Godfather Of Champions

As the whistle that signalled the start of the match blew, an eye-catching banner appeared at the stand behind Nottingham Forest’s goalpost.

It was the item that John and Bill had been creating in secret. Now everyone knew what it was.

There was a line of big alphabets written in red paint over the white cloth:

‘Score at least two goals? Try it if you dare!!’

As soon as the banner made its appearance, it attracted the attention of everyone in the stadium. Some fans applauded after seeing the words on the banner, and there were even fans who changed their insults against Bendtner into ‘try it if you dare!’.

For a moment, everyone’s attention was diverted onto the banner.

Twain looked at it and could not help but laugh. “Must be the doing of Fat John and Skinny Bill.”

Martin Taylor laughed as the cameras focused on the words on the banner and said, “That banner speaks of Nottingham Forest’s personality perfectly. The fans are just like the team… All right, let us see whether Bendtner has the guts to try.”

The only way to determine whether Bendtner had the guts or not was to see if he could score goals in the match. Bendtner himself had noticed the words on the banner, but he remained expressionless after glancing at it, choosing instead to focus all his attention on the match.

The moment the match began, Manchester City made use of the kick-off to control the ball beneath their feet before launching a fearsome attack into Nottingham Forest’s half of the pitch.

They may be the away team, but they certainly did not act like they were guests. Having already faced each other in the Premier League for numerous years, there was no need to ‘test the waters’.

Manchester City charged straight into Nottingham Forest’s half!

The atmosphere in the stadium remained completely normal when the ball was being brought forward by the other Manchester City players. The sporadic sounds of booing was still something that was acceptable for most people. There were more people who were cheering Nottingham Forest on instead.

However, the moment a Manchester City player passed the ball to Nicklas Bendtner, the entire stadium erupted into a series of sudden, deafening boos that were more than enough to incapacitate someone with a weak heart.

It was rare for Nottingham Forest’s fans to boo an individual collectively. Most of their boos in the past were directed at the entire team instead. It was truly arduous to try and continue to play as one usually does under such a harsh environment.

This prompted Taylor to make the comment that Mark Hughes must have already seen how mentally tough Bendtner was for himself.

Amidst the ear-splitting sounds of booing, Bendtner did not pass the ball straight away, but instead continued to control the ball at his feet while waiting for his team mates to run up and support him.

Bendtner managed to hold onto the ball for 10 seconds before passing even with all the booing sounds around him. He displayed complete composure with the ball at his feet, and his expression was unfazed and calm.

Manchester City’s offense was just as Dunn had analysed during yesterday’s tactical meeting. They primarily focused on attacking down the flanks. One reason for that was to suppress Nottingham Forest’s flanks. The other was to try and make use of the empty space that will be created when the Nottingham Forest’s full backs joined in the offense so that they could move in for a counterattack.

The problem was that the match had only just begun, and Nottingham Forest’s full backs still did not have the chance to move forward and join in the offense. All Manchester City’s players could do was to be patient and try to find an opportunity to attack.

Normally, if Nottingham Forest did not get to kick the ball off at the start, Twain would ask the team to tighten their defense for the first 5 minutes after the match started before trying anything else.

This match was no different.

Manchester City made full use of that period of time to attack Nottingham Forest’s goal furiously.

Even though Hughes’s tactic was to mainly attack both of Forest’s flanks and to counterattack, they did not need to rely solely on counterattack to threaten Forest’s goal.

Because they now had a powerful center-forward before goal…

※※※

“Nicklas Bendtner!” Andy Gray yelled. “Oh! What a miss! The ball had gone a little too high…”

Ashley Young did not choose to go one-on-one with Bale after receiving the ball on the right wing. Instead, he passed the ball to the center. Pepe did not react to the change in tempo in time. Bendtner ran up behind him, then jumped high and shot towards goal with no defenders around him.

All van der Sar did was to raise his hands as a gesture. There was nothing he could do with such a close range shot. Luckily the ball went above the bar and flew towards the banner.

There was no goal, but it was still enough to startle the crowd and make them go quiet with their booing for a moment.

“It’s exactly as they had promised before the transfer was completed. Mark Hughes is employing Bendtner as their key attacking option. Players like Robinho would be slightly disadvantaged against Nottingham Forest’s tight defense, but Bendtner would be a perfect fit,” said Taylor, “I think Hughes is taking a gamble, but from the attacks that we have seen since the start of the match, I think it is a good gamble for him.”

Bendtner gave a thumbs up to Ashley Young, who had passed the ball to him. The two of them were beyond familiar with the Forest’s defense. Ashley Young knew that Bale would wait in front and try to stop him from breaking through, which was why he chose to not carry the ball forward and to pass instead.

