Godfather Of Champions

Galliani sincerely wanted to persuade George Wood to join AC Milan but did not think for Twain to spoil things in the end and turn it into a farce.

George Wood did not come, and even wasted half a month of AC Milan’s precious time. Now that the summer transfer window was closing, Gattuso’s successor had yet to be found.

Ancelotti’s gloomy face was now even gloomier. If Galliani and Braida failed to find him a new defensive midfielder, then AC Milan’s plans for the league title in the new season would definitely be dashed.

Galliani also knew what kind of players the team needed and that was what made him better than the former Real Madrid’s director of football, Mijatović.

The candidate, Blasi that Ancelotti had brought up earlier could also be considered but Galliani did not put all his eggs in a basket this time. He looked for two other players while the team contacted Blasi’s agent.

The first was a defensive midfielder who shone at Sporting Lisbon and closely watched by a number of powerhouse clubs— Miguel Veloso.

The second was Liverpool’s steadfast mainstay player and defensive midfielder, Mascherano who was instrumental in Argentina’s World Cup title win this summer.

In terms of actual value, Mascherano was a step ahead of Veloso and much more than George Wood because he won the World Cup title. The prevailing saying in the football world now was that Veloso was still a little young while Mascherano and George Wood were already excellent and seasoned defensive midfielders. Both of whom were arguably the best defensive midfielders in the world.

Galliani’s intention was that while it was difficult to buy Mascherano, the Argentine was not the captain of Anfield in any case and was unlikely to be not for sale. Then as long as there was money, it could be easily dealt with. He did not want George Wood as Wood’s position in the Forest team determined that the deal would be difficult regardless of how much money AC Milan had.

Galliani leaned toward Mascherano.

But Liverpool vowed not to let the Argentine go to AC Milan, even though they already had Lucas, the Brazilian defensive midfielder.

Time was running out and the deal with Mascherano was in a deadlock due to Liverpool’s lack of cooperation. However, things were progressing well in Portugal. Veloso had long wanted to leave Sporting Lisbon but did not leave last summer because his agent and the club agreed that his value should rise after he played in the UEFA European Championship, so he was advised to stay on in Portugal. The just ended World Cup was a good time to move to a big club.

Sporting Lisbon also believed that the sale of Veloso at this time might result in a high transfer fee, so there was no entanglement of the issue in not letting him go. The negotiation went straight into talking about the transfer fee. Veloso himself was delighted to join a world-class club like AC Milan, where there were more fans, more attention and more honors. Joining AC Milan was an important step for him toward becoming a world-class star player.

Eventually Galliani and Braida had to abandon their pursuit of Mascherano and sign Veloso.

On August 25th, AC Milan announced that they had signed the Portuguese national team’s main defensive midfielder, Miguel Veloso.

The curtain finally dropped on the series of dramatic transfers that began from George Wood.

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Ever since Wood’s statement was published in the papers, Twain was no longer concerned with the fact that AC Milan had bought George Wood’s substitute. It was all the same to him whether Galliani bought Veloso or Mascherano. He was going to lead the team to the second leg of the Champions League qualifying campaign and the second round of the league tournament.

In the first leg of the Champions League qualifying round, Nottingham Forest’s 4:0 home win over Red Star Belgrade almost guaranteed them a place in the official Champions League tournament. Consequently, Twain used a rotation system in the away game.

Akinfeev’s starting position was given to Dale Roberts. The left back went from Gareth Bale to Joe Mattock. The center backs were Woodgate and Morgan. Nkoulou, who had joined the team this season, was the right back. In the midfield, George Wood continued to rest. Tiago continued to be in the starting lineup and Şahin was replaced by Bostock. Fernández was the left midfielder and Bentley was the right midfielder. On the forward line, Ibišević did not sit on the bench for his flat performance in the first round of the league tournament. Twain gave him full confidence and continued to let him start. His partner was the “speedy horse” Agbonlahor.

If the Serbians thought that this was the reserve lineup from Nottingham Forest and they could do whatever they wanted at home, then they would suffer big time.

The rotated lineup did not mean that it was a substitutes’ lineup. Solely looking at this lineup, the strength was not that different from what they thought of as the “main lineup.”

Such a lineup was played at the Red Star Stadium, Red Star Belgrade’s stadium, and the score against the home team was 3:2.

