champion godfather

Chapter 6 Three Goals Behind
Ian McDonald, the old goalkeeper at Wilford Training Base, turned on the radio before the game started, turned the volume to the maximum, and sat in the guard room to listen to the game with peace of mind.At this time, the players who were selected for the team's roster are all in the city stadium, and those who are not selected are also at home or other places.The training base was quiet, except for the voice of commentary coming from the guard's room.

He still remembered the smile and promise Tony Twain gave him in the morning: "You will hear the news of our goals one after another on the radio." This filled him with anticipation.

Not long after the game started, he did hear the news of one goal after another coming from the radio.But it wasn't Forest's goal, it was West Ham's.Only half an hour into the game, his favorite team was conceded three goals by visiting West Ham.

He sat on the chair in a daze, unable to believe the voice he heard.

"Jermaine Defoe, Defoe, shoot! Goal! What a beautiful raid!"

"Defoe got the ball outside the penalty area... He suddenly started, passed! Will it be 2:0? Yes! Jermaine Defoe, he scored twice! West Ham lead Nottingham Forest 2:0!"

"Unbelievable! Unbelievable!! A volley from the outside of the box! From Joe Cole! Can't believe he's only 21! He's the future of English football! It's West Ham's third goal of the game , they completely controlled the game, the Forest team had no chance! 3:0, the game ended early!"

an early closure?You bastard commentator, what are you talking about?The game only started for 10 minutes, and we still have 10 minutes to get back!McDonald had never trusted acting head coach Tony Twain so much. At this moment, he believed that this man could fulfill his promise.

He shook his fist at the radio as if he, too, was standing in the stands at the City Stadium with his mates to demonstrate against the visiting team.Since he was the janitor of the training base, he hasn't been to the City Stadium to watch a game for some years.

City Stadium was almost drowned in boos.Tang En was all too familiar with these boos. When he opened his eyes and saw the world three days ago, these boos surrounded his ears.The boos from the fans of the home team, the object of venting their dissatisfaction is not the visiting team West Ham, but the home team Nottingham Forest.

In one corner of the pitch, a group of players in West Ham shirts surrounded their captain and were celebrating a goal, their third of the game.

Des Walker held his head in frustration and sat next to Twain. He arranged the game from pre-match preparations to tactics. Twain said he believed in him, and he really wanted to repay the head coach's trust in him with victory. Unexpectedly, the first half was not over yet, but what they got was a massacre.

The 0:3 score on the electronic scoreboard is red and dripping with blood.And the middle finger raised towards the coach's bench is like a dense towering tree in the Sherwood Forest northeast of Nottingham.What made the fans of the home team angry was not only the score, but also the performance of the players on the field.

Tang En could see it clearly off the court. If he was a die-hard Forest team fan, he could only express his feelings with swear words and the middle finger in the face of such a 10 minutes in the first half.He even suspected that the eleven people on the field, like himself, did not sleep well.Did they go out to whores together at night?These bastards!He frowned, thinking through gritted teeth.

What Tang En didn't know was that at this moment, a camera on the opposite side of the field was aimed at him, and his facial expression was placed in close-up on the rebroadcast screen.The person in charge of explaining this game was John Mortensen, a famous English football commentator for the BBC who commented on Forest's last league game. He is famous for his sharp words and passionate commentary style.He had just finished with a series of praises for West Ham's young captain Joe`Cole's goal, which was West Ham's third goal of the game.He even came to the conclusion: "This game is over! Although the Forest team has a very glorious history, but now they are lingering at the feet of Joe Cole like poor people, worrying that they don't know when they will come again." It’s heartbreaking to see Forest like this and see the red jerseys on them!”

"Coach Tony Twain also seems to be quite dissatisfied with the team's performance. Then please come up with something! Don't always frown on the coach's bench, do you have a toothache? In fact, in this game we only Seeing his assistant coach Des Walker get up frequently to direct the game, who is the head coach? But who expects a rookie who has just stepped down from the player position to command a Division I team to beat a super team ?Before the game, people’s doubts about the level of the forest team’s acting head coach were not groundless. Tony Twain has not brought the slightest change to the team so far, and he is not even as good as his predecessor Paul Hart—it is said that Twain The coach was appointed because Paul Hart strongly recommended Chairman Dougherty. What I want to say is, Paul, you have always been very accurate in seeing players, but you still need to improve in seeing coaches!"