Bendtner also knew that once Bale had gone to the flank, Pepe would position himself closer to Bale to prevent Young from going into the penalty area, and leave Kompany to guard the space behind him. This was why Bendtner did not get into position at once. Instead, he waited behind for a moment, and only made a run forward when he saw that Ashley Young had the ball. The two of them had read each other minds. He had only started running forward, and Ashely Young had already passed the ball to him. The timing was perfect, and it was how Bendtner was able to shoot at goal for the first time in the match without anyone defending him.

“Just as Tony Twain had said before the match, Bendtner does possess the capability to score at least two goals. I wonder if Twain is regretting his decision to let such a talented striker leave the club right this moment?”

※※※

Did Twain regret?

No.

If he had felt reluctant right after letting Bendtner leave, then those feelings have already been diminished after half a month had passed.

Now, even if Bendtner were to go on and become the best striker in the Premier League, he would not feel any regret. He was not the kind of person who would dwell on the past.

The problem he had on his hands right now was that both Bendtner and Ashley Young were too familiar with his team’s defense. The members in his defense have never changed up till now, and both his tactic and setup remained the same as before. This made it easy for the two ex-players to figure out where were the areas they could exploit.

On the other hand, he was not as worried about the midfield’s defense. George Wood and Tiago used the midfield line as the boundary, and was each responsible for one half of the field. The reason why Ashley Young failed to break through the defense and passed the ball straight away earlier was not only because he knew about the habits of Forest’s full backs, but also because George Wood was near him, waiting to pounce. If he wanted to break through, he had to be prepared to face being swarmed by both Wood and Bale.

Manchester City’s Elano’s role in midfield was more like a playmaker. His key mission was to create chances down both flanks. Now that they had Bendtner on the pitch, this style of attacking the flanks clearly suited Manchester City more.

After mulling over it repeatedly, Twain came to the conclusion that they had to start restricting Manchester City’s flanks if they wanted to limit Bendtner’s productivity on the pitch. Thus, he stood up, walked to the side of the pitch, and hollered while waving his hands, to gesture for Wood and Tiago to move closer to the flanks and assist both full backs in defending the flanks, so as to freeze both Ashley Young and Robinho in their tracks.

As for the defense for the middle of the pitch? He did not think much about it. All Elano could do was to shoot from afar or pass the ball to Bendtner. Even if Bendtner got the ball he had to face the defenders as well. All would be good as long as they did not give Bendtner the chance to turn around…

※※※

Nottingham Forest began its counterattack. During the attack, George Wood and Tiago continued to stay at the two flanks, devoid of any intention of leaving their positions to run down the middle and join in the attack. Ribéry and Lennon both started running down the middle, and they were later joined by Gareth Bale and Rafinha who ran up from the back.

Van der Vaart passed the ball to Lennon, who ingeniously let the ball pass by him, and the ball ended up at Rafinha’s feet.

Rafinha carried the ball towards the penalty area before kicking it forward and attempting to run past the defenders. Manchester City’s starting left back Michael Barr lost to Rafinha in a battle of footwork, and could only watch as Rafinha skilfully got past him with his techniques and cut into the penalty area behind.

Thunderous cheers broke out in the City Ground Stadium.

Manchester City’s captain Dunne swiftly ran up to Rafinha to stop him from gaining any more ground.

The Brazilian passed the ball over to van der Vaart who had been waiting on the other side of Manchester City’s penalty area. Van der Vaart did not stop the ball at his feet, because he saw that Manchester City’s midfielder Stephen Ireland was closing in on him. He chose to shoot for goal at once!

The powerful shot was blocked by Joe Hart with much effort.

Van Nistelrooy tried to follow up on the rebound, but Richards made use of his stature to block his way before kicking the ball out of bounds.

“Ohh! Nottingham Forest’s offense is also equally good. This whole series of link up play is a feast for the eyes. The full back’s bold attack has added immense pressure on Manchester City’s defense.”

The atmosphere within City Ground Stadium livened up following the team’s attempt at goal. The fans started chanting the players’ names at the top of their lungs, and also further created a din by clapping and stomping their feet at the stands.

Van der Vaart’s shot almost made Twain jump, but the eventual miss left him feeling a little disgruntled.

“We still have a chance.” Kerslake comforted Twain as the latter returned to his seat in the technical area.

“If we had bought Richards in the summer, that would have been a goal.”

Kerslake laughed.

※※※

Elano found that his view before him had become wider all of a sudden. George Wood and Tiago were about 10 meters away from him. He could see Pepe and Kompany from where he was in the midfield, and he could also see Bendtner, who was positioned all the way at the front.