The Red Star team was quite crazy the moment the game started. If they wanted to enter the official tournament, they had to score at least four goals at home and not let the other side score at the same time. It was too difficult, but they have no other way than to attack.

The opening goal was set by the Red Star team, which scored the first goal in the fourteenth minute of the game and the Red Star Stadium was in full jubilation. Unfortunately, the home fans’ good mood did not last long. Seven minutes later, Nottingham Forest relied on a corner kick from Morgan to score a goal.

Following which, Nottingham Forest went on to score when Agbonlahor picked up Ibišević’s pass, he sent it straight at the goalkeeper and scored successfully to reverse the score.

In the second half, the Red Star team continued their frenzied counterattack, but its backfield had too many loopholes and big gaps, which were seized by Nottingham Forest to counterattack and Agbonlahor scored again.

The goal completely destroyed the Red Star’s fighting spirit, and they played the game feebly after. They only managed to catch the Forest team’s negligence in its defense in the last minute to score a face-saving goal. It did not help with the outcome.

Nottingham Forest advanced to the official tournament with a total score of 7:2.

It was a bit of a pity that Ibišević still did not score against such an opponent…

Carl Spicer and some of the media must have some things to say after the game.

Was Ibišević really just a shining meteor?

Ibišević was a little depressed after the game. But his mood overall was not too affected.

Twain still comforted him with those words, “You did a good job, Ibi. Integrating with the team bit by bit.”

He was not the kind of person who made a decision and immediately denied his men. Even if he really misjudged, he still wanted to give the other party a period of time to prove himself.

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Therefore, in the second round of the league tournament, Nottingham Forest still let Ibišević be in the starting lineup in the away challenge against Newcastle United.

Regrettably, he still did not score.

In the 75th minute, he was replaced by van Nistelrooy.

The commentator’s assessment was “Tony Twain doesn’t seem very satisfied with the Bosnian player.”

Twain’s real intention was simply not to put too much pressure on Ibišević.

Nottingham Forest ended up in a tie with Newcastle United in the away game. Neither side scored.

After the game, some media thought that if Nottingham Forest was more capable and better at seizing the opportunities, it could actually win the away game against Newcastle United to take all three points. But Ibišević was a disappointment and wasted at least three chances.

Carl Spicer ridiculed Twain and thought that he should reconsider the wager on his show after the match. “Of course, if Mr. Twain wants to shave his head, I’d be happy to fulfill his wish.”

There was dissonance coming from the local media in Nottingham. They thought Tony Twain had misjudged again. Ibišević was not as good as everyone had thought. His performances in the 08-09 season were a flash in the pan, and he was in fact a substitute-level striker in a third-tier league in Europe.

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Ibišević had already integrated into the team in terms of life and language, but he had been slow to score on the pitch. Matías Fernández had to thank Ibišević, because if it were not for the bet between Twain and Carl Spicer on the Bosnian’s goalscoring rate, then the player whom the media would be criticizing should be him by now because he had not been able to integrate with the team himself.

Twain felt that the first problem to solve was not to study the opponent and how to win. It was to let these two men quickly get used to the team because they were not bought to be substitutes.

Ibišević’s reasons for not scoring were manifold. Firstly, he had not yet fully adapted to the style of play in the Premier League; secondly, he cared too much about the wager between Twain and Spicer and placed the burden on himself; thirdly, it was a tactical issue.

During Hoffenheim’s wildest season, Ibišević’s thrilling goalscoring was related to their frenzied attacking tactics. The 4-3-3 offensive plays allowed them to score big with the two wingers constantly raiding the sides and feeding the ball to Ibišević in the middle. The three midfielders moved as precisely like clockwork, with the four full backs pushing forward with a maddening accuracy in creating offside.

They had pursued simple, quick and direct tactics, somewhat similar to Nottingham Forest in the previous years. But Nottingham Forest rarely, almost never created offside. Twain did not believe creating offside as a tactic, especially in the Premier League, which favored straight play. And he liked his opponent to create offside, and then let his fast players repeatedly be onside. An opportunity seized was a fatal blow to the opponent!

A tactic like this was simply a typical newly promoted team’s tactic. But now that Nottingham Forest was no longer a newly promoted team, Twain insisted that they controlled the ball in the midfield. The tactic of pressing ahead quickly was not always used in the midfield. He had to make his team’s tactics more abundant and varied. Otherwise it would be easy to be studied by the opponents, like Hoffenheim in the second season of the Bundesliga…

Ibišević was used to having two wingers deliver the balls to him and played with fast passes and runs. He had to adapt to another way—keeping the ball under his feet, consolidating at every step and pushing on slowly. While Nottingham Forest also had fast wingers, the midfielder and winger could not be compared.

