Godfather Of Champions

Having tied with Real Madrid in the away game, the Forest team already had the upper hand in the duel for the top four spots between the two teams. However, this advantage was not secure. Twain dared not say his team would be able to reach the semi-finals. His team was competing in two tournaments, so he had to be careful. This season was not the same as last season, when he decided on the approach to give up the league tournament to guarantee the Champions League, so that the team could prepare to compete in just one tournament. At present, Twain’s team needed to put its energy in both the league tournament and Champions League. The team had to close the gap in score with Manchester United in the Premier League and strive to reach the Champions League finals for the third time in a row.

Back in Nottingham for the challenge against the underdog team, Birmingham City, in the league tournament, Twain would make a rotation.

With a line-up made up of an equal number of main players and substitute players, the Forest team easily beat Birmingham City at home by 2:0. George Wood did not play in the game, and the substitute player, Sidwell, did well in the starting lineup.

Twain apparently noticed that the players yearned for more chances to play. He would let everyone have a game to play whenever the conditions allowed.

Bendtner replaced van Nistelrooy to start and scored the two goals. He was selected as the best player of the game after the match and received a bottle of champagne. He looked very happy when he spoke to the reporters. When Twain first brought him from Denmark to England, he said he was the future of the team, the core player and main striker of the Forest team in the future, but there had been Viduka and Anelka, and after that, van Nistelrooy. Bendtner’s position had always been awkward. All he could do now was to seize the rare opportunities to try to show himself and strive to score more goals.

He had done very well this season, with eleven goals recorded while he played as a substitute — eight goals in the league tournament and three goals in various cup tournaments.

He also sat firmly in the position of the main striker for the Denmark national team.

In Twain’s mind, he nurtured Bendtner as the Forest team’s future main center forward. Van Nistelrooy would grow old. His physical condition and competitive state would decline, and frequent injuries would follow, normal, predictable conditions. Bendtner would have to take over. With the guarantee of a strong center forward, other players on the forward line would be easy to find. He could head to the transfer market and look for another one to join Eastwood and Arshavin. He did not have to worry too much about Nottingham Forest’s forward line over the next ten years.

When he first bought Bendtner, he changed the fate of the Danish lad, but in order to avoid the tragedy of spoiling things to seek instant benefits, Twain intended to allow Bendtner to develop slowly in accordance with the experience he knew and not suddenly push him onto the main forward line. He hoped that Bendtner could slowly learn, gradually grow, and finally become Nottingham Forest’s reigning striker in a few years.

That was his plan. Twain thought he considered well and that he had taken every aspect into account. Nothing should have been overlooked.

When he saw Bendtner was awarded as the best player in the game, he gave high praises to the Danish kid in the locker room. While he complimented him, Twain seemed to see Bendtner become the Premier League’s future king of strikers and the glory years of Nottingham Forest dominating Europe…

Another piece of good news that made Twain happy was that in the round of the league tournament, Nottingham Forest’s other rivals were either tied or defeated in their games — Manchester United tied 2:2 with Middlesbrough in their away game, Arsenal tied 1:1 with Liverpool at home, and Chelsea lost 0:2 to Manchester City in their away game.

The Forest team still ranked second, but only had a one-point gap with the first placed, Manchester United and six points difference with the third placed Arsenal. As long as they did not make any big mistakes, they could basically secure their second place.

Twain’s goal for the season was not to be second in the league. He had already been in the second place for two consecutive seasons. The media had taken to calling him “always second best” which was unfair to him because he was the manager of a Champions League and EFL Cup winning team. But the media’s dictionary did not have the word “fairness.” As long as there was something to be hyped, they would do so.

Even if the media had not given Twain such a nasty nickname, Twain did not want to be second in the league tournament anymore. His aim for the season was the league title. To settle for second place in the league did not make him happy. He was delighted with Manchester United’s mistake now that the teams were only one point apart. More importantly, the Forest team had not yet played against Manchester United in the second half of the league tournament.

As long as they did not make any more mistakes themselves, there would be an opportunity to compete against Manchester United. According to the competition schedule, Nottingham Forest would challenge Manchester United in an away game in the final round of the league tournament this season. If the point difference between the two teams was still one point, then it would be time for the league champion to be fresh.

It was good for the English Premier League and fans for the competition to be so intense.

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After they played the 33rd round of the league tournament, Nottingham Forest ranked second, with 76 points. Immediately thereafter, they would face their powerful rival, Real Madrid, at home.

It was not the first time Real Madrid had been the visiting team at the City Ground stadium. Although they were meeting for the first time in the knockout stage, Twain’s first opponent of the group stage in his first Champions League season was Real Madrid, which was also the first game at the City Ground stadium since its return to the Champions League after many years.