More importantly, he realized that if they were to go along with manager Mark Hughes’s plan, then Manchester City would certainly hit a piece of robust iron plate during their offense.

What Hughes had intended to do was to attack Forest when their full backs had moved ahead to join in the offense. However, there had been a change in the situation at hand. Twain did not act according to Hughes’s script. He made their two defensive midfielders stay behind to defend the flanks while the full backs moved forward.

If Manchester City were to insist on attacking the flanks, the outcome was clear as day…

However, Elano was not the manager, so he decided to continue following the manager’s orders for the time being. He also wanted to test Forest’s defense for himself and see if they are really as robust as an iron plate…

Forest’s throw-ins were usually done by a full back who was positioned on the other side of the pitch, even if they were throw-ins that were very close to the opposition’s end line. Bale stepped up to do the throw-in. Rafinha did not return to his defense position and stayed slightly towards the back, near the midfield line. The distance made it easier for him to charge forward for an attack.

Bale did not go back to defend after he had tossed the ball over to Ribéry either. Instead, he waited for Ribéry to pass him the ball, and the two of them tried to link up at the flank.

Sadly, they were standing too close to each other. Ribéry kicked the ball too hard and Bale failed to stop it at his feet. The ball was then intercepted by Manchester City’s right back Richards, who then passed the ball over to Elano. Manchester City was on the counter attack!

Elano tried to pass the ball over to Ashley Young on the right wing. Bale rushed back to defend, but it turned out that he was not needed, for Ashley Young lost out completely to George Wood one-on-one. Bale had only run halfway back when Wood passed the ball back to him again. He turned around and went on the attack…

Seeing this, Elano shook his head. He was sure that an attempt down the other flank would also bring about similar results. Robinho’s abilities were a notch better than Ashley Young’s and Tiago was also less defensively impressive than Wood. However, almost as if those points had already been taken into consideration, Rafinha was positioned not too far away from Tiago. If he were to pass the ball to Robinho, all Tiago needed to do was to try and slow him down as much as he could, and Rafinha would be able to join in the defense speedily and keep Robinho in check. That made the defense on that side of the pitch air tight as well…

Elano realized that the problem rested on the presence of two defensive midfielders. Before the match, Manager Hughes had expected Forest to continue employing a single defensive midfielder, and this would give them the opportunity to attack the space behind the two full backs, because one defensive midfielder would be unable to deal with both flanks by himself. It was not that Manchester City had never considered the possibility that the opposition would use two defensive midfielders for defense, but it was just a consideration that was quickly shoved aside because the set-up had been unfavourable for Forest based on previous matches where it had been employed.

They did not expect Twain to use two defensive midfielders in such a manner…

Nonetheless, there was no such thing as a flawless tactic in this world. Elano still managed to find something that he could exploit.

※※※

Manchester City intercepted the ball in their own half and went on the counterattack once again. This time, the ball was passed to Ireland, and Elano raised his hand to ask for the ball. Ireland had initially intended to pass straight to the wingers, but seeing how insistent Elano was with his request, he changed his mind at the last minute and passed the ball to Elano who was in the center of the pitch.

Both Wood and Tiago were positioned at the flanks to defend the empty spaces left behind by the full backs during attack when Elano received the ball. They saw Elano, but did not try to pounce on him to intercept the ball at once, choosing instead to stand slightly closer to the center of the pitch, clearly with the intention of observing his actions.

Elano did not give them time to observe his actions. He accelerated out of the blue, and started attacking Forest down the middle!

“Down the middle! Forest is down on luck, there’s no one player there right now!”

It was only then that Wood ditched his position at the flanks and bolted straight for Elano. He did not have the time to notice that Bale had yet to return to his defensive position, and that Ashley Young had already run up to assist Elano.

As a defensive player, it was always more important to defend the center of the pitch than the flanks, because that was where the opposition could directly threaten the goalpost. All the opposition could do was to try and angle a shot for goal from the flanks.

Pepe stood closer towards the flank, preparing to prevent Elano from passing the ball over to Ashley Young now that he has gotten Wood’s attention.

However, Wood was still a considerable distance away from Elano, so it was Kompany who rushed out towards Elano first. Since the defensive midfielders were not in their positions, it was up to the center back to fill in the role.

That was exactly what Elano had been waiting for. Seeing that Kompany had rushed out and that Pepe’s attention was on Ashley Young at the flank, he kicked the ball forward.

Bendtner turned his head around to see the ball rolling towards him. This was the perfect chance!

He turned to look at the assistant referee as he turned to the side and performed a feint at the same time.

“Cra…” Pepe was aghast when he noticed what was going on from the corner of his eyes. He wanted to turn around, but it was impossible by then. He was not superman. He could not defy the laws of physics. All he could do was to turn and watch with a stiff body as Bendtner received the ball and ran into the penalty area.

