champion godfather

Chapter 2 Mr. Chairman
The whole night, Tang En didn't sleep well.

After leaving the familiar bed, he tossed and turned on the wider bed, with inexplicable dreams always appearing in his mind.In the dream, he saw himself rejuvenated, standing at the gate of the city stadium with his travel bag; then he was standing next to a green field, and beside him stood a strange middle-aged man, dozens of people with different faces Childish young players surrounded them and listened intently; the middle-aged man appeared several times in his dream, and every time he stood beside him without saying a word, like a statue; On the court, the middle-aged man disappeared. This time he was surrounded by a group of young players, talking to them.Later, the scene changed, and he saw a familiar scene - he was on the court during the day, and there was also a middle-aged man standing beside him in a suit, standing on the sidelines directing the game, while he continued to remain silent.The dream changed, and the men around him became more and more irritable and irritable. Finally, one day there was no one around him. An old man stood in front of him, patted his shoulder, and said something, but unfortunately he couldn't hear anything.

And then...he woke up.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that the sky outside was still gray, and there was a pattering sound coming from the window. He got up and sat on the bed, his eyes gradually adapted to the dim room.Looking at the completely unfamiliar furnishings in the house, he still couldn't believe that he just came to England and became a football coach, although he was only an agent... rubbing his hands on his face to make himself more awake.Tang En jumped off the bed, and then opened the closed curtains.

It was early morning outside the house, and there were not many pedestrians on the street.The wet pavement reflected the lights of street lamps and cars, and it was raining.

This kind of weather made him think of his hometown, a small city in Sichuan, which is also a rainy city, no matter summer or winter, it is always wet.Seeing such an early morning, he felt a sense of intimacy in his heart.

Feeling the chill, Tang En realized that he was only wearing a pair of shorts. He quickly put on his clothes and went to the bathroom to wash up.

The place where Coach Tony Twain lived was called Branford Gardens. It was a very ordinary residential area, located in Wilford District on the south bank of the River Trent.A red brick house very common in England, a small garden, nothing more.The house is not too small for Tang En who is single, but it definitely cannot be considered too big in Nottingham.The rent of the house is very cheap, and the most important point is that it is very close to the forest team's training base and youth training camp.After walking northeast for more than 20 minutes, you can see the gate of the training base hidden in the woods.

After washing up from the bathroom, Tang En planned to go to the kitchen to find something to eat.

When he walked to the refrigerator, he realized that the door of the refrigerator was covered with notes.Opening the door, he found a box of milk and a piece of bread, and then he simply stood in front of the refrigerator, reading the note on it curiously, while eating a simple breakfast.

The most eye-catching thing was an A4-sized form. Tang En only felt dizzy after glancing at the contents on it.

6:30-7:00, morning run.

7:00-7:20, breakfast.

7:00-7:40, newspaper reading.

7:40-8:00, go to the training ground (remarks, it will be arranged separately on the match day).

This is a very detailed daily work and rest schedule, the time is accurate to the minute, and there are a lot of notes.From the second he opened his eyes in the morning, the schedule was faithfully executed until he lay back on the bed and closed his eyes to sleep.

"This damn obsessive-compulsive disorder patient!" For the lazy Tang En, the practice of dividing life into minutes and then filling in specific content section by section is simply suffering.The daily life has been stipulated before the eyes open, what to do at what time, what to do from time to time, and even the time to go to the bathroom is written in the schedule, so that overall planning can be made.He finally understood why Kenny Burns was so surprised when he saw him drinking yesterday—the former Tony Twain was an out-and-out workaholic, emotionless, completely ignorant of enjoying life, and rigid Stubborn machines... It is a miracle that such a person can live for 34 years!

There are yellow, green, and red strips of paper around the white planner.There are different contents written on them, and the yellow is a memo, reminding him of a meeting at a certain moment.The green ones are the phone numbers that were jotted down by hand. There are not many green notes. It seems that these calls ended up in Tony Twain's personal phone book.The most red ones are the important plans and arrangements of the day, every day.Tang En scanned the refrigerator line by line, and finally let him find the red note pasted on the refrigerator door yesterday morning.

Except for the date of the day, there is only one sentence above:

"The first first-team game coached as a head coach must be won!!!"

After reading so many planning memos left by Tony Twain, this was the first time he saw that this person used punctuation marks with strong emotional hints when writing, and he used three punctuation marks at once.

Looking at the scrawled handwriting on the red paper, which was completely different from the previous memos, Dunn could even imagine the expression and movements of this person when he wrote this sentence.He must have clenched his fists and clenched his teeth, full of anticipation and fighting spirit, and exhausted all his strength to leave this oath on the note.

It's a pity... Tang En thought of what was said in the TV news yesterday, that the Forest team lost 0:3 to the underdog Scharwall at home.Did he come suddenly and take away his victory?Tang En looked blankly at the paper notes pasted on the refrigerator door.

He must have done the best planning and told his players the day before the game.But what's the use?The game was still lost.There is a Chinese saying: Plans cannot keep up with changes.

Tang En reached out and peeled off the notes on the refrigerator door one by one.In the end, all that was left was a red note that said "Must Win".

