Godfather Of Champions

Chapter 678: End of an Affinity

Twain was indeed in a state of crisis.

The first half was ending and his team was behind 0 : 1 on home ground.That old man Scolari was different from his previous two predecessors, but perhaps it was due to owner Abramovich’s personal aspiration which took effect that Scolari, after being in charge, emphasised more on ball control or the so-called “beautiful football”. As the new main coach, appeasing the club president was mandatory.

But for Twain, all his knowledge on Chelsea was overthrown.

From the start of the competition, Chelsea on away was already extremely aggressive on offense and that aggression completely exceeded the expectations of the players of the Nottingham Forest.

No matter how many times Chelsea changes its head coach, their rivalry with Nottingham Forest will not dissipate if the players are the same. It had barely been 3 months since the end of the UEFA Champions League finals, not long enough for them to forget who they lost to in the championships.

The aggressive attack gave them a goal. And in just thirteen minutes, the away team Chelsea was leading. However, at this moment, Nottingham Forest did not make a single shot after each round of aggressive attack from their opponents.

“Exactly who owns this home ground?” John Motson asked skeptically.

That also was Twain’s question.

The first meeting with Chelsea with their recently changed coach actually made him felt quite unfamiliar. Scolari was just as arrogant as his predecessors yet he seemed humble before this match. Twain felt like he was holding back from devising evil intentions.

It was only the first half, but the psychological advantage they accumulated from previous encounters with Chelsea was slowly diminishing. Twain felt that he should reevaluate the opponent, because this Chelsea was no longer Mourinho’s Chelsea but “Big Phil’s”. The Chelsea from Grant’s time still carried Mourinho’s personality, but that had been disappearing bit by bit since Scolari was in charge.

For example, such positive sportsmanship, plays leadings to goals was nicer to watch as compared to Mourinho’s.

Abramovich wanted to watch beautiful soccer so he dismissed Mourinho and Grant who brought the team to the finals of the UEFA Champions league to hire the Brazillian Scolari. But, from what Grant knew of Scolari, just how long could this scene last?

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Twain was faced with a dilemma. When he was coaching Nottingham Forest, their odds of winning could reach 87% if they scored the first goal. This checks out perfectly with Nottingham Forest’s niche — make the first goal and then defend against the counter-attack. Scoring the goal greatly increased their lead, while not being able to score also meant they would not lose it. 1:0 was still an acceptable good result.

In this situation, their opponents would only have 2 options — either they become increasingly impatient or they do nothing and lose.

Currently, Twain was in the same scenario his opponents were in. Which path should he choose?

During the half-time break he gave his team a series of pep-talks, telling them they definitely could not lose to Chelsea on home ground and asking them to preserve in attacking the flanks. Other than that, he asked Eastwood to not constantly run out of the penalty area to receive the ball. There were five midfielders so the ball would definitely be passed to him, but if he was always too far from the goalmouth, how could he immediately challenge Chelsea’s goal?

Regarding this point, Eastwood also had his troubles. In the past, he was always partnered with strong second-strikers like Van Nistelrooy, Bendtner or Vidukar. The second-striker is responsible for drawing the opponent’s defensive firepower to himself, which meant Eastwood could attack freely near the penalty area. Naturally, this increased Eastwood’s threat level.

But now? He became the center forward, the main character and the main defending target of the opposing center back. Under the constant close pressure from strong center-backs like Terry, being able to ensure the ball reach him without having it stolen already expunged almost all of his energy, how could he even score afterwards? Besides, his stature was not one of a strong center forward. He would frequently lose his ball to his opponents’ tackles.

How could Twain not know of his troubles? Obviously Twain knew, but he had no choice. Who told him to place the Danish kid outside the roster for the sake of punishing Bendtner?

Even without his rivalry with Chelsea, he would not allow the team to lose to Chelsea, because that was telling Bentner that Twain’s team was unable to play without him.

“I know you have your difficulties, Freddy. We won’t let you be the attacking point, you just need to hold the ball, leave the remaining work to…” he pointed at Ribery and van der Vaart. “Both of you readily attack, shoot the ball more.”

Basically this was to allow Eastwood to create opportunities for his side attacking teammates.

The Romani nodded, but he did not know if he could fulfil the “center forward role.” Honestly speaking, he had no confidence…

“Be patient, we will definitely find a hole in their defense line. I feel that Scolari will continue attacking in the second half, there will definitely be issues surfacing in their defensive line.”

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During the second half, Chelsea was indeed continuing their attack, and there was a gap in their defensive line. But similarly, Nottingham Forest, impatiently trying to even out the score, also had issues in their defensive line.

