Godfather Of Champions

“Indeed… it does look sort of like…” David Kerslake saw Twain shake his head again and said, “It reminds me of the game we played against Arsenal.”

“But they are more thorough and firmer with the recovery than we were that time.” Once someone spoke, Twain began to talk non-stop. “And their offense is much rougher than we were. They’re just kicking the ball with big strides and relying on two very fast wingers. How can we call this football?” He suddenly got up from his seat, pointed at the field, and said to Kerslake, “Look at their defense and watch their movements. What is Wigan town famous for? It’s not football, it’s rugby! The straightforward way of playing, frequent body contact defense, and counterattacks with the running speed of a striker are all clearly rugby moves! Just rotate the blue stripes on their jerseys and that would be their rugby jerseys! But! That’s not why I’m shaking my head.”

Twain took a turn in the technical area and waved his arms in agitation in front of Kerslake.

“What makes me angry is our own performance. Even if Wigan Athletic’s performance surpassed our expectations, we shouldn’t have played the game like this. Completely helpless! We’re completely helpless against our opponent’s defense! We aren’t the Nottingham Forest team that relied on defensive counterattacks to survive a year ago! We’re currently playing against an enemy that uses defensive counterattack to deal with us. Did we not think of this? What did the coaching team do all summer? We frequently practiced our offensive routines in the positional play during training. And now, in this game…” he turned around and pointed to the field. “Those guys have forgotten everything!”

Kerslake also didn’t know how to face Twain’s anger. He could only sigh without a word.

After venting, Twain sat down and crossed his legs. “I’m going to give it to them at the halftime interval!”

※※※

“The referee blows the whistle at the end of the first half. The Wigan Athletic fans are delighted, as are the players. They have not conceded any goals at Nottingham Forest’s home ground. They’ve successfully curbed the Forest team’s two flanks. The score is still 0:0! If this score is kept until the end, then Wigan Athletic will be the winner.”

Twain was the last one to enter the locker room. With a sullen expression, he slammed the door with a loud bang. One of the players almost jumped off the bench from the shock of it.

After that loud noise, the locker room was silent.

“You all know I’m angry, right?” Twain smiled wryly. But in the eyes of the players, no one would find his smile amiable. After a season under his command, everyone knew the manager’s temper. The brighter he smiled, the more severe the approaching storm was.

“Does anyone need me to replay the recording of the Wigan Athletic manager’s pre-match interview? The feeling of being worshipped and regarded as a role model is good, right?” Twain pointed at the locker room door, “Well, now you know what damn idiots we are! We’ve underestimated our opponent, haven’t we? Don’t try to deny it. Look at your performance on the field. Do you only know how to score with long shots? Or do you think you can win this game with the simplest possible method? That you don’t need to put in any effort to position yourselves, coordinate with your teammates, or use your brains to create or seek out gaps? And that by just standing in one spot to practice shooting the goal, you can win this game?! Are there any of you who are still sleeping? Raise your hands!”

Needless to say, no one raised his hand.

“It looks like your minds are still clear.” After the storm, Twain’s tone somewhat relaxed. “Remember, in the second half, there are two points for winning: first, place kicks! You must seize all the opportunities for place kicks. This is the best way to break the deadlock. Second…”

Anelka had been sitting in a corner of the locker room. This was the first time he had seen the Forest manager angry. He openly admonished them with a steady stream of foul language coming out of his mouth.

Arsène Wenger would not reprimand his players in the locker room. He would use another way to reprimand us. The Real Madrid manager, Bosque, would not even scold us. He was a nice man. And Houllier? That useless weakling? Then there was also Kevin Keegan. They were all the same kind.

He had never played for Manchester United. This was the first time he had seen a manager so unrestrained in the locker room. He suddenly thought that with a manager with this kind of behavior, he might behave differently behind the scenes. Surely it will be easier to get along with him if his personality is blunt and straightforward?

While he was lost in his thoughts, he vaguely heard Twain call his name. Even though he was uncertain, he still raised his head to look over.

“Your task is to break through in the middle and look for opportunities to score,” said Twain as he looked at Anelka.

In this game, Anelka was still a substitute. He wondered why Twain had suddenly assigned this task to him, nonetheless, he did not raise the question. He thought maybe he’d just missed something, but no matter. If he wants me to play, I’ll play. If he wants me to score, I’ll score a goal and score a few more. See if you’ll still put me on the bench.

“Their two center backs, Arjan de Zeeuw and Stéphane Henchoz, are older and slow in their turning. They’ve jammed our flanks, so we’ll open the gap from the middle.”

“I tell you, Wigan Athletic is just a small hurdle. If we can’t even get past them, then we can forget about the Champions League and any other championships… Those are mountains! We’ll just look up at the mountain, pack up, and go home. We can just wash up, change, go home, and sleep! Do you want that?”

“No…”

“No one wants that, chief.”

“I don’t want to wash up!”