If Tang En heard that he was belittled like this, he wondered if he would quarrel with this famous commentator on the spot... But right now he doesn't have the heart to think about how others evaluate him.He has to change the downturn on the field.He knew that West Ham were very good, just by looking at the names of these people, he knew how good they were.But that's not why Forest should fail.

There is only one reason for failure, and that is that we are not doing well enough!
Tang En muttered these words in a low voice.

Walker tilted his head toward him, and he seemed to hear it, but couldn't hear it clearly. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing." Tang En shook his head.

"Tony, you have to think of a way, this is not going to work." Walker put his mouth close to Dun En's ear and whispered to him. "Bowyer has made up his mind to watch the show, I think he would like to lose this game!"

"You're right. That old man really thinks so. But now I have nothing to do."

Walker was very disappointed with Twain's answer. The head coach couldn't do something like this: when he lost control of something, it was often the end of the road.

"Do you think we can guard Joe Cole, Lee`Bowyer, Di`Canio and Jermain`Defoe with our defensive players?"

Walker shook his head. To be honest, his team really couldn't compete with such a super team.Listen to the names of these people, either they are veteran players who have been famous for a long time, or they are all rookies in England.

"Also, do you think our strikers, the forwards, can get past Michael`Carrick, Ian`Pearce, Thomas`Repka, David James? David`James) and then score?"

Walker continued to shake his head, this line of defense is at the national team level, James is the England goalkeeper, Thomas Repka is a member of the Czech national team, and Carrick moved to Manchester United in the summer three years later.Throughout the first half, Forest's two main forwards had only three chances to shoot, and the balls they shot even gave James no chance to warm up.

West Ham easily controlled the pace of the game with a group of talented players in their team, taking over possession of the field, and Forest could only follow the football they kicked back and forth, wasting in this senseless running. Physical strength and fighting spirit.Don't look at West Ham's misery in the Premier League. In the first half of the season, they only scored 21 points in [-] rounds, ranking first in the league.But in front of the first-tier team, you can still play awe-inspiring and vent your depression of being bullied.

Just 7 minutes into the game, West Ham took the lead. The fast young striker Jermaine Defoe easily broke through Forest's clumsy defense and brought the team the first goal. Five minutes later, Defoe made a comeback and once again used his speed to break through the defense and scored twice.Watching this rookie who was later selected for the England representative team show his strength on the field, Tang En had a feeling that time and space were intertwined.He knew what the young man would achieve in the future.What made Tang En feel powerless was that there are many talented and strong men in today's West Ham United team. It is really hard for his own Forest team to compete against such opponents.

Watching the players of West Ham United pass the ball back and forth like walking in the court, Joe Cole even performed his heel pass and extraordinary in front of the few fans of the visiting team.Listening to the laughter from the West Ham fans' stands and boos from other stands from time to time, Dunn had an illusion: Whose home field is this?

This situation made him very angry.Although he didn't get passed over and over again by Joe Cole and others on the field, he still felt insulted.Because he is the head coach of this team, the head coach must be responsible for his team being bullied on the court, which is the same as being bullied himself.

Michael Dawson is the hardest-working player of the Forest team so far, but he alone is powerless to stop West Ham's tide-like offensive.He is not responsible for the three conceded goals, but the team as a whole is too poor.After watching the game for more than 30 minutes, Tang En decided to hand over the captain's armband to this young man in the next game.Since 21-year-old Joe Cole can be the captain of the "Hammer Gang" (West Ham United's nickname), why can't 19-year-old Michael Dawson?A genius who is full of fighting spirit and has come out of the forest youth training system, who else is more suitable to lead the current team than him?

