Godfather Of Champions

Twain’s work went very well with the coaching staff and Dunn’s efforts. Several of the new players had been hand-picked by Twain himself and persuaded to join, so he had his own plans and arrangements for these players in his mind. It was like a jigsaw puzzle with all the parts put into place save for a few empty areas. Now, he was putting these missing pieces in the right places so a complete picture would appear before everyone’s eyes.

These new players had also become acquainted with the manager whom they were going to work with for the next four years beforehand. They were familiar with each other, so matters were made easier.

The coaching unit’s job was to build the team’s new tactics and train the team to adapt to them.

The addition of Van der Vaart and Van Nistelrooy had provided new changes to the Forest team’s tactics. In the past, Nottingham Forest’s tactics had been dominated by rapid counterattacks. The arrival of the two Dutch players allowed the Forest team to strengthen its shortcomings through its positions.

Van Nistelrooy was a center forward who was very much in line with Twain’s requirements. He not only had excellent scoring ability, but was also good at sprinting and could hold the ball to pass to his teammates. He could also use his sprints to rip apart the opponent’s defense and create offensive opportunities for his teammates from behind. His sense of responsibility even made him willing to pull back for the defense—this was one of his traits that Twain liked the most. This professional player put the interests of the team ahead of his own personal interests.

Van der Vaart was given a lot of freedom in the front part of the midfield. Twain was right that most of the time, he didn’t need to think about defense at all. When he partnered with his new teammate, George Wood, in the midfield, it became apparent. Wood’s fierce tackles and excellent stamina could completely assume the heavy responsibility of defense in the midfield so that Van der Vaart could attack without restraints in the front of the midfield.

Having just joined the team, in order to integrate more quickly, Van der Vaart took on more responsibility to organize the midfield during training and warm-up. Twain was happy to see him take the initiative to do this sort of thing. The team did indeed require an organizer closer to the opponent’s goal. Arteta was still a midfielder, not an attacking midfielder, after all.

Wood’s task remained the same no matter whom he partnered with. His first job was always to protect his partner and make certain that their backs were covered.

Naturally, Albertini asked Wood to participate more actively in offense, both in training and in games. He couldn’t just be a bystander and not care once he intercepted the ball in the back and passed it on to his teammates in front of him. Even if there was no ball to tackle, he had to run up to provide support.

Albertini asked Wood to learn from his midfield partner at all times, as they were his closest “teachers.” Wood had partnered with different types of midfielders—Albertini, Arteta… Now, it was Van der Vaart’s turn. Albertini hoped Wood could learn something useful from these different styles of teammates. He didn’t doubt Wood’s learning ability at all, otherwise he couldn’t have made so much progress.

As for Petrov, his position was set on the left. His speed and acceleration were perfect for the English Premier League. Twain had always felt that this Bulgarian hadn’t been fully played to his true strengths on side offense while he had been in Bundesliga and La Liga. The English Premier League was a fast-paced league with swift offense and quick defense. Speed was the number one essential factor. Petrov also found this was to his liking.

Originally, there had only been Franck Ribéry on the left, struggling to do it on his own. Thankfully, for the past two seasons, he’d had no injuries or fluctuations in his condition. However, Twain couldn’t guarantee that nothing would happen in the future. Petrov’s arrival greatly reduced the pressure on Ribéry while making the Forest team’s left side more terrifying.

After the addition of positional play experts such as Van Nistelrooy and Van der Vaart, the Forest team’s biggest feature—its speed—was not weakened. Instead, it had been enhanced. It was believed that this wasn’t good news for the other Premier League team managers.

Perhaps some might have been worried that the Forest team would lose its speed in its counterattacks after Anelka was left out in the cold, but Twain had already made plans for it a while before.

Without Anelka, despite the overall decline in the frontline’s speed, Nottingham Forest’s counterattacks were known for their speed before the arrival of Anelka. The striker didn’t spearhead the counterattacks. The real weapon were the two sides. Therefore, even though there was no Anelka, the effect on the team’s speed of counterattacking was minimal.

Nottingham Forest’s wingers had outstanding individual abilities. They were fast, good at breaking through, and able to score their own shots. While Ashley Young was “obsessive-compulsive disorder in assists,” everyone else could be the spearhead of the counterattacks.

Hence, Twain placed emphasis on the wingers to practice their shooting during regular training. He wanted them to maintain their feel for shooting so that they wouldn’t disappoint the team and fans when they were required to shoot and score in games.

