No matter how many championships he had won, it was not as useful as being "obedient".
The Football Association had not announced which candidates they were interested in. They would only say things like, "This is good," "That's good," or something like that when they were being interviewed.
The media enthusiastically gave the Football Association a list of candidates, and behind each candidate was their probability of being selected. Tony Twain was ranked at the bottom, and the probability was only a mere five percent. The evaluation of the senior experts was that "unless Shaun Harvey was crazy, he would definitely not let a wolf into the house."
This time, Shaun Harvey spread the word that the selection of the manager would first be within England, so even the best foreign manager could only wait. However, there were not many people in England who seemed to be suitable for this position. Only Everton's manager, David Moyes, and the manager of England's U21 team, Stuart Pearce, were recognized as suitable. Martin O 'Neill was also good, but unfortunately, he was a Northern Irishman.
McClaren, as a failure, would definitely not be considered. Although he wanted to prove himself again, the Football Association was lukewarm towards him.
Venables had no problem with his ability, but he was a little old. He was already 71 years old. He himself had made it clear that he was not interested in the position of England manager.
Then the media looked around the English Premier League and had to sadly admit that their league was completely dominated by foreign managers … High-level English managers were simply rare. When Tony Twain was around, everyone hated him. Now that he was gone, they realized that he had always been the one to carry the banner of the English Premier League manager.
In fact, not only was the media not optimistic about Twain becoming the England manager, even the Football Association was not optimistic. Harvey only called Twain out of necessity — as the best local manager, even if he had already resigned, his influence was still there. If England did not inform him about the selection of the manager, it would really be a little inappropriate … So even though he was not optimistic, he still had to put up a good front. If the media asked, he had to say, "We think Tony Twain is currently the most suitable candidate for the England team. Twelve championship trophies in ten years has already said it all. "
In his heart, Harvey thought that if Twain really agreed to him, then it was either Twain going crazy or the world going crazy.
※ ※ ※
"Why are you apologizing to me?" Shania hugged Twain from behind and asked softly.
"Remember when I said that I would resign and keep you company? Now I realize that I might … "Twain was silent for a while, his heart was still fighting with himself. "… might not be able to do it. So I'm very sorry, Shania. "
Shania, who was lying on his back, rolled her eyes and said, "I thought you were having an affair!"
"Uh …" Twain did not expect Shania to have such a reaction.
"Do you really think I've been coaxed by your lousy sweet words, Uncle Tony? From the moment you resigned, I didn't believe what you said. Otherwise, you would have quit long ago when you had a heart attack. "
"I …" Twain realized that Shania was right and he was speechless.
"The real reason why you left Forest was actually because of the conflict with Allan Adams." Shania let go of Twain and turned him to look at her. "Actually, you never thought that you would leave football."
"No …" Twain wanted to defend himself.
But Shania interrupted him again.
"Alright, Uncle Tony. No matter what you think, I'm already satisfied. " Shania looked at Twain and smiled. Then, she quickly changed her expression and sighed. "From the moment I decided to fall in love with you, I was already mentally prepared — the love I get will always be a little less."
Twain hugged the woman in front of him.
"I'm sorry, Shania. I'm sorry … "
Other than this, what else could he say?
He did feel sorry for Shania because his love for football had not really disappeared. Therefore, the love that Shania received would inevitably be discounted.
"Are you going to call that Football Association executive?" Shania raised her head from Twain's embrace.
Twain shook his head. "No, at least not for the next few days."
"Huh? Didn't you come to tell me this because you decided to coach England? "
"I didn't say that I had to coach England. That position is not for a human … "Twain kissed Shania's forehead. Harvey's phone call only made him further aware of how much he loved football, but it did not mean that Twain was interested in that position. It was time to seriously look at the previous few invitations …
※ ※ ※
Shania and her husband stayed in Los Angeles for less than five days before they left in a hurry and boarded a flight to Spain.
There was a piece of news that was kept strictly confidential. If Marca and AS knew about it, they would definitely be shocked.
That was, Florentino had actually contacted Twain the day after the Champions League final, hoping that he would be the new captain of the Galacticos. At that time, Twain scoffed at such an invitation. But now … he had to come to the site and listen to Florentino's conditions carefully.
Both parties had a meal together and talked for a long time. Then Twain left Madrid.
It was destined that he and Real Madrid would not be fated to be together. Florentino could not satisfy Tony Twain's only request at all: he, Tony Twain, had absolute power in the construction of the team. No one could interfere, not even Raúl González.
This was the first condition that Twain put forward after he met the Spanish real estate tycoon. Florentino thought for a long time and then shook his head.
There was nothing else to talk about after that. If he could not satisfy this request, it would be useless to say anything else.
Fortunately, he did not make it public, otherwise both sides would not be able to back down now.
After leaving Madrid, Twain and Shania flew straight back to England. This was the first time he returned to England since he resigned. He did not come to talk to the Football Association about coaching the national team. He just returned to Nottingham to attend Dunn and Tang Jing's wedding, a very small and private wedding.
At the wedding, Twain did not forget to joke with the couple, saying that he was the real matchmaker. He wanted them to bow down to him.
He had a lot of fun and seemed not to worry about work at all.
In fact, apart from Real Madrid, Twain also had an invitation from Juventus and Bayern Munich. He had to make a decision as soon as possible because the new season would start in a little more than a month, and there was only one month left in the Bundesliga.
When he returned to England to attend the wedding, he contacted the two clubs through the phone. In the end, their conditions could not meet Twain's requirements. They either did not give up power or could not guarantee enough transfer budget — Twain had suffered enough at Nottingham Forest. Now that he had changed to another team, he absolutely did not want to experience the experience of tightening his belt again.
Therefore, Juventus and Bayern Munich also fell through.
Now, Twain looked at the job possibilities in his hands and found that the only one left was the England national team manager.
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