Twain believed Ibišević’s ability in this area was fine but there was a process of adaptation which required time.

So, he decided to talk to Ibišević and not put too much pressure on him.

A player who had just suffered defeat came to a completely unfamiliar environment, might not appear to be under pressure but the psychological pressure was very great.

He prepared a number of arguments in advance and planned to help Ibišević reduce pressure from multiple angles.

But Ibišević was surprised that the manager suddenly wanted to talk to him alone.

“I have no problems in life, boss. I can just about stomach the good…” He thought Twain was concerned about his life.

“Of course, I know your life is fine.” Twain felt his enthusiasm was dampened by Ibišević just like that. He said impatiently, “I’m not here to talk to you about this. I am….” He wondered in his mind what words to use so he would not agitate the striker.

The position of a striker was different from the other positions. Sometimes the skill or awareness was not the most important. The important thing was actually self-confidence. And the source of self-confidence was very simple—goals and scoring consecutive goals.

He hoped to restore Ibišević’s self-confidence as much as possible without compromising his self-esteem.

“I know. Is it because I haven’t scored in a few games?”

Twain nodded vigorously. It was so easy to talk to smart people… But why were these words spoken by Ibišević? Isn’t that my line?

Ibišević was silent for a moment, and just as Twain was about to open his mouth to comfort him, he said again, “Boss, are you worried…that you can’t defeat that reporter?”

Twain laughed, “What are you talking about? I almost forgot about this matter if you haven’t brought it up. Didn’t I say? I never worry about what hasn’t happened yet. I won’t start thinking seriously about shaving my head unless you still haven’t scored a goal until the last round of the league tournament. But that’s never going to happen, right?”

Ibišević did not answer his question. He asked instead, “Do you regret brining me to the Forest team, boss?”

Twain looked at Ibišević, “To be honest… No regrets.” He smiled and said, “Why should I regret it? How many games have you played? I’m not an impatient person. We still have time. I know how you performed last season and yet I still bought you. I do not plan to have regrets. You have to know I am not a person who has nothing better to do than to give myself a slap in the face. I usually do that to other people. Ha!”

“I came to you to talk and just wanted to make sure of a question—are you beginning to doubt your abilities and choice?”

This time, under the watchful eye of Tony Twain, Ibišević fell into a long silence.

Twain did not rush him either. He got up to pour Ibišević a glass of water and then sat back down. He quietly looked at the tall center forward sitting opposite.

It took a long time for Ibišević to speak again, “I’ve always been like this throughout my career, boss. Always one choice after another. I don’t know if I’m doing it right until I choose, so after a long time, I stopped thinking about it. If I do make the wrong choice, the solution is simple—I’ll make another choice.”

“Now I know why the European media call you ‘The Drifter.'” Twain said with a smile, “But I don’t want the player I bought for more than ten million euros to play for a season and then make another choice.”

“If it were possible, I wouldn’t want that either.” Ibišević answered him that way, “I don’t like that label.”

Twain put his hands together and said, “Looks like we have a consensus, Ibi. That’s good. You have lived through more miserable years than you do now. I don’t think the current situation is too tough for you, is it?”

Ibišević nodded, “I’m really frustrated that I haven’t scored a goal. But I’m not at the point of losing my confidence, boss.”

“That’s good. It’s nothing, I just want to make sure of that. You know, I’m happy to give new players a chance, but I have to know if they’re willing to take advantage of those opportunities to prove themselves again. I don’t do useless work, and I’m not a philanthropist. If the other person doesn’t have this idea, I naturally don’t waste my time and energy on them. But as long as you refuse to concede defeat, I will do whatever it takes to make you successful. You know what I mean? Ibi, football at Nottingham Forest is not the same as any football you’ve ever experience before.” At this point, Twain took a moment and a smile appeared on his face. “The motto ‘We never admit defeat and never give up’ is our best lover.”

“If you can accept this football philosophy, then I’ll welcome you again.”

Twain extended a hand to him.

Ibišević was silent and just reached out with his hand.

“I take your silence as consent then, Ibi. Welcome to Nottingham Forest! This time, you joined for real.” He winked at Ibišević and grinned.