Then he threw the notes and the milk carton into the trash can, clapped his hands and walked out of the kitchen.

Back in the bedroom, the sky was already bright. Although it was still raining, there were gradually more pedestrians and vehicles on the road.

Tang En remembered that he had seen eight o'clock on the schedule just now, and seemed to be going to the training ground. He looked down at the watch, and it was exactly seven forty.

No matter how terrible and absurd the reality was, after all, I became Tony Twain, replacing this unlucky ghost, so I naturally had to do the job of the unlucky ghost.Tang En is not an irresponsible guy.And when he watched the game, he never thought that victory would come out of nowhere.He put on his coat, took a black umbrella at the door, opened the door, and walked into the rain.

The forest team's training base is also in Wilford District, where the Trent River, which flows from west to east, makes a sharp N-shaped turn, alluvial a large flat land, which was a large piece of fertile farmland a century ago, and forest.Nottingham is just a small piece of land on the north bank of the river.Today, the development of the city has crossed the Trent River, and it is already a large-scale residential area. The Forest Club bought it and built it as its own training base.

The long and narrow training base is divided into two parts by a small road called "Wilford Lane". The slightly larger area in the north is the youth team training base, which is the largest youth training camp in England.The slightly smaller place in the south of the road is the training base of the forest first team, also known as "Wilford".

British winters don't have much rain, but they're annoying because they don't stop.Tang En didn't think it mattered, after all, whether it was his hometown or Chengdu, the city where he worked after graduation, it started to rain non-stop in winter.

The old guard at the base, Ian Macdonald, looked at Tony Twain whose trousers were all wet: "Tony, what are you doing here?"

Tang En felt that he asked this question inexplicably. "Come to train."

MacDonald said to him: "But Tony, today is January 2003, 1. The team is on holiday, and it's the New Year's holiday."

Tang En patted his forehead, he forgot about this.

Seeing him slap his forehead, Macdonald shook his head slightly.He must think that Tang En's head is still not normal due to yesterday's impact.

"I said here, why... why is it so quiet. Happy New Year." Tang En smiled awkwardly at Macdonald, and turned to leave.At this time, he saw a dark red Audi A6 parked beside him.

The rear door was opened, and a fat old man got out from inside.Dunn's subconscious told him that this person was his boss, the chairman of the team - Mr. Nigel Daugherty.Then came down a middle-aged man, about the same age as himself, tall and capable, wearing a well-fitting casual jacket, holding an umbrella in his hand, most of which covered the chairman's head.

When Daugherty saw Tang En standing by the roadside, the old man stretched out his arms and hugged Tang En. "Tony, I read yesterday's news. Forgive me for not calling you, my son just came back from the United States to see me. Are you okay?"

Tang En was a little flattered by the boss's attitude, and he quickly replied: "I think it should be... okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman."

Nigel let go of Tang En, then pointed to the middle-aged man standing beside him, and said to Tang En, "My son, Evan."

Evan Daugherty offered his hand: "Hi, nice to meet you. Mr. Coach..."

The father next to him interrupted his son: "Evan, I've said it many times. Don't call me 'coach', say 'manager'. This is England, not America."

Evan smiled apologetically at Tang En: "Sorry, Mr. Manager."

Tang En also stretched out his hand: "Uh, it's okay. It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Daugherty."

The Mr. Chairman next to him cut in: "My son has just returned from the United States. He grew up there since he was a child, but he is unfamiliar with England. Now he is an 'American' who grew up watching the NBA."

For this sarcasm, Evan smiled helplessly and did not refute.

Standing in front of him was the boss who paid him a salary. Tang En thought of the red note on the refrigerator. He felt that he had to explain yesterday's failure, even if it was a lie. "Uh, Mr. Chairman... I'm sorry for yesterday's loss..."

Unexpectedly, Nigel put his hand on his shoulder and comforted him in turn. "Tony, I don't like failure either, but this is not your responsibility alone. These two seasons..." At this point, the chairman looked at the distant sky with cloudy eyes, muttered a dirty word, and then He looks away. "Do it well, don't think too much, I won't put any pressure on you. Happy New Year, Tony." He lightly patted Dunn on the shoulder, then turned around and walked into the gate of the team's training base with his son.

Standing at the door, Tang En saw the chairman's hunched back, and his son Evan who was supporting him and holding an umbrella for him, and couldn't tell what it was like at this moment.He accepted the reality that he was a football coach as quickly as possible, but he couldn't accept the team emotionally in one day.He didn't know much about Nottingham Forest, except that she had been brilliant.Nor is he a Forest fan.

But the two pats on his shoulders that the old man gave just now made him feel warm.As a "foreigner", this kind of warmth is precious.He decided to have a good fight and try his best.Not only to gamble with those drunkards, but also to be worthy of Mr. Chairman's trust in him—even though the old man didn't know that the person he trusted was not the Tony Twain he was familiar with.

"Happy New Year, old man..."

Tang En, who left the Wilford training base, was wandering in the street, aimlessly, without distinguishing between north and south.The rain had stopped, so he simply used the umbrella as a crutch.

