After the "death threat" case, the Nottingham Police strengthened the security around him and Allan Adams at Evan Doughty's request. He himself became the laughing stock of the entire European football world. In the history of European football, the number of club chairmen who received "death threats" from their own fans could be counted on one hand.
After that, he did not receive any strange letters with bullets, blades or white powder in the envelopes. But his and Allan's offices were flooded with angry letters from the fans.
Evan Doughty's open letter completely angered the fans.
What did he mean by "it's time to forget Tony Twain"? What did he mean by "it's time to start a new period of glory"?
This guy doesn't know anything. Tony brought us so much glory, and most importantly, so many good memories. Can he be forgotten just like that? Especially when it's only been a little more than two months and you're saying it's time to start a new journey? Do you think everyone is heartless? Until more than a decade later, there are still people who keep remembering Brian Clough. Then we also have reason to believe that even after 20 years, Tony Twain will only be mentioned by us!
And you, Mr. Evan Doughty. When you leave the position of chairman, how many people will still remember you? No … Maybe there will still be many people who will remember you, but it will definitely not be a "good memory".
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In order to divert the attention of the fans and vent their anger, Nottingham Forest Football Club was stepping up their actions in the transfer market. They had already lost too much time due to the turbulence in the previous period. In the preparation competition with their main competitors, they fell to the last place.
If their goal this season was really to compete for the title, then they had to hurry up in the next ten days. The English Premier League would kick off on August 19th. Before that, Nottingham Forest still had a Community Shield game to play. As the Forest team won the Treble last season, their opponent in the Community Shield would be Arsenal, who was ranked second in the league.
Just as the Forest team was still looking for suitable new players, they lost another important player.
Nuri Şahin's agent reached an agreement with Bayern Munich, and Nottingham Forest Football Club agreed to release him. This transfer deal would bring the Forest Football Club 18 million pounds in revenue.
The successive departures of Pepe and Şahin seemed to be playing out in front of the Forest fans' eyes like a live scene of "Dynasties Go Away." Moreover, they had reason to believe that in the future, such parting would occur frequently.
On the 5th of August, Victor Moses transferred to Middlesbrough for a fee of eight million pounds. In his five seasons at Nottingham Forest, he did not have many opportunities to play. Most of the time, he was out on loan to train. Originally, he had intended to stay in the team and wait for an opportunity. However, the turmoil in the club over the past two months had caused him to lose confidence in the team and decide to leave.
A day later, Nottingham Forest announced an "exciting" transfer.
After arduous negotiations, Nottingham Forest finally came to an agreement with Inter Milan. Inter Milan's leading striker from last season, Balotelli, successfully transferred to England's Treble winning team. The transfer fee was 35 million pounds!
Mario Balotelli, also known as "Super Mario" in Italy. He was Inter Milan's most outstanding young player in recent years and was regarded as Inter Milan's hope for the next ten years. However, due to Mourinho's departure, his relationship with the new manager, Zola, was terrible. He kept asking for a transfer.
He originally wanted to go to Manchester United, where Mourinho was, and Manchester United did indeed extend an olive branch to Balotelli.
However, Evan Doughty, who urgently needed to save his reputation in front of the fans, suddenly intervened and made the "consensual" transfer complicated. In the end, Nottingham Forest relied on money to suppress Manchester United. The high price of 35 million pounds was a price that Manchester United was unwilling to pay. Inter Milan rejected Manchester United's offer of 24 million pounds and accepted Nottingham Forest. Therefore, Balotelli could only accept the result of being "separated" and "committed" to Nottingham Forest, which had a bad reputation recently.
He did not show such emotions at the press conference. He still praised the team for winning the Treble and claimed that it had always been his wish to join such a great team.
The addition of the Italian golden boy to the team somewhat eased some of the fans' resentment towards the club. There was a significant decrease in the number of protest letters sent to Evan Doughty and Allan Adams, affectionately greeting their mothers and wives.
In fact, as time went by, such letters would only become fewer and fewer. Because after the start of the new season, the fans would mainly focus on the team's matches and not many would be interested in arguing with a tortoise. However, Evan Doughty better pray that the team's results under Flores could continue to be at Tony Twain's level, otherwise what awaited him would be a more violent storm.
If the team's results were good, all problems would not be problems. If the team's results were not good, it would still be a problem even if there were no problems.
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Twain was still paying attention to Nottingham Forest. He had no choice but to pay attention to it. In England's planned list, Nottingham Forest's players occupied an important spot.
He would be going to the new Wembley Stadium to watch the game in the Community Shield and observe the performance of the English players from both sides.
While paying attention to the team, he tried his best not to criticize Evan Doughty in the newspapers for his wasteful behavior. Because if he really did that, he would obviously be overstepping his authority and it would be unfair to the team's new manager. He did not want to interfere with the club's actions. He reminded himself that he had nothing to do with the team anymore, ever since he rejected Evan Doughty's second invitation.
Fortunately, the new season was about to start and he would be busy with his work again. He had no time to think about other things.
The people of Nottingham would naturally pay attention to the fate of Nottingham Forest.
The problem he was facing now was how to face George Wood during the next national team match.
He had heard from Billy Woox on the phone that Wood was now very unhappy with him. If he did not handle it well, it could be the fuse that would split the national team. In Twain's plan, George Wood was definitely the most important part. Just like in Forest, all his arrangements revolved around Wood.