During this competition, Twain was not successful with his dual defensive midfielder tactic. George Wood’s active range of offense was large as always, but his style of running limited Tiago’s abilities, and with Wood’s habit of doing everything by himself, Tiago was unable to adapt. This was the first time they were playing together, so it was understandable that they had no chemistry.

Thus, this display of dual defensive midfielders was no better than a single defensive midfielder. Subsequently, Wood noticed his coached rapport with Tiago, but the bigger issue surfaced — some possessions would appear to be in the middle of the two players and both, in sync, will give up the ball for the other! Thinking that this ball was for the other player, they gave it up to the Chelsea’s player instead.

Chelsea then helped themselves.

Drogba took advantage of that one misunderstanding between the two defensive midfielders, cut straight through the middle, easily broke through the thin defensive line, and then successfully made a shot. At the sixty-fifth minute of the whole competition, away team Chelsea was ahead by two goals!

The Chelsea players were celebrating on the field. Off the court, even Scolari was jumping wildly with both his hands up, akin to an energetic monkey. However, Twain was only showing a stern face.

Not long after losing the goal, he substituted Arshavin for Tiago, changing back to solo defensive midfielder, dual strikers in a 4-4-2 formation. After returning to the familiar formation, team Nottingham Forest regained their competitive tempo.

First, it was Eastwood passing the ball back to van der Vaart. The Dutch immediately took a long shot against Čech, who saved the ball with a dive. Following the corner kick, Pepe’s header hit the arm of Ashley Cole, who was standing on the penalty line. Nottingham Forest’s players raised their hands to signal the handball foul, but the head referee did not notice, and did not regard the protests of the players of the Nottingham Forest team.

Off the court, Twain was pointing his own eyes as a protest towards the fourth official, but it was futile. It was impossible for the head referee to call for a pause in the middle of a play to give Nottingham Forest a penalty. Even if the television screens repeatedly proved that Nottingham Forest was treated unfairly, referees would not follow the television screens to change their own judgement. This was prohibited by the rules of FIFA.

Without their tall center forward, Twain made the team do fewer high balls, play more ground possessions and do more through passes, hence maximising the speed superiorities of some players in the formation.

Scolari saw through Twain. At this moment, he signaled for the team to recover its formation — shrinking back to its defense and not giving Nottingham Forest any chances to use its through passes and speed.

Nottingham Forest did not regard its defense. It was almost a full-out attack, trying to even out the score. But up until the eighty-two minute, Nottingham Forest used a free kick to even the score after eighty-two minutes. The scorer was Gareth Bale.

After that, the counterattack of Nottingham Forest was even crazier. Scolari had no choice but to make some substitutions, changing his striker and defender, in hopes of securing this one goal advantage.

At this moment, he did not care for the aesthetics of the scene; getting the three points was of utmost importance. At this moment, Scolari was definitely not the type to listen to his boss and diligently play “beautiful soccer”.

Twain then sent out Patrov to replace Ribery who was unable to run anymore. This substitution was of no choice… he initially wanted to switch out a defender to leave only three and continue to strengthen his offense. However, Ribery was simply too tired to run anymore — he fell directly to the ground with his left calf cramping. In the early seasons, this phenomenon has never occurred; it looked like the negative effects from that hectic summer was showing.

That substitution did little for the team’s offense. Ultimately, Nottingham Forest lost its first home game this league, losing to Chelsea 1:2. Their undefeated record against Chelsea ever since they were promoted into the Premier League had become a thing of the past.

When it comes to records, Twain did not take them too seriously. Conversely, he felt that breaking it was a blessing, otherwise his players would have to bear a ridiculous amount of pressure every season when they face Chelsea.

However, losing a match was not a great thing. Losing their first game in the league ruined the home game opener; more importantly, they lost face in front of Bendtner. Losing this match was as good as telling Bendtner that the team was unable to win without him…

This was what infuriated Twain the most.

During the post-game conference, a reporter who wanted to be a troublemaker intentionally asked why Bendtner did not appear on the roster of this match, because to his knowledge the Danish center forward was neither injured nor in a bad state.

Twain angrily glanced at this female reporter, “He has hemorrhoids, could you have understood this?”

Having had her jibe backfire on her, she glared balefully at Twain and sat back down.

After leaving the city’s soccer field, Twain gave Allan W. Adams a call, waiting to see if there was news regarding the transfers for Bendtner.

