As the team that made it to the final play-offs last season, Reading had always been regarded by the Nottingham media as the Forest team's direct opponent for promotion to the Premier League this season. In the first round, Reading was forced to a draw by Ipswich Town in an away game. As long as they beat them in the second round, the Forest team would be able to widen the gap between them and Reading.
But … who would have thought that the Forest team would lose so badly?
"0: 3! This is a rout! "John Motson, who was in charge of the game, commented at the end of the game. He believed that he was also well aware of what awaited the rookie manager, Stan Collymore, a week after the game — a typhoon warning!
"A Forest Without Fighting Spirit!"
"A Forest That Failed Miserably!"
"Collymore's Hands Tied!"
"0: 3!"
From the start of the press conference after the game, the media's spearhead was pointed at the team's manager, Stan Collymore. Collymore also tasted the censure that Tang En had faced before.
Collymore became the target of the media's criticism in everything in this game: the starting lineup, the substitute lineup, the on-field command, the substitution, the midfield adjustments … As for the other players that Collymore bought in the summer, they did not perform well, but that was hardly a big crime — because everyone's attention was still on the most expensive player, Rebrov.
Rebrov could not find any feeling in the face of the tall English defender, which made people particularly miss Hailwood who continued to explode in the second half of last season — the increasingly mature striker had scored in two consecutive games for his new club.
The Nottingham Evening Post even asked, "Who chased away our best striker?!"
Who was it? Of course it was the team's manager, Collymore.
In the face of the overwhelming accusations, Collymore quickly pushed all the blame to himself. He believed that the reason why the team could not score at Reading's home ground and could not do anything in the face of the opponent's dense defense was not because of his tactical mistakes, but because the team lacked a strong center forward who could compete with the tall defenders. Facing the television cameras, he said with a stern face, "Before the summer transfer window closes, I will ask the club's board of directors to buy a strong center forward! At that time, I will show you what the real Forest team is! "
Evan Doughty responded positively to Collymore's request. On August 20th, three days before the third round, he brought a strong center forward to Collymore — Gareth Taylor. The 30-year-old former Burnley center forward was 1.88m tall and weighed 85kg. He was good at heading the ball. In the second half of the 2000-01 season, he went to Burnley on loan from Man City. He scored four goals in 15 games and joined the team for free. In the next two seasons, he represented the team in 80 games and scored 32 goals. The numbers were very average, with 16 goals in 40 games in both seasons. As a striker of an A-League team, one could not ask for too much. This result was outstanding enough.
Collymore's words gave the Burnley Football Club the right to raise the price. The big man's value rose from 200,000 to 550,000 and was finally brought to the City Ground stadium by Evan Doughty to meet the media and fans.
At the press conference and meeting with the fans, Collymore happily patted Taylor on the shoulder and announced to the media, "I'm very happy to have Taylor. He's a great player. With him, we can smash the doors of all the A-League teams! "
Smash the doors of all the teams?
The Cardiff people laughed. They left the City Ground stadium satisfied with the three points, leaving Collymore with a 1: 2 score and a mess.
The visiting team, Cardiff, scored two goals in a row in the opening ten minutes and completely stunned Nottingham Forest. The home team did not get a point back until the 70th minute of the game with a free kick by Reid, but it was to no avail. Collymore sent Rebrov and Taylor to partner up the front line. The striker duo, whom he had high hopes for, did not score a goal, which made him lose face.
Faced with the media and fans who were already complaining, Collymore found a new excuse — — "Taylor has only been with the team for a short three days. He hasn't even had time to train with the team. It's normal to have poor teamwork. But I believe that as long as you give me a little more time, I promise you will see a strong Nottingham Forest team! "
What a great thing to say!
How wonderful it sounds!
Feeling the immense pressure from the outside world, the Forest team and Collymore finally won the game. They beat Coventry City 3: 1 in the away game. But to Collymore's embarrassment, Rebrov and Taylor, whom he trusted, still did not score. The Forest team's first two goals were scored by Andy Reid in the 19th and 61st minute respectively. The third goal was scored by substitute David Johnson in the 77th minute in the 85th minute. Rebrov and Taylor did not do anything at all.
After four rounds of the league tournament, the team's top scorer turned out to be Andy Reid, who played as the left midfielder, who scored three goals.
The 20-year-old Reid earned a salary of 1,000 pounds a week, while the 29-year-old Rebrov earned 11,500 pounds a week, the highest in the team. In terms of salary, Reid was less than a tenth of Rebrov's, but he scored three times as many goals as the Ukrainian. It was ironic!
