Godfather Of Champions

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Being drawn with Inter Milan was a good thing to Twain. The better news had nothing to do with football—Shania was finally back.

When Twain was still a bachelor, he thought he only had football in his life, and he did not care anything else but football. He was crazy about football, no less than one of the most hardcore fans. So, after he became the Nottingham Forest manager, he was really no different from Dunn other than he went to the pub and have a drink. When he did not drink at the pub, he could lock himself up at home for a whole day, draw the curtains to watch the game videos, and study the various notes left by Dunn. He would be unaware of the passing of time and not even aware when he got hungry.

But after he got married, his love of football was divided into half and given to his family and wife. Now he felt that there was one more thing that was as important as football in his life.

He was happy that Shania was back. He would no longer find an empty and lifeless cement building when he came home after a day's work.

Twain worked hard before he got married because he liked football and the job. After marriage, he also worked hard because he had a responsibility on his shoulders—a man needed to support his family…Although Shania earned as much money as Twain, Twain still had some traditional Chinese men's thinking as the most authentic Chinese man in his bones. He thought that men should support their families and that was the purpose of the work.

With his parents, a lovely wife and future children, it was worth it even if he had to work hard.

With Shania's return this time, she would not leave until May. They had four months to enjoy their time together. Twain wanted to make up all the time he was previously owed.

One of the important agenda was, of course, to make a baby.

Twain and Shania had been married for almost two years, and both had worked hard. But Shania had no response till now. The revolution had not yet succeeded, so the comrade still needed to work hard…

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The first game since the return from the draw ceremony was the FA Cup. The media asked about the result of the draw before the game, wondering if such a terrible draw would affect the Forest team's performance. Twain denied that it was a "terrible" result. Following which, he led his team to win against West Bromwich Albion with a 2:0 home win in the fourth round of the FA Cup. It proved that the media's unfounded speculation was not justified.

Next in February's league tournament, Nottingham Forest remain unbeaten with two wins and two draws to remain in third place in the league tournament. The point gaps between the top five teams in the league were not big. It looked like it would not be a surprise if any of the five teams would win the title by the end of the season.

The reason for the two wins and two draws was that Twain's new tactics still needed time to adjust and adapt, so the team's performance fluctuated with the ups and downs.

But Twain did not take the league tournament particularly seriously. He even voluntarily gave up in the fifth round the FA Cup. As the Champions League drew near, he began to hold back in the league tournament.

After all, he had already talked big in front of the media. So, if he lost to Inter Milan, it would be a big loss of face…

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March 1st was the day of the away game against Inter Milan. It was a "big day" to Tony Twain.

The team left Nottingham three days early and arrived in Milan by plane. Twain was no stranger to the city. But it was still unfamiliar to many of the current Forest players.

When Twain first brought the team here to play against Inter Milan, he went to great lengths to explain to Shania that there was nothing between him and Gloria. Now that he thought about it, could it be it was since that time he realized he cared about Shania?

Among the Forest players, the changes in the midfield were the greatest. Tiago, Şahin, Cohen, Bentley and Fernández had not experienced the last big game against Inter Milan.

The media were not optimistic about Nottingham Forest's Champions League prospects this season because Nottingham Forest's strength had dropped too much in the midfield area…

In the past, the Forest team's midfield could definitely be described as world-class, with George Wood, van der Vaart, Ribery and other famous star players. The current Forest midfield lacked the star power and was more ordinary. Looking at Tony Twain's implementation of the double defensive midfielders and 4-2-3-1 formation, even if they increased the number of midfielders, they still could not get rid of the "blue-collar worker midfield" appraisal.

By contrast, Inter Milan's midfield was grander. The fame of Cambiasso, Vieira, Muntari, Stanković, Montolivo, Mancini, Quaresma, Mario Balotelli and the others was much bigger than that of the Forest team's.

The comparison on the forward line was even more pathetic…

Nottingham Forest did not even have a publicly recognized world-class striker. Van Nistelrooy was considered world class, but he was not on the Forest team's Champions League squad list and could not be available for comparison. Eastwood's reputation was limited to the United Kingdom. Even if he had ever won the Premier League's golden boot, it did not mean anything.

Ibišević was just a slightly brighter meteor. Agbonlahor was a typical coarse player who had no footwork skills but speed, while Eastwood's frequent injuries had affected his progress towards being world-class.

Then looking at inter Milan's side—Ibrahimović, Adriano and Giuseppe Rossi, who had transferred from Villarreal for a fee of 15.25 million pounds this season. In addition, a substitute player, Cruz who could be brought on to score.

Even in Twain's proudest defensive lineup, Inter Milan was stronger than them.

The Argentine "The Wall" Samuel, Nicolás Burdisso, Iván Córdoba, Cristian Chivu, Maicon, Maxwell, as well as Javier Zanetti, Inter Milan team captain who was already thirty-eight years old but still in good form.

Which of these players were not famous figures in international football?

In comparison, Nottingham Forest only had Pepe and Kompany to show for. Woodgate and Baines were only well-known in the country. Rafinha had always been a fringe figure in the Brazilian national team, having been selected and then ruled out several times. Ultimately, in the right back positions up against the better options like Dunga and Maicon, Chimbonda was not worth a mention. Joe Mattock and Nkoulou were currently the most promising stars and would need to continuously prove their abilities at a high-level competition before they could be recognized.

No wonder everyone was not optimistic about Nottingham Forest.

If it had to be said the advantage Nottingham Forest had over Inter Milan, maybe their players were younger…

The foreign media were generally not optimistic about Nottingham Forest, but the local media in Nottingham was confident of Tony Twain's team. Their confidence came from the "history" of just a few seasons.