※※※

While Nottingham Forest held their training in England, they played two friendlies against teams from the EFL Championship. The Forest team won one game and tied the other. As always, Twain didn’t place any importance on the results of such insignificant games. What he cared about was the process.

The team carried out extensive substitutions for both games in the first and second halves, so the outcomes of the games were completely worthless.

For the first friendly, Twain mainly observed and concluded that the players’ stamina and recovery states were mixed after the holiday period. There were some players whose conditions were as stable and excellent as ever, like the monster George Wood, whereas some people fared worse, like Ashley Young. The result of this game was a draw, and the team and the Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club tied at 2:2.

After another week of grinding and sharpening, the players’ forms returned in the second game, and the new players’ cooperation with the team gradually took shape. This time, the Forest team defeated Sunderland, the team that was recently relegated to the EFL Championship, with a score of 3:1. Twain was happy to see Van Nistelrooy score a goal in the game.

As the team’s organizational core, Van der Vaart needed to work with the entire team, so his performance was average for these two friendlies.

Petrov showed terrific adaptability. Just as Twain had thought, his style simply complemented the style of the English Premier League. It was only here that he could play well. Even Ribéry had to play second fiddle to his breakthrough on the side, because he and Ribéry were different. Ribéry’s dribbling skill was better. Speed was just one method, and Petrov relied on it. He was so fast that no one could defend against him. Although aggressive and forceful breakthroughs were the simplest, they were the most effective way to deal with the Premier League full backs who just ran along the sides.

In the Bundesliga, the press once assessed Petrov. “If the full backs are half a body’s distance from Martin Petrov, that means they have already been passed by.”

It vividly illustrated this Bulgarian’s characteristic—his incredible speed.

Twain also didn’t ask Petrov to learn from the other players to do such techniques like scissors, Marseille Turns, or flips… What he asked of Petrov was very simple: he must press on once he took control of the ball. If there was an obstacle in front of him, he must rely on his speed to forge ahead!

※※※

Time passed extremely quickly. It was getting closer to the Amsterdam Tournament, and the team had to get ready to leave for the training grounds in Volendam, a small town in the northeastern part of the Netherlands.

Anelka’s transfer prospects were unknown. His two elder brothers were working hard to help him find a club that met his requirements, but the situation was not easy.

There were a lot of teams that wanted Anelka, but Anelka either looked down on the teams like the Bolton Wanderers… or the clubs couldn’t afford thirty million dollars. The clubs that could afford thirty million dollars were unwilling to pay so much for a striker with such a peculiar temperament.

Through these events, Anelka was left hanging in the air with nowhere to go.

His two agent-brothers once thought that Twain had bluffed about the thirty million dollar base. They persuaded a team to offer twenty million to buy Anelka from the Forest team and were directly rebuffed by Twain without another word.

Later, his two older brothers started to let Anelka come in late or leave early during training as a form of passive-aggression and publicized the conflict between the two men in the press. And the result? Twain basically ignored all their petty maneuvers.

Anelka, if you want to come in late or leave early, I’ll just deduct the fine from your salary. Twain wasn’t afraid of the publicity or the press. He knew how to deal with the media, and he was eager for the media to continue to hype up the matter, the bigger, the better. That way, there would be more teams asking for prices. Maybe there would be a fool who could afford to pay for him… He even wanted to encourage Anelka’s two agent-brothers to double their efforts.

The two former golden partners had now become estranged foes.

It was rather sad, but Twain was the boss of the team who kept his word, and he was the only godfather here. Now that Anelka had openly challenged Twain’s authority, Twain wouldn’t give in, given his character. It wasn’t surprising that the two would clash with each other…

Despite their falling-out, Twain firmly believed that as long as someone still had some value to be made use of, then it was necessary to make full use of them. Therefore, on the list of names given in the Netherlands, the press saw Nicolas Anelka’s name.

After a month of disturbance, Anelka also seemed to realize he had hit a wall this time. With the entire club firmly behind Twain, it was too difficult to create any waves on his own. If the manager didn’t let him go, then he couldn’t leave.

The current Anelka was no longer the young and frivolous Anelka from Real Madrid. He knew when to back down. In his view, the fact that Twain didn’t rule him out of the big list was because he had given him a demotion. The smartest thing to do was take the opportunity to ease the tension in his relationship with the manager.

Tony Twain was now in the spotlight, and the odds of successfully opposing him were too slim.

※※※

The Amsterdam Tournament was traditionally a pre-season friendly for European teams that was held in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, in early August every year. Ajax would rally three teams from around the world to compete.