Just when Collymore felt that he could breathe a sigh of relief, on the last day of August, in the fifth round of the A-League, Nottingham Forest faced Norwich City at home. His team was forced to a 0: 0 score by the opponent at home. At the beginning of his tenure, he promised the media and fans that he would let them see beautiful attacking football. The implication was that his predecessor's football was not beautiful at all. What about now?
His predecessor, Tony Twain's Forest team might not be as good as the current Forest team in terms of the quality of the players, but they were able to beat Stoke City 6: 0 at home, while Collymore's team could not even win against Norwich City. They could not even score a goal.
Rebrov could already clearly hear the boos directed at him from the stands at the City Ground stadium. Taylor was not having an easy time either. He was 1.88 meters tall, but he could not even score a header.
"Goal! Goal! Goal! We need to score! " The media was shouting, and the fans were also questioning why a forward line combination of two million pounds and a 500,000 pound player could not even score a goal.
Five rounds of the 03-04 A-League season, Nottingham Forest, who was previously considered by the media to be the favorite to advance to the Premier League, had two wins, two losses and one draw. They only accumulated seven points and were ranked twelfth in the league. Such a start was worse than Paul Hart's start last season.
The Nottingham Evening Post did a random survey on the streets of Nottingham. The number of fans who thought Forest would return to the Premier League at the end of the season had dropped from 71% before the season to 36%. Sixty-two percent of the fans thought the reason for the terrible situation was the team's manager, Stan Collymore's incompetence. There were even four percent of the interviewees who thought that if Collymore continued to coach the team, then it would be impossible for Forest to stay in A-League by the end of the season — people would find Nottingham Forest's name in the list of teams participating in the next season's A-League.
Before agreeing to become the Forest manager, Stan Collymore thought that coaching the team would be easy, as easy as scoring goals. But now he was in a terrible fix.
He had no plan in his mind on how to improve the team's performance. Maybe he could only hope that Rebrov and Taylor, whom he had high hopes for, would quickly break out and score a goal to save the situation.
During the preparation period before the season, Collymore almost threw all the training to Des Walker and did not ask about it himself. He did not even come to the training ground often. Who knew where he ran off to? Maybe he was lying in the arms of a woman, or maybe he was drunk and lying in front of the toilet in the bathroom vomiting …
Des Walker was also very helpless about this. He had reminded Collymore several times to pay attention to the negative impact his actions, as a manager, would have on the players. But he retorted with a "I'm the boss here."
Looking at the team's low morale because of the poor results, even he, as an assistant manager, felt that his work was dull. Walker suddenly missed Tang En, who was in the youth team, and he did not know how he was doing in the north.
If he were here, he would never let things develop to this point. I really can't understand why Mr. Chairman wants to remove Tang En from his position … Hey, Mr. Chairman sitting high up on the second floor, open your eyes and see. Is Collymore better than Tang En? Who can tell me where he's better?
While Collymore was being blamed for the team's poor results, Tang En's youth team had achieved three consecutive victories in Group Four of the FA Youth League. They had won 4: 1 at home against Leicester City, 2: 0 against Derby County, and 1: 0 against Walsall. In addition, the team had also won 2: 1 against West Bromwich Albion's youth team in the first round of the FA Youth Cup on August 19th, advancing into the second round. On September 27th, they would face Bradford City's youth team at home.
When Tang En was in charge of the youth team's affairs, he discovered his strengths and weaknesses. Just like in the First Team, he was still not good at training the players. He might be able to give a general direction, such as suggesting a player to do more training in a certain area, but he was unable to give a detailed and specific training plan. Tang En understood that this might be a flaw that would accompany him throughout his coaching career. However, he did not intend to work hard to improve his ability in this area. A person's energy and time were limited. If you were good at something, you would be bad at something else. It was impossible for Tang En, who had switched to coaching halfway through, to become an all-rounder.
His ability in training the players was lackluster, but his ability to direct the team's matches and train the players' psychology made Assistant Manager David Kerslake feel ashamed of his own inferiority. This person, who had graduated from Paul Hart's tutelage with him, lamented that it was a waste of Tang En's talent to lead the youth team to compete here.
"Tony, your stadium is not here." After training one day, he pointed to the Wilford training ground beneath his feet and said to Tang En, "Where should your stadium be?" He then pointed to the east, which was where the City Ground stadium was located.
"David, you're right. My stadium should be there. But not now. I still have to wait … "Tang An muttered as he looked at the dusky sky in the east.
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