There were several times more pedestrians on the road than when he went out before. Today is a holiday, of course.Everyone came out in groups to play and go shopping.It's New Years.However, this kind of festive atmosphere does not belong to Tang En, and now he has no intention of going to the festival.

He finds it very strange that he can understand every English word and understand every English sentence. It seems that this is an instinct. He is as familiar with the language of this country as he is familiar with Chinese, as well as some life skills, but he has forgotten other things. something very important.

There seemed to be a fault in his memory. He couldn't remember how he, as Tony Twain, trained the team and arranged tactics.He is also not very clear about his popularity, influence, and word-of-mouth in the club.So he couldn't understand why Mr. Chairman would be so kind to him.It's just that sometimes those disappearing memories will come back, stay in his mind for a short time, and disappear again.

But he knew what kind of person the former Tony Twain was.He follows the rules, is taciturn, works hard, and works hard.In terms of private life, he is like an ascetic monk. He does not smoke or drink, has no love experience, never goes to romantic places, and goes home to rest every day except work. hour.He likes to be quiet, and the only activity that counts as entertainment is listening to classical music with headphones in his room.

"Damn it!" After recalling the information about Tony Twain deep in his memory, the current Twain couldn't help cursing, "This is simply a person who lived in the Middle Ages, it's so boring! Why is there such a thing in the world? people?!"

Tang En summed it up for himself.Now this body is not his own, it belongs to an ancient medieval man named "Tony Twain", so he has a physical instinct familiar with life in England.At the same time, Tang En's heart was beating in this body, so he had a personality completely different from the instinct of this body.

Thinking about it now, he still has to thank the embarrassing experience yesterday.Let everyone know that his brain was hit, so there is no need to worry about why someone will suspect why Tony Twain's personality has changed drastically.

Tired from walking, Tang En sat on a bench by the street to rest, and then began to seriously consider how he could be a successful coach and live up to the old chairman's trust in him.

He buried his head in thought for a long time, but had no clue.He doesn't know how to train a team, and he doesn't know how to make a team win.The football manager game I played before is completely useless at this moment.He is not familiar with every player of the Forest team, at least he is not familiar with the current one.He couldn't point fingers and say like watching a game on TV: The head coach should send this person up, let that person play on the left side, let that person actively assist...Facing a completely unfamiliar team, even if Twain can watch the ball There is no way to start.

To make matters worse, now he doesn't have much time to prepare.The team has a day off today, and will regroup tomorrow, and then prepare for the third round of the FA Cup on the 4th. Their opponent is West Ham United (West Ham) from the Premier League.

Today's Forest team has experienced a three-game losing streak in the league. The new head coach who has just been replaced has made a big ugly in the TV broadcast, and morale is extremely low.Although West Ham's life in the Super League is not easy, they are still better than the Forest team.

Tang En smiled wryly and said: "It's really a leaky house and it rains continuously... If this is also an arrangement of fate, then I can only say: You are a fucking piece of shit!"

Annoyed Tang En raised his head, he saw a large bar on the corner across the street.Looking at the word Pub on it, he decided to go inside for a drink and temporarily put all his troubles aside.

"Traveling to England is not useless, at least the bars that bloom everywhere are good things." Tang En crossed the road and pushed open the heavy red-brown door.

"Sorry, it's not the opening time yet, I forgot to hang the sign at the door..." Hearing the sound of the door, a middle-aged man who was wiping glasses behind the bar raised his head and said, but when he saw clearly who came in When, but froze.

Tang En was also stunned, because he recognized that the man with a cigarette in front of him was the one who invited him to drink last night——Kenny Burns.Yesterday, he was so angry that he made a mess of the bar, but unexpectedly, he came here again!
Tang En's next reaction was to back out, look up at the signboard of the bar, and then walk in and look around. "How the hell did I get this way?" He couldn't help cursing.

Burns looked at him with great interest: "It seems that yesterday's collision changed our Tony Twain's character drastically."

This is a good step, and Tang En took the opportunity to step down: "I know, he used to... er, I never swear, and I was as quiet as a woman. Haven't opened the door yet? Then I'll change to another..." He Turning to leave, Burns' hearty laughter sounded behind him.

"Don't waste your time, no bar will open before 11:30 noon."

Tang En turned around embarrassingly: "I... I rarely come here, so I don't know."

"It's not that you come here very rarely. Today is the second time you've come to the bar. As I said, you used to live like the purest Puritan. Don't mind if I say that to you?"

Tang En shook his head. He is an atheist, he doesn't believe in religion, and he doesn't care what kind of religious camp others put him in.

Burns came out from behind the bar, and waved to Tang En at the door: "Since you're here, don't leave. Anyway, I'm bored by myself now. How about chatting with me? Of course, I'll buy you a drink."

Now Tang En was also looking for someone to talk to, he blinked his eyes: "The purest Scotch whiskey?"

Burns laughed loudly: "That's right, the most authentic Scotch whiskey from my hometown! But please don't press the glass on my face."

"Ah! That incident... I want to solemnly apologize to you."

"It's nothing, fighting in the bar is common. Everyone will be more excited when they drink too much, especially when there is a ball game..." Burns nodded in understanding.

(End of this chapter)