In fact, when Nottingham Forest's most brilliant two seasons, their lineup was basically like this. They were not in the same league as any big teams. But why was it them, which won the Champions League title in the end and not AC Milan and Chelsea? They had beaten Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Arsenal… and other strong teams. How could it be that the other teams deliberately threw the games?

The Nottingham Forest fans, like fanatical religious believers, had faith in that nothing could hold Tony down. The person who could make him surrender in the world had not yet been born. As long as the man sitting on the Nottingham Forest technical area was Tony Twain, Nottingham Forest would not lose no matter how powerful an opponent they faced.

With two days to go before the game began, the media in Nottingham had started to hype the concept of "revenge" in big way.

No Nottingham Forest fan would forget the game two seasons ago when Tony Twain was forced to leave his coaching post due to a heart attack and Nottingham Forest were suddenly left without a head. As the acting manager, Dunn had already exhausted all his energy just to secure the team's place in the league tournament and utterly had no energy at all to consider the team's future in the Champions League.

Nottingham Forest completely lost those two games to Mourinho's Inter Milan in both the results and scenes.

Mourinho was like an infatuated man who had waited long and hard to marry this bride, only to find that the bride sitting by the bed was not the beauty in his heart, but someone else when he took off the red veil. As a result, his surprise turned into humiliation, humiliation into anger, and then took out this anger on the poor Dunn …

Most Forest fans were still unwilling to mention those two games until now because they lost terribly, and it was too shameful … Their spirit was completely lost, and the players' performance on the pitch led to the belief that they must have been waiting for the final whistle to ring right from the first second.

If Twain had been there, he would have lambasted his team in the locker room that they were acting like a woman who had been stripped of all her clothes by, pinned under and be raped by an evildoer but still took the initiative to pander to his pleasure. Then maybe he would have another heart attack and be finished off straight away…

Fortunately, he was carefully cared for by Shania, and had no time to pay attention to the team's mess.

But afterwards, in order to test the extent of his heart recovery, Twain specifically locate the videos of the two games to watch. After watching them, even though his body was all right, he was truly furious. Mourinho really did not give him face. With one match score of 2:0 and another match score of 3:0, he utterly wiped out the defending champion with a total score of 5:0. Twain suffered his biggest defeat in scores ever since he started coaching at Mourinho's hands.

How could he take it that this kind of humiliated had never happened? Obliterate the feud with a smile when they met? That was not Tony Twain's style. His style was—even if you turn to ash, I'll still recognize you!

So, this time Twain did not mind the media hype of the "revenge" concept. He was not afraid to bring psychological pressure on the players. He was eager for the players to have pressure.. They could not play the game without pressure…

At the first press conference in Milan, Twain explicitly agreed with the local media in Nottingham about "revenge" and said, "Yes, we are here to seek revenge. The Italian media, please tell Mourinho about this—The Tony Twain he couldn't win is here again!"

He had a smile full of confidence, and his attitude was very arrogant. He wanted to let the Italians, who had been tormented and hard pressed by Mourinho, to know that the English boss was not easily served!

At the press conference, Twain waged a war of words against the reporters. He dismissed every single comment that was down on him, trying to prove that his team was the best team of the week and none other.

If the media did not believe it, he spread his hands and said, "You'll find out after the game if I'm talking big or telling the truth."

※※※

After the "big truth" was released, Twain was naturally prepared.

This time, Twain planned to continue using the 4-2-3-1 formation, but different from before. The "2" was not two midfielders but became two defensive midfielders. The "3" was not a parallel line on the thirty meters line. Other than the "1" in the middle continued to be the attacking midfielder's position, the two attacking wingers on the sides retreated to become the side midfielders, so that the formation was more layered with a few lines not too far apart that it would cause things to come apart.

Although the offense was not as strong as before with such an adjustment, the defense was certainly a lot more stable. There was a problem with the previous 4-2-3-1 formation—the gap behind George Wood and Tiago was too big and the opportunity would always be seized upon by the opponent to directly face the rear defensive line, resulting in a loss of the ball. Inter Milan's midfield strength was not to be underestimated. The fewer such gaps, the better it was.

Now that Wood and Tiago were back in the defensive midfielder line, closer to their own rear defensive line, it was in fact still unified with two wingers in the middle even though they were far from the attacking midfielder. They could truly press for the attack and retreat for the defense.

As Wood and Tiago focused more on defense, the task of organizing the offense fell to the attacking midfielder. This time, Twain chose not to let Fernández, who was more capable of scoring, play as the attacking midfielder, but decided to let Şahin play. Fernández was moved to the left as a winger, but compared to Bentley on the right, he had slightly more freedom. He was a little like Ribery, who was the FIFA World Player of the Year previously at Nottingham Forest. After all, Fernández and Ribery were a little similar in characteristics. It was a waste to fix him on the sides. Having played brilliantly in recent rounds of competition, Fernández had been called "Ribery the second" by the British media.

Unlike Fernández, who could break through, pass and shoot on the left, Bentley on the right was more of a player who passed the ball. He was tasked to retreat and support as well as pass the ball forward to send it to the front of the opponent's goal.

At the tip of the formation as the arrowhead figure was Ibišević who was recently in good form and had no physical problem. He was a striker with very wide range of activity and could be seen in almost the entire front field. He was most suitable to be the arrowhead, because he would not be easily blocked by the opposing defenders.

The team was in a good shape without any major injuries and the morale of the players was high too. Although they were up against Inter Milan, which had thrashed them by 5:0, they had the boss there this time. There was nothing to worry about!

This time, we're standing with the media—That's right! We're here to smash the place and seek revenge!