“I don’t want to sleep either!”

The players’ voices were finally ringing out in the locker room.

“Then be more serious! This is the new season and the first game of the new season. Don’t blow it! So, Wigan Athletic wants to be the second Nottingham Forest? And they want to be a dark horse? Fine, we’ll teach them a lesson. We’ll let them know that the English Premier League is not as simple as they think!”

After fifteen minutes of the second half, the Forest players had played very hard but the situation on the field had not changed much. Wigan Athletic’s conservative tactics in the game were ugly to watch, but they were very effective.

Tony Twain once again recalled Anelka during his warm-up and then brought him on to replace Viduka, who was in a bad state.

Five minutes after Anelka came on the field, the situation changed with three forced breakthroughs.

As Twain had put it, the Wigan Athletic team’s defensive weakness was not in the flanks as in most cases, but in the middle.

Anelka forced a breakthrough in the middle and tore open a gap for the Forest team. Wigan Athletic was caught off guard and their defensive line immediately became a mess.

At that time, Arteta seized the opportunity for a precise straight pass. He passed the ball to Bendtner, who was ahead. The Danish kid pushed his back against Henchoz, who returned to defend and sent a volley over the hands of the Wigan Athletic goalkeeper, Mike Pollitt, to fly into the goal.

The impasse on the field was finally broken.

The goal, firmly held by the blue-collared Wigan Athletic for sixty-five minutes, was finally breached.

Scoring a goal gave a boost to the Forest team’s morale. With persistence, another goal was scored, this time by the substitute, Anelka. While he was still without the ball, he nimbly got rid of de Zeeuw, who was guarding him, and then received Arteta’s timely pass to shoot the goal with a low shot.

With a score of 2:0, the Forest team set the tone for the game.

Although Jewell knew that he had lost the game, he still remained on the sidelines and repeatedly yelled at the players not to give up. Even if they lost, they still wanted to score a face-saving goal.

This made Twain sit up and take notice. He had a whole new level of respect for them.

Perhaps Jewell’s words were not said just to confuse him. His Wigan Athletic team really did have a lot of similarities with his own Nottingham Forest team from a year ago.

The grassroots football team in the English Football League Championship had held so much of its strength that they had charged straight up to the English Premier League. After the exhilaration and excitement, they calmed down to think about how to survive with their club’s financial resources and their players’ abilities as compared to the other teams. They depended only on this unyielding integrity: we can concede the goal, but we cannot lose our spirit. Even if the opponent is strong, we will still face the challenge.

He liked this Wigan Athletic team, as well as the manager who instilled this notion in the team.

※※※

The game did not end as Jewell had hoped. In the end, Wigan Athletic could not score a goal. They still lacked offensive strength. But the players stuck to the last second.

As the final whistle sounded, Twain took the initiative to go to the visiting team’s technical area and shake hands with Jewell. He seldom took the initiative to shake hands, more often waiting for the others to come up and shake his hand, or simply turning around and walking away. That would be the most extreme display of his bad mood after losing a game that should not have been lost.

Kerslake was aware of that. Therefore, he was not surprised that Wigan Athletic would eventually gain Twain’s favor after they had created so much trouble for the Forest team and made Twain furious in the locker room.

That was who he was. He would respect people that he thought were worthy of respect and disregard those who were not. The media said he was arrogant and putting on airs. They said he was ignorant and fearless. It was all good. Kerslake knew that Twain was just someone who had well-defined likes and dislikes. Of course, the standards of his love and hate were not constant.

At the post-match press conference, Jewell praised Twain and his team again. At the same time, he was also proud of his players. “…They did their best, and we lost in our overall strength. But I have a lot of hope for my team. As long as I don’t give up, we’ll stay in the Premier League by the end of the season!”

Twain admitted that Wigan Athletic had caused a lot of trouble for his team in the first half and was optimistic about the team’s future for this season.

“Manager Jewell believes his team can stay in the Premier League at the end of the season. I disagree with him.” He deliberately paused at that point and then watched everyone’s reaction with anticipation. He was satisfied with what he saw. Everyone looked nervous and thought that he was going to make some startling remarks. Jewell was also a little shocked. Then, Twain chuckled and finished his sentence. “I think his team can do better than he anticipates by the end of the season! Just keeping your position in the Premier League? Mr. Jewell, you underestimate yourself.”

Everyone laughed. This sort of relaxed and happy post-match press conference was rarely seen in Twain’s presence.

“I still stand by what I said. It’s nothing to lose this game. You can win it back in the next game. Of course, I don’t want Manager Jewell to win it back against Forest.”

The press conference broke out into laughter that was louder than before. Amidst the laughter, Twain stood up and shook hands with Jewell again.

“Thank you, Mr. Twain.”

“Don’t thank me. Thank your players, Mr. Jewell. They did well,” said Twain with a smile.

Now, he felt that it was nice to be regarded as a role model. It motivated him even more.