The North Stand of the City Stadium near the Trent River is the main stand for Forest fans. On the top floor there is a row of corridors enclosed by glass windows, two old but clean seats, and two TV sets. Boxes at City Stadium.Compared with the stadium boxes of those wealthy teams, the Forest team's home box can only be described as shabby.

Such a bad game, naturally no one would sit here and watch the game.Now there are only two people in the box. Instead of sitting on chairs, they chose a standing posture—standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and watching the stadium.

They are the team's chairman, Mr. Nigel Dougherty, and his son, Evan Dougherty.

Evan Daugherty glanced at the TV in the corner, then down the field. "This is the team you love, the once glorious Nottingham Forest?" There was obvious sarcasm in his tone, completely different from the polite Kenny that Tang En saw that day.

He said this to his father.Old Daugherty didn't care about his son's taunting of him, he just talked about his own words, and he kept nodding his head when he spoke. "You go to the dressing room with me at half-time and I need to let you meet the players."

Evan knew that his words were ignored by his father again, "But I don't think it's necessary, besides, it's not a good time for everyone to meet." He still persuaded him, hoping that his father would stop letting him meet with those players and coaches collectively. Intend.

Nigel Dougherty didn't answer his son's words, but just watched the game intently.

Seeing his father's appearance, Evan shrugged and sighed.He has no interest in the boring and one-sided game on the court.He simply sat down, crossed his legs, drank the Coke provided by the stadium, and looked at the place he was in boredly.

This shabby box, shabby stadium, low-level competitions, and an unattractive team... I really don't understand why my father likes such a team, and is willing to invest tens of millions of pounds for her-he can I have never invested so much money in my son.

When he was watching games in the NBA, he was a fan of the Chicago Bulls at first, and then he became a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers. In the last year, he showed signs of becoming a fan of the San Antonio Spurs, even though his home and company are located in Houston.The only reason to change your favorite team frequently is that the last team lacked enough charismatic stars and champions.In his opinion, it is incomprehensible and unbelievable to like those teams that are not well-known, have no stars, and even hang out in the fifth tier league.Can they get any pleasure and benefit from the pursuit of this kind of team?Can't enjoy the wonderful performances brought by the stars, don't have championship trophies one after another as happy memories throughout the summer, and don't have brilliant records for them to talk about after dinner...

He looked at the densely packed human heads under his feet and on the opposite stand, as well as countless pairs of outstretched and waving arms. Such a lousy game was full of seats.He shook his head slightly.

What are these thousands of people like my father up to?Every weekend afternoon, I just sit in the stands of the simple stadium and waste my time, and then grow old a little bit.It's sad.

What puzzled Mortensen was that after Dunn finished speaking with Walker, he didn't express anything at all.Even Walker, who was very active before, seemed to have his butt glued to the seat. The two just watched the court quietly without saying or doing anything.

This is very strange. Are they not in a hurry to see their team lose like this?Are they not angry?They always have to show some emotion, right?but.The close-up shot swept over the faces of Dunn and Walker. The two looked at the court in a daze, without even frowning.

Feeling ashamed, Mortensen could only mutter, "Did they escape from Madame Tussauds?"

West Ham United coach Glenn Lord is very satisfied with his team's performance. The poor first half of the season seems to have been left behind by this group of boys.He and Tony Twain had the same coaching experience. They were both transferred from the youth team to save their lives because of their predecessor's poor record.In the contest between the two coaches, he has the upper hand.This is the first game he coached, and it started very well. He believes that as long as the team plays at the level of today's first half in the second half of the season, relegation will not be a problem.

He stood on the sidelines, smugly thinking about the next Premier League game.

Tang En glanced at Rhodes who was standing on the sidelines directing the game, with a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on his fair face, he looked elegant.He knew this man, he knew him before he came.This person later became the head coach of Newcastle, but before becoming the head coach of Newcastle, he was the director of the Magpies Youth Army. After Souness was dismissed due to poor record, he replaced him.Sitting in "the most attractive position in the world", but the results are not very good. What makes him luckier than his predecessor is that when his performance is not good, he still has the team facing extensive injuries As an excuse, the team supports him.But in the end he resigned, because the results were too poor, and his team even created a record for Newcastle since 1951-the record of consecutive home goals: 500 minutes.