Numerous Spanish media outlets came to England with Real Madrid. They were rather concerned about this game because Real Madrid had stopped at the Champions League round of 16 for three consecutive seasons. To be able to advance to the quarterfinals this season had led to expectations that they could win the tenth Champions League trophy in their club’s history. If this did happen, Real Madrid could be considered the most well-deserved top team among the football clubs.

With such strong expectations, there was no reason to stop at the quarterfinals.

Despite the home draw of 1:1 with Nottingham Forest, the media and fans were still more bullish on Real Madrid. The Forest team only had one away goal and it was a draw for both teams. They believed that Real Madrid might concede a few goals, but it was impossible for them not to score. As long as there was a goal, an away goal, one goal would offset Nottingham Forest’s away goal. The additional goals would all be Real Madrid’s earned advantage.

Even if the two teams eventually tied at 3:3 at the City Ground stadium, it would be Real Madrid that would advance.

Therefore, the Real Madrid people came to the optimistic conclusion of their inevitable promotion.

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The Real Madrid team had yet to leave for Nottingham, but Tony Twain had already started the fight.

In an interview with the British paper, The Guardian, he spoke about the first leg of the match between the two teams. He admitted that his tactics were to deal with Guti, and then praised Guti as the core of Real Madrid. The remarks all appeared to be normal and was a very common interview when published.

However, following that, Twain changed tack.

“In fact, I think Guti should be happy about being harassed by the crowd and hobbling off the field after the game, because it showed one thing. He gets the attention of the enemy. Looking back at a few years ago, while he was still on the bench…” Twain laughed and did not go on.

The content of the interview was marked in bold by the newspaper editor, and its meaning was self-evident.

Sure enough, after the Spanish media printed the interview, it caused many reactions.

No elaboration on the reactions of Real Madrid fans were required. On The Guardian’s website alone, almost all of the comments below the interview rebuked Tony Twain. Some of the comments were in English, some were in Spanish, and there was even Japanese and Chinese.

With the exception of Real Madrid supporters, the majority of the people thought that Tony Twain lacked respect for his opponent.

“I can’t believe those words were said by a famous manager…” a famous commentator in the Spanish press Diario AS critiqued Tony Twain’s remarks.

“We are a gentleman’s country and pay attention to the spirit of sportsmanship. I think Tony Twain’s remarks are a serious violation of what we are proud of…” Even British government officials felt that Twain’s remarks embarrassed them. The sports secretary, Tessa Jowell criticized Twain. After all, the Real Madrid Club and the Spanish royal family had a very good relationship. They represented the Spanish sports image abroad and that image was disparaged by a Premier League manager.

The Sun’s “Tony Twain’s brain has a loose screw again” headline was striking. They even made a special feature to uncover all the incredible comments that Twain had said since he took office and captioned “Tony Twain’s Crazy Talk.”

There was a sea of punitive voices in the Spanish media, and the English media almost one-sidedly stood against Twain. They slammed him for never using his brain before speaking and indirectly demanded Twain to come forward and explain his remarks, which were clearly insulting to his opponent.

Subsequently, Twain came out and explained in his own column.

“I’m very surprised at the reactions that my remarks had elicited. I merely made an assessment of my opponent and did not use any insulting words. That was the complete truth. In some people’s view, it had become disrespectful toward the opponent. You can go ask Guti yourself. Did he not play as a substitute in a great team like Real Madrid a few years ago? I’m not saying he’s not good enough, but the main position belonged the greater players such as Beckham, Zidane, and Figo. Compared to them, Guti was not up to scratch. Was I wrong to say that? I really don’t understand how holding up a magnifying glass all day to find fault in my words can be a fun job.”

How was this an explanation? Even though it was meant to be an explanation, Twain’s unpleasant tone appeared to be more like adding fuel to the fire.

“In the spirit of the sport? Excuse me, when my goalkeeper, Paul Gerrard had to retire after he was struck by the Reading player, Hunt, and had a concussion, why did the respected sports secretary, Ms. Tessa Jowell, not come out and give her enlightening remarks about ‘sportsmanship’? She should just focus on the Beijing Olympics and be ready for the London Olympics, rather than dictate what I should or should not say.

“Since I’m attacked for airing my opinions about the opposing players, then let us not talk any more in the future, okay? Everyone should just shut up and the world will be peaceful.

“If you really can’t find anything to report in the media, I suggest you take out all the pages and publish public service advertisements to promote the spirit of sports.”

He stated that it was an explanation, but in reality, it was Twain’s backlash.

It was not known if Tony Twain was first man to launch such an unapologetic attack on Britain’s Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport, in English football. He was completely red-hot to the point of being burnt to black. His number of enemies increased.