Pepe’s posture was hilarious, but none of the Nottingham Forest’s fans laughed.

The moment Elano passed the ball over to Bendtner, all Bendtner could hear were deafening boos coming at him from all directions.

A fire was burning inside of him. The sounds of booing were like gasoline poured over that fire of his, and they made it burn right through the roof.

Twain’s words rang by his ear:

“Remember this, don’t be fazed by all the noise that the opposition fans would make against you. The reason why they are booing you is because they are scared of you! They fear you! That’s why they will try so hard to make so much noise so as to throw you off. It’s nothing to be scared of. The louder they boo you, the more excited you should become. What you all need to do is… Turn what they do not wish to see into reality! Make them cower in fear. We are their worst nightmares!”

Thank you for your teachings, boss…

The sight before Bendtner whizzed by in a flash. He saw an empty spot to the left of van der Sar. That was it!

He raised his leg and gave the ball a hard kick!

The ball flew past van der Sar before crashing against the goalpost with a thud that resonated through the sounds of booing. It then deflected off the post and created an arc as it went into the net.

Van der Sar had one knee on the ground as he turned around to look at the ball in the goalpost. Both his hands were still outstretched and poised to block the ball.

Pepe laid on the ground, his eyes fixed on the skies as he rued, “Damn, there goes my additional holiday…”

※※※

“Nicklas Bendtner! Nicklas Bendtner! Nicklassss Bendtner! He scored! He has really scored!” Gray screamed.

The booing ceased temporarily with the goal.

Bendtner ran straight to the back of the goalpost after confirming that the ball was indeed in the back of the net. He stood below the stand where the banner was hung, and began to strip away at his jersey from his chest madly. His face was contorted and he opened his mouth to shout at the top of his voice. The sight was a little frightening… The Forest fans at the stand went quiet.

The Manchester City players swarmed up to him from behind, all wanting to give him a hug. However, the Bendtner at that moment was like a beast who just hurt his head. He waved his hands about vigorously and no one dared to get close to him out of fear that they might get elbowed in the face by him.

Did you all see that? Why have you all stopped booing? Boo me! Boo this traitor that is me! I scored against you. That defense that you are so proud of was nothing to me! I am your enemy right now! Aren’t you guys the ones who draw a clear line between love and hate? Aren’t you guys the ones who will never go easy on an opponent?

Why have you all gone f*cking quiet before me, your greatest enemy? Didn’t you tell me to try it if I dared? I tried! Why have you all stopped booing me? This is great, let me score another one. I will do exactly what I said I will and score two goals!

He was roaring hysterically in his mind, but no one could hear the voices that were surging up inside of him.

The booing started once again amidst his wild celebrations. There were more and more spectators at the stand where John stood who stuck their fingers into their mouths.

John did not follow suit, and only looked on coldly at Bendtner who was flailing around wildly below. He realized that he could not come to hate this guy, but would probably never come to like him again after this either.

“F*ck! So pathetic! All he did was score one, what’s he so f*cking proud about? Try and score another one if you dare!” Bill, who stood next to him, threw vicious words of insults at Bendtner.

※※※

Kerslake punched the seat in anger following Bendtner’s goal. He turned to look at Twain, who wore a placid expression on his face.

“Do you think he’s trying this hard so that he can prove himself before us?”

“So what if he manages to prove himself?” Twain asked with a cool voice. “Do you expect us to buy him back?”

“But to see such a talented center-forward become our enemy… It’s such a shame.”

“On the contrary, I do hope that every single person who walks out of this club is talented,” Twain said, “He is someone that I brought back personally from Denmark after all. If he performed terribly, it’d make me look bad. Did you think that I said that I thought he had the capacity to score simply for the sake of saying what the journalists wanted to hear? Don’t forget, he is someone who walked out of Nottingham Forest!” Twain could not suppress the emotions that were boiling up within him as he spoke. His voice became grave, and he smiled coldly as the edge of his lips tugged up.

Dunn led out a sigh beside him suddenly and recited, in Chinese, “The day of yesterday has left me and cannot be retained. The day of today disturbs and worries me.” [1]

Twain turned his head to look at Dunn. “Don’t use Tang poems inappropriately.”

※※※

Bendtner continued to celebrate wildly under the banner that was about as long as the goalpost. His team mates congregated behind him and raised their hands towards the Nottingham Forest fans as a display of strength.

Behind all of them were van der Sar and Pepe who had just climbed back onto their feet, as well as a bunch of dispirited Nottingham Forest players with their heads hung low.

Bendtner had henceforth made a clean break with his past.