Actually, had Nottingham Forest won this match, Twain might have changed his plans to forcefully keep Bendtner, displaying a winner’s attitude in front of him. However, now that he lost the competition, Bendtner had to leave. He could not tolerate having a player who mocked his personality and his soccer knowledge near him, when they have to seem nice to each other everyday.

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Bendtner did not appear to watch the match, it was as if he already was not a member of the Nottingham Forest.

He was packing his luggage in his condominium while waiting restlessly for the call. Like a girl plotting to elope, the fear could not mask his excitement and yearning for a beautiful future. The television was on, showing Nottingham Forest welcoming Chelsea for the match. He snuck a few looks, but was not in the mood to keep up with the match.

After Chelsea scored the second ball, Juric gave him a call. “They promised to take you away, Nicklas.”

After hearing that from his manager, Bendtner sat on the sofa, finally in the mood to pay attention to the match. After all, he did wear the red jersey for four years.

Watching his own teammates on field attacking furiously while some ran like headless chickens, he really did not know how he should feel about this. It was rare to see Nottingham Forest being so helpless, as if there was no way to score a goal other than long shots. Ribery and Lennon were attacking forcefully, but there was little they could do in the face of Chelsea progressively pulling back their defensive line. They had no choice but to yield possession to them after breaking through..

If he were on the field, the midfielders could send the ball to either his head or his feet. Whether he scored or assisted his team mates, he would liven up the offence in Nottingham Forest.

The camera cut to the side of the field where Twain was orchestrating the match. He was signalling for the team to do more long shots, but he looked menacing, and it made him look like he was descending into madness.

The media once gave Twain the nickname “clown”, but it was different from Aimar. This “clown” had an obvious connotation of humiliation. But as Bendtner watched him on television today, he realised that this nickname was actually perfect for him. He really was a clown…

At the end of the match, Nottingham Forest scored a goal, but it did not change the result of the game. With a dark look on his face, Twain quickly left the court. Bendtner turned off the television and continued packing his things.

Now, it was none of his concern what happened to Nottingham Forest and Tony Twain.

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“Allan, what are the intentions of Man City?” Twain did not know the latest transfer progresses.

“There’s still no reply from them.”

” I think… Allan, do you think they think the price was too high?”

“No, Tony. Just like what your reporter friend said, thirty million is a fair price to pay for the next 10 years of Nottingham Forest’s main center forward. Don’t worry about the things here, leave everything to me. It’s a pity, losing the match.”

Twain pouted. Was Allan hinting at him to put more energy into the team’s training and matches instead of the transfer market and other clubs, managers, some star’s father’s intrigue?

“Both us and Chelsea are first-grade soccer teams, no matter who won or lost is normal. As long as the final championship is ours, that’s all that matters.”

Allan laughed, “Ha ha! Sure, we will wait for the final champions, Tony.”

After putting down the phone, Twain left the empty changing room and boarded the bus.

“Go back and rest, my buddies. This match gave everyone here a reminder — this is a new season, the Double Winners from last season means nothing.” In the cabin, Twain spread out his hands and said, “Forget about the Double Winners, now we have to restart from square one!”

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On the second day after the match, Man City and Nottingham Forest released the news at the same time.

Nottingham Forest’s young center forward Nikolas Bendtner will officially be transferred to Man City, tied by a four-year contract with a weekly salary of £120,000, involving a transfer fee of £30 million.

This soap drama finally came to an end. Some people gained, some people lost. People who gained lost some things at the same time, and people people who lost… did not gain anything.

Tony Twain declined to comment on this trade, staying silent throughout some media columns. Bystanders of the inner drama would not know how Twain was feeling after losing the successor to Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Should he be celebrating that a disobedient BAD_BOY has left, or should he be sad that four years of blood, sweat and tears are going down the drain?

Some guessed that this type of silence was proof of his sadness. After being betrayed by one of the players he valued the most, how could he not be sad?

Actually they were all wrong. Twain was currently worried about two important things that were making him frown constantly, how could he have the energy to be concerned about how the Danish kid was doing? So what if Bendtner left? Would the Earth stop rotating? Would Nottingham Forest would not win another championship? Would Tony Twain will stop drinking or smoking?

The midweek Super Cup, and the £30 million transfer fee that came with a priceless awkwardness — D*mn it, the transfer window will close very soon!

But to be honest, in the occasional lulls, he did think that the summer felt like a dream. Someone who was on his team listening to his teachings is now wearing a different club’s jersey, and the next time they meet, they meet as opponents.

Piqué, Bendtner… and those who left early. Anelka, Ashley Young, Arteta. What would they think of their years in Nottingham Forest? How would they evaluate him as a head coach?

Most of them probably would not have nice things to say right…