Because Tang En knew Rhode's experience, he knew that Rhode had nothing to fear. West Ham is playing well now, and it has nothing to do with that gentleman-like coach.Just because they have a group of talented players.

Regardless of the players on the field, we only need to look at those people sitting on the West Ham bench to know the strength of this team: England 2002 World Cup international Trevor Sinclair; Mali international, who later became a famous player in La Liga The striker, who helped Sevilla win the UEFA Cup twice, became the hero of the La Liga double in the 06-07 season Kanoute (Kanoute).Look at the names and then look at where the team is at the end of the season: third from last, they're relegated.

After the team was slaughtered by Everton 0:5 and Blackburn 1:7, the head coach claimed that the team's poor performance was not his responsibility, but because his predecessor Redknapp bought too many people. poor.But his low level is not a "fallacy" drawn by one or two people wearing colored glasses. The entire English media has never stopped criticizing and questioning him.Judging from the first half that Twain observed, he firmly believed in this.

Tang En shrugged, he had already found a way to deal with this team.But now is not the time to make adjustments. Anyway, there are only 5 minutes before the intermission, and when he arrives in the locker room, he has to beat these players who have not woken up.

He suddenly heard a very harsh and clear booing from behind him, followed by a series of cursing.He found it very strange. It was quiet behind him before, so why did it suddenly become lively?
He turned back to look at the source of the sound, only to see Michael and others in the stands behind him making faces and pointing the middle finger at him.The gauze on that man's head is too conspicuous...

"Go back to your youth team! This is an adult team, not a place for kids like you to come, go back to Mommy and act like a spoiled child! Wahaha!!"

"Oh-oh--" the people around him booed.Most of these people laughed at him in the bar that day, and some of them were strangers, but they were definitely in the same group as Michael.

Walker was also attracted by the scolding behind him.He stood up and shouted at those people: "Michael, what are you doing?!"

Michael ignored Walker, he tilted his head: "Des, you'd better not get involved, this is a personal grievance between us and the head coach."

"Personal grievances? Private grievances between a group of you and one person?" Walker snorted.

"Okay, ignore them." Dunn pulled Walker down.

"Tony, what's going on? I remember that you never had conflicts or quarrels with anyone. And Michael is also a loyal Forest team fan. Why do they hate you so much?"

"Nothing, I splashed the leader's face at the bar in Burns and then got into a fight with him - it was over short, I punched him to the ground and then got into the fat guy on the left It's called 'Fat Pig'." Dunn said it lightly, and Walker could open his mouth enough to swallow a ball.In his impression, Tang En hated drinking and smoking, and would never get angry with others, let alone hit them directly.What's going on here?
Tang En knew that Walker was very surprised, and anyone who was familiar with him would be surprised when he heard the above words. "I'll explain it to you later, now let's watch the game first, and I have found a way to deal with them."

Walker looked back at Michael and others who were still making noise in the stands behind, and then watched the game with peace of mind.

There is a characteristic of English stadiums. The coach’s bench is rarely set in the blank area between the pitch and the stands. Unlike most stadiums we know, their coach’s bench is set on the stand, surrounded by ordinary fans. Seats, the two sides of the player channel are separated to serve as coach seats and benches.Unless directing the game, the coaches are sitting in the stands.Forest’s home city stadium was not like this before. Their coach’s bench was under the stands, on the sidelines, even lower than the level of the field—the coach’s bench seemed to be a hole dug on the sidelines, covered with a concrete canopy to keep out the sun and rain .Later, because of the European Championship in England in 96, it was rebuilt into most British stadiums. The coaches' bench and the fans' stands are very close.This shortens the distance between the fans, which has advantages and disadvantages.Tang En is now enduring the "bad" side.Sitting behind the coach's bench, Michael and others kept humiliating him with boos and all kinds of curses, challenging his endