Godfather Of Champions

“After the draw results came out, Nottingham Forest and Barcelona were drawn together, and they will meet in the Round of 16. Due to Manager Tony Twain’s unexpected move at the awards ceremony, there will be a lot to watch for in this pair of competitors from last season’s Champions League final. The two managers from both teams accepted our interviews after the draw. Twain admitted that this is the best draw result that he can think of, and he can’t wait for the Champions League round of 16 game to start right away. Compared to Twain’s aggressiveness, the Barcelona manager, Rijkaard was more low-key. He admitted that he did not expect their Round of 16 opponent would be Nottingham Forest. But Barcelona will not play differently just because the opponent is the Forest team. They will play their own style of football and the key to winning or losing is not the opponent, but how they play.”

The next day, media outlets scrambled over each other to eagerly cover the results of the draw. Naturally the English and Catalan media gave the most coverage and made the most effort.

No one was naïve enough to think that the draw was a coincidence. The feud between Barcelona and Nottingham Forest was well known, and the UEFA had killed two birds with one stone. On one hand, it could rely on the strong Barcelona to suppress the detestable Nottingham Forest. On the other hand, a fierce competition coupled with the continued enmity from last season could also let the media maximize the hype and keep the fans interested. In terms of commercial interests, this was free publicity.

It was the media’s business for how they liked to hype this, and Twain was not concerned about it at all… even though it was his antics that were the cause.

What delighted him was after his return from Nyon, Switzerland, he was greeted by a high-spirited team at the team’s training the next day. Everyone, especially the players who had experienced the defeat of last season’s final were all quite happy with the draw result. They eagerly looked forward to the reopening of the Champions League tournament.

Things would be all right when he and his team were of one mind.

Ayala had passed the medical examination and joined the team. Although he was only officially on loan, Twain had already included him in his plans for next season. After Pepe’s injury, Ayala’s experience could help the team. Although he could only play in the England’s league tournament, Twain was quite satisfied.

Twain’s current thinking was simple: grab as many points as possible in the league tournament before the game against Barcelona. Whether it was the second or third place, he wanted the team to enter a safe period in the league tournament after the Champions League competition had started again, so that he could have a free hand to go all out in a big fight in another arena.

At the same time, during the points grab, to minimize injuries in the team, the only solution was rotation.

This type of rotation was not about making small adjustments and filling the gaps. It was a major rotation. Everyone in the team would have a chance to play for the team and be the turning point that determined the outcome of a game.

Sun Jihai’s performance against Chelsea was a positive example to the team’s players, showing them that anyone could become a hero. Whether they were in the starting lineup or substitutes, it was possible as long as they never gave up.

The Chinese media found a way to hype up this matter, which eventually became “The Chinese Sun becomes the spiritual leader of Nottingham Forest.” Sun Jihai found the news both funny and extremely embarrassing.

The Champions League draw turned out to be an important motivator for the Forest team to move forward, and the team used this momentum in the domestic league.

On January 30th, during the first league game after the draw, the Forest team easily beat Fulham at home with a score of 2:0.

With the Forest team’s winning streak in January, Tony Twain was named the best manager of January and the Forest team was named the best team. Since their loss at home to Manchester United on November 18th the last year, Nottingham Forest had maintained twelve unbeaten rounds, setting in the league tournament, and continued to press in on Manchester United in first place and Chelsea in second.

However, after he received the best manager spot, the Forest team weirdly lost 1:2 to Blackburn Rovers in the first away game in February.

Twain was not afraid to lose. He thought that occasional loss was good for the entire team. It was like if a person was not sick at times, then it might be fatal once he fell ill.

He did not chase after the meaningless record of consecutive unbeaten rounds or wins in succession. The process was not important. The final results were the important part. If losing a game now allowed him to finally get the title, Twain did not mind losing the game at all.

It would come to an end in one month’s time.

The first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 game against Barcelona was on the night of February 20th. Before that, the Forest team played only two games in February, an away loss to Blackburn Rovers and a home win over Tottenham Hotspur.

But Twain’s players did not get a full break just because they played two games. Due to the national team games, the players had to play the national team competition after they played in the league tournament.

The February results were not ideal, even though the morale of the Forest team was not affected. Everyone placed more importance on the upcoming game than the league tournament.

※※※

After the national team games ended, the players regrouped. By this time the media began to hype the Champions League tournament.

Not only England and Catalonia, but the whole world was watching the Champions League rekindle the competition. But what everyone was most concerned with was Nottingham Forest’s battle with Barcelona.

According to the game schedule, the Forest team would play the first leg in an away game. Therefore, after the players returned from their respective national teams, and despite being five days away from the actual game day, Twain simply brought the team straight to Spain.

At the training session on the outskirts of Barcelona, Twain declined all media interviews and only promised to hold a press conference a day before the game to answer all media questions.

Then he took the team into a rented university stadium and began a four-day closed door training session.

They studied Barcelona to develop a countermeasure that would take into account anything that might happen in the game. All the members of the coaching unit worked like a fully powered electric motor at Twain’s request.

Even if Twain had not asked them to do so, everyone would still have done so. All the people at Nottingham Forest could not wait for the day they could take revenge.

Time passed quickly, and the four days of training reached their last day. Twain would hold a press conference at the hotel where the team was staying to satisfy the reporters’ exuberant curiosity later in the day. Before that, though, he had one more thing to do.

The next day was the game, so there was only half a day of training for the day. They mainly focused on the set-piece practice. In fact, everyone’s mind was not on the training.

After the training was done, the team returned to the hotel where the media had begun to gather. Twain did not intend to go to the press conference right away. He took the team to a meeting room where videos could be played.

The players did not know what Twain wanted to do. It didn’t make sense for it to be a tactical preparation meeting; they had already had the meeting on the sidelines of the training ground.

Only Dunn and Kerslake, the two assistant managers in the coaching unit, knew what Twain had in mind.

Once they entered the meeting room, Twain turned off the lights and the room was suddenly plunged into darkness. A video began to play on the white screen in front of everyone and the surround sound speakers around the room began to play a commentary.

“To all viewers out there, welcome to the 2005 to 2006 season UEFA Champions League final! The two competitors are the powerhouse teams, Barcelona from Spain, and the dark horse of England, Nottingham Forest!”

When the voice started, someone looked back at Twain, standing at the back of the room. Their manager was staring at the big screen without any expression on his face.

As the commentator said, it was the Champions League final last season. Twain wanted his players to watch the failed game.

When Edwin van der Sar was sent off, the picture on the big screen was chaotic, with sounds of boos and the commentator’s screaming coming out of the speakers.

When Albertini scored, the British commentator roared, and the young players could not help but stand up and wave their fists in the dark meeting room.

Within five minutes of the second half, Barcelona scored two equalizing goals in a row and completed their mission to overtake. The game ended, and everyone from the Forest team took to the stage to collect their silver medals, and Twain in turn gave the medal he had just won to a ball boy on the sidelines. The image faded and the noises from the game and commentary died out. The meeting room was plunged into a brief silence.

After a while, the lights in the room lit up again.

Twain spoke, “do you know why I want you to review last year’s final game?”

No one made a sound.

“Before I reveal this answer to you, I have a question for you.” Twain walked forward, passing among the players. “How do you feel when you lose a game?”

“Awful, chief.” Albertini led the way with his answer. He had somewhat guessed Twain’s intentions and decided to fully cooperate with the manager.

Twain smiled at Albertini. He also knew what Albertini had in mind.

“And everyone agrees with Demetrio?”

No one disagreed.

“Very good. So now I ask you again, what if we lost a very, very important game that should have never been lost?” Twain looked at Albertini.

After a moment’s silence, Albertini replied, “Then it feels like we’re as good as dead…”

Twain nodded. “Looks like we have that in common, Demetrio. That’s right, it does feel like that to lose an important game, as if the world has collapsed and our souls are gone… Does anyone think I’m joking?”

The players all shook their heads.

“But we’re not dead, and the world is still spinning, right? So the loss of a game feels more like a disgrace to me. Do you feel good when you see our opponent strutting around in front of us?” Twain raised his voice.

“No, Chief!” everyone answered loudly.

“It was a great disgrace for us to lose to Barcelona in the Champions League final in front of the world!” Twain brandished his fist and growled loudly. “They took the trophy that was supposed to belong to us and became the king of Europe. But what about us? We were forgotten by people! No one cared what the loser’s name was and what our future would be like. This world will only remember the champion! Don’t complain. My dear boys, this is the competition for rule of the world. The winner is the king and the loser becomes nothing! You find it intolerable? We clearly gave as much, or maybe even more, effort, but in the end, we did not receive the due return. When I went on stage to receive the silver medal, did anyone feel like I did? Do you feel anger here?!” Twain punched himself hard in the chest.