Obviously, even though this competition was a friendly match, not just any team could participate. The teams that were invited by Ajax were bound to be strong teams with a certain influence in the soccer world, such as Manchester United, Arsenal, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Barcelona, and other powerhouse clubs. They all had records of being invited before. From another perspective, for a team to be able to receive an invitation to the Amsterdam Tournament was in itself a recognition of its strength and status.

At the start of the season, Nottingham Forest, as the most prominent team in European soccer the season before, was invited by Ajax. They would compete with the Primeira Liga champion, FC Porto, as well as the Series A champion, Inter Milan and the host, Ajax, for the ultimate title.

Twain didn’t care about the championship trophy. He was interested in the quality of this friendly match up, comprising two league champions and two league runners-up, which was equivalent to a Champions League-level tournament. And the participating teams would attach great importance to this competition. No efforts would be spared. The team and players could get plenty of training from playing against such strong opponents.

※※※

“Amsterdam…” Ashley Young murmured in the bus as he looked out of the window at the city, “Ah, paradise…”

Sitting next to him, Eastwood and Ribéry laughed loudly at the same time.

The other teammates, who heard the laughter, looked at the back row of the bus as one asked curiously, “What’s up? What’s going on?”

Bendtner, sitting in front of Ashley Young, turned back and said seriously to Ashley Young, “Hey, Young, I think it would have worked better if you had trilled the last word.”

Then Eastwood stood up and mimicked Ashley Young’s expression and tone, coupled with a wealth of body movements, then said with vibrato in his voice, “Amsterdam, ah, paradise.…”

The entire bus exploded in laughter.

Ashley Young was a little annoyed by the laughter. He stood up and explained earnestly, “Don’t you guys think so? This is a great city!”

Van der Vaart, who had lived in Amsterdam for more than ten years, asked him with a smile, “The Amsterdam that you referred to, is it just the district from the old train station to the canals?” This area was home to the famous Amsterdam red-light district.

The Dutchmen, who were familiar with the Netherlands and Amsterdam, laughed one by one.

“Ah, so that’s where we are…”

Young’s sudden look of realization made everyone laugh even more happily.

With so much commotion, it was impossible for the coaching staff sitting in the front row not to hear it.

When he heard the conversation between the players, Dunn looked at Twain. Twain shrugged at him. “Since we’re not letting them have fun, we can’t stop them from talking about it. It’s better to let them have fun talking about it than actually do it…”

Ashley Young had started something with this conversation opener. The dull atmosphere in the bus due to everyone’s tiredness from the journey had suddenly switched as the players launched a heated discussion. The topic was, of course, about the city surrounding them and its red-light district.

Van der Vaart, who had only just left the city, became everyone’s guide. He pointed to the blocks that the bus passed and introduced them. Perhaps no one else in the team was more familiar with Amsterdam than he was.

As the bus passed by the canals, he pointed to a row of two-story buildings across the river and said, “That’s Young’s paradise.”

Everyone laughed again.

“But there’s nothing much to see during the day. It only becomes lively at night.” He explained to everyone in English, which he was not good at, mixed with Dutch, “It’s best to go to a place like that with someone, not alone.”

“We even have to look for girls together?” Wes Morgan whistled.

Van der Vaart smiled, “It’s a little bit of a hassle to go there alone.”

Van Nistelrooy suddenly wanted to tease his national teammate, “Hey, Rafael, it sounds like you’re quite familiar with it. Do you go often?”

“Ruud, everyone who lives in Amsterdam is familiar. I don’t need to go there to know.” Van der Vaart shrugged.

Seeing how everyone was talking more directly now, Twain rose from his seat.

The players shut their mouths when they saw the manager suddenly stand up.

“Well, I’m glad to see you guys still have so much energy after your trip,” he said. “Amsterdam is a nice city, ah, paradise…”

There was a burst of laughter on the bus.

Twain smiled at Ashley Young. “However, I would like to remind you that we’re not here for a vacation, but to train and compete, so I don’t want to see you appear in that kind of place in droves at night. And you know what kind of places I’m talking about, don’t you?” Twain said this with a smile on his face, but no one dared to take his remark as a joke.

Everyone on the bus calmed down again, and Twain sat down in his seat.

The bus turned onto a bridge to the north and left the area, which would be buzzing that night. They left “Europe’s capital of sex,” Amsterdam, and headed to Volendam, the town where their training base was.