If Wood did not cooperate because he had something against him, then he would be in big trouble …
Before the Community Shield Cup, Tang En hoped to meet Wood and have a good chat. However, he was rejected by Wood with the reason that he had to focus on preparing for the Community Shield.
This made Twain frown. Could this be a bad omen?
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The Community Shield was a test for the new manager, Flores. He had to deliver a satisfactory result. Otherwise, his future as a manager would not be peaceful. After all, he was facing a group of picky Nottingham Forest fans. These people had been spoiled by Tony Twain for the past 10 years.
Champions and victories were their tradition.
However, the main character of this match was not Flores.
When Twain appeared on the stands, the cameras kept moving towards him. The commentator and guest commentator also tried to find something to talk about.
"I'm afraid this is Tony Twain's first time watching a Nottingham Forest match from the stands?"
"No, no. He's not unfamiliar with this feeling. You have to know how many times he was sent to the stands during his time as Forest's manager … Ha! "
"George Wood's performance is very steady. Let's see Twain's expression … Hmm, there's no expression at all …"
"Arsenal scored! A beautiful combination of four consecutive kicks and one pass completely tore apart the Forest team's defensive line! The camera panned to Twain again. He was talking to England's assistant manager, Des Walker, beside him. Ah, sorry, I'm thinking about how he would react if he was down there … "
"Nottingham Forest equalized the score! Mitchell's header! A classic Tony Twain attack … Ha, the camera panned to Twain again. There's no joy on his face … Ah, he's England's manager now. He has nothing to do with Nottingham Forest anymore. Looks like Flores is using Twain's tactics for the sake of the team's stability … "
"That's normal. After all, he's only taken over the team for a few days. There are many things he's not familiar with. The safest way is to use the tactics that the team is most used to. Kerslake must have helped Flores a lot … He's an outstanding assistant manager. It's said that Tony Twain had looked for him when he was forming the England team's coaching team. However, he rejected him … Ah, the camera panned to Twain again! "
…
After the match, a busybody made a very boring statistic. In this match that lasted a total of 94 minutes, the live television broadcast gave a total of 11 close-up shots of Tony Twain, who was sitting in the stands, and another four shots that swept past him.
The match ended with Arsenal's victory. Nottingham Forest, who had just gone through a huge change in personnel, was still able to compete with Arsenal in the first half. It showed the strength of their treble last season. The score in the first half was 1: 1. Forest's strength was reflected in their equalizer less than five minutes after Arsenal scored a goal. At that moment, it was as though Tony Twain's Forest team had reappeared — their unyielding spirit was still there.
However, in the second half, the team seemed to be sleepwalking. The team seemed to have lost their fighting spirit. Perhaps it was because the recent abnormal training was unable to keep the players in shape. Perhaps everyone lost their fighting spirit when they thought about the various actions of the club. In short, Forest's performance made people sleepy when faced with Arsenal's attack.
In the end, Arsenal scored two consecutive goals in the second half and won the game with a score of 3: 1, winning the first title of the new season.
The Forest players who lost the game did not seem to care about the result. Their eyes wandered, and they shook hands with their opponents absent-mindedly, exchanged jerseys, and then walked off the field with their heads down.
In the stands, there were Nottingham Forest fans who were dissatisfied with the result. They gathered together and collectively cursed Evan Doughty and his "lackey", Allan Adams.
On the podium, Evan Doughty awkwardly shook hands with the Arsenal Football Club chairman, Peter Hill-Wood. Old Hillwood patted him gently on the shoulder and said something, perhaps to comfort him …
In fact, Hillwood was indeed comforting Doughty. "It's nothing, we just lost a Community Shield."
Then, when he left the podium and walked out, he said to the people around him, "Nottingham Forest is finished. It's worth celebrating. We've lost one of our strongest competitors. "
Then he grinned and left the stadium podium with a smile.
Evan Doughty stood where he was and looked at the field below with an uncertain expression. No one knew what he was thinking.
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Tony Twain and Des Walker walked down from the stands of the stadium. When they arrived at the hall below, they were blocked by the many waiting media members. The reporters all asked Twain to express his opinion on the game.
So, Twain's speech was very official.
"The game was good. Arsenal won the championship without a doubt. Walcott's performance was very good. It's no problem for him to be named the best player in the game. Of course, Wood's performance was also very good. It's a pity that the team was not in form and dragged him down … "
The reporters were not satisfied with such an answer. They were not here to listen to such nonsense.
"Some time ago, there was a scandal about the Forest Football Club. What do you think of it?"
"I'm not the manager of Nottingham Forest. I won't express any opinion on this," Twain replied with a straight face.
But the reporters ignored Twain's statement. They kept bombarding him with questions about Nottingham Forest. They did not believe that he would not speak.
To be honest, Tang En was still very concerned about what had happened to the Forest team during this period of time. He had a lot to say about it, but he was the only one mumbling about it. It would not be good for outsiders to hear it.
In the end, it was Pierce Brosnan who helped him out. "Can you comment on Flores?"
Twain used this opportunity to step down. "Flores is a very outstanding manager. He has already proven his ability when he was coaching at Valencia. I wish him the best of luck and hope that he can stay in Forest for a little longer … "
His words had a double meaning.
After answering the question, Twain and Des Walker squeezed out of the crowd and left in a hurry.
After a while, the media would probably not ask him like this anymore. Everyone had to accept the fact that no matter what Nottingham Forest's future became, it had nothing to do with Tony Twain. After dedicating the most precious 11 years of his life to this team, Twain began a brand new journey.
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