Jowell was a sports minister, but she had no right to dictate Twain’s conduct. The only thing she did wrong was that she should not have gotten involved in the matter and made the remarks to stir up Twain’s hornet’s nest. After Twain fought back, she did not say anything more. It was most appropriate for a senior government official to remain silent in a war of words with an ordinary civilian. She should have done so long ago.

The Spanish media was unwilling to forgive, but the voices of the English media became much weaker as the game approached. It was meaningless to hype that kind of thing, and ultimately it was time to return to the game itself.

The hype with great fanfare was not at all for the “dignity of Spanish football,””for the sake of sports ethics,” or “to respect the opponent.” They just did it to attract readers and greater interest.

Reporting was the type of career that was best at “doing bad things while retaining a good reputation.” Twain was aware of what they were up to, so he did not let them off easily.

The biggest impact of his words was on Real Madrid. Guti was even more furious. When he arrived in Nottingham, he looked enraged as he accepted an interview. “I do not care for people who judge others maliciously, and I have no interest in responding to such a meaningless topic.” He rudely rejected the reporter’s question about Twain’s remarks. But even if he did not answer the question, would the media have nothing to add?

“Guti expressed strong dissatisfaction to Tony Twain’s comments!”

“Guti thinks that Tony Twain is not worth a mention!”

And so on.

With the media adding fuel to the fire, the two sides made an all-out effort.

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Dunn found it somewhat incomprehensible that Twain would suddenly bring up Guti. He felt that Twain did not need to cause himself trouble.

Twain just shrugged, indicating that the idle sports secretary was an unexpected “surprise.” It used to be a normal thing for everyone to insult each other in the football circles. It was a highlight in football, and a stunt that the media was happy to see. Mourinho once scolded Wenger as a “voyeur,” and Ferguson said he wanted two bullets to kill Wenger and Victoria. At the times, why did the British government officials not come out and say something?

Therefore, Jowell’s appearance was really unexpected. It enraged him further. There was a tyrannical sense of “outsiders should not interfere with what we insiders say or do within our circle” and it did not matter if it was a government official, but also a woman at the same time.

Leaving aside the impulsive sports secretary, Twain’s plan went well. He paid the price of being sworn at a lot and being hated, but he succeeded in angering Real Madrid’s midfielder, Guti.

Perhaps he was not as famous as Raúl and the others, but in Twain’s eyes, he was the real core of the current Real Madrid team. With him around, Real Madrid’s offense had a direction and strategy. Without him around, Real Madrid’s attack would become a mess.

Once Guti was enraged, he would lose the calm that an organizer had to have. What Real Madrid’s offense would be like then? He could already imagine.

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Everything was as Twain had expected. During the two team’s second leg of the match, Guti’s performance was completely different from the first leg. Anyone could see his restless motions, and Real Madrid’s offense became disorganized for the first time. They relied on Guti, but he made frequent mistakes. He repeatedly lost the ball. There had even been a few times when he sent the ball to the Forest players’ feet.

Amidst the sprawling boos of the City Ground stadium, his temper grew worse, and he even received a yellow card before the end of the first half for an unnecessary ferocious shovel to put down George Wood. The Forest players relentlessly demanded that the referee give him a red card to send him straight off the field.

The game was explosives, and verbal conflicts between players on both sides were common.

In the 70th minute of the game, Schuster could not stand it any longer and replaced Guti with Gago. Within those seventy minutes, Guti passed the ball 76 times but only succeeded 30 times. His frequent mistakes did not help the team’s offense at all. Instead, he caused the entire team to become hotheaded like him.

With less conflict, Real Madrid’s offense lost its way altogether. They relied more on the star players’ individual skills to fight alone. Their occasional cooperation was overwhelmed by the Forest team’s overall defense. The indomitable Real Madrid was at its wits’ end in the face of Nottingham Forest’s impenetrable defense at home.

In the end, the two sides had a 0:0 draw.

This result left Real Madrid’s fans with ashen faces and caused the Real Madrid players to stare blankly at the loss. They suffered the disadvantage of fewer away goals and were eliminated by Nottingham Forest…

“Nottingham Forest broke into the top four again! For the third year in a row! It’s amazing, incredible…” the commentator repeated, not knowing what to say.

The game had been ugly to watch, without any highlights to speak of. If neutral fans were to watch the game, they would have turned off their TVs or changed the channel. Such a game gave the commentator nothing of interest or special to mention. However, to be able to break into the Champions League top four spots three years in a row was a remarkable achievement. Very few teams were able to do this… No, it was even possible to say, “almost none.”

The game was so ugly that it disgusted people but also had a remarkable great achievement, which was a wondrous contradiction integrated within Tony Twain’s team. For the first time, the commentator sensed the deficiency in his vocabulary and could not express this feeling appropriately.

He could only say…

“I wish Tony Twain and his team all the best.”