“Yes!” Someone got up from his seat amidst the roar.

“Runner-up, silver medal… Ha!” Twain scorned, “They thought giving us silver medals would appease us? For me, if that sh*tty thing hangs on my chest, it will only constantly remind me this: ‘You’re a motherf**king loser!’ What bastard would go through all that trouble to advance to the final, just to get the silver medal?! This kind of thing doesn’t deserve to be in our trophy room at all. That sacred place is reserved for the championship trophy!”

Twain paced back and forth agitatedly in the conference room, gesticulating as he imparted to the players the philosophy “except for the championship title, everything else is a piece of dog sh*t.”

“Last season’s UEFA Champions League runner-up… does that sound good? Pretty amazing, isn’t it? Is it worth repeated mentions? No! Only shameless people will feel that getting the runner-up title is a worthwhile thing to show off!”

“Pity… unfortunately, we became such a loser… This is a cruel world. Losing is losing, you can’t turn back the clock and have another go with your opponent. No matter how you lose, the result cannot be changed once it is determined. What to do? Do you acknowledge the result? Are you willing to be a loser?”

“No!” The players hollered.

“Of course not.” Twain shook his finger and pointed to George Wood. “I once said to George, losing is not a reason to give up. You lose this game and you can still win it back in the next game. What you lose in a game due to defeat, you can win it back in the next game! This is what I want to tell all of you, and I want you to remember — I don’t care what you’re going to do or where you will be in the future, you have to remember this — this is the kind of football I want you to play! Even if you are knocked to the ground by a powerful opponent countless times and tumble pathetically through mud puddles, you have to get up the next second! Lose this game and win back in the next game; lose this championship title and win it back the next championship; concede the ball this time and get it back the next time! It’s as simple as that.”

“Now you know why I asked you to watch this video before the game, right?” Twain swept his glance across the entire room. Everyone was quiet but had a look of determination in their eyes.

“I don’t want you kids to forget what it’s like to have an unforgettable failure. You guys — including me — all of us have to keep in mind. Remember how humiliating and painful it was to lose the championship title! Fortunately, thank heavens!” Twain pointed toward the ceiling. “We drew a good lot.”

Everyone laughed.

“We lose this game, we win it back in the next game. What we lose in this game, we’ll win it back the next game! Here’s your chance, guys.” Twain grinned, like a sly devil luring them to the dark side. “So what if this is an away game? Accumulate your humiliation, unwillingness, regret, and anger! This time tomorrow let’s give them hundredfold back to Barcelona!!”

The meeting room suddenly descended into chaos. The players kicked over the chairs and jumped on the table, waving their fists and growling loudly.

Twain looked at the players with satisfaction. He patted Kerslake and motioned for him to sort out the situation. He quietly opened the door and left. He still had to attend the press conference. He was certain that the reporters must be getting a little impatient.

※※※

As expected, when Twain arrived at the press conference, the reporters had waited until they were ready to get up and leave — they thought that they had been fooled by Tony Twain again.

Fortunately, Twain arrived in time. He looked at the disgruntled reporters, and for the first time he did not provoke them. Instead, he smiled and apologized.

“I’m sorry. I was delayed by something. As you all know, tomorrow is the game. I don’t deny that this is an important game for Nottingham Forest and for me personally. So, we have to be more well prepared and meticulous. More time is also required. But to make up for my lateness, I promise you will see a very good game tomorrow and you will have a lot of topics to hype up.”

“Just a one-sided guarantee?” A Spanish journalist asked in English. “Mr. Twain, an exciting game requires two teams to work together, as if…” He wanted to give an example of the second leg of ’04-05 La Liga season where there had been a classic battle between Real Madrid versus Barcelona with a score of 4:2.

Twain interrupted him with a smile on his face. “Is there anything wrong with my promise? This game has already entered my orbit.”

As soon as the words came out, the reporters became animated. Although such a pretentious statement was consistent with Twain’s character, every time he uttered such words, it still stirred people up.

“This is the home of Barcelona, Mr. Twain.” The same Spanish — or rather, Catalonian — reporter frowned as he continued to ask questions.

“Yes, so what if it’s your home ground?” Twain retorted aggressively.

“It’s just that it’s normally more difficult to play an away game…” This reporter’s voice became softer.

“Convention is useless against my team.” Twain waved. “I said it is in my orbit, so it is in my orbit. If you don’t believe me, you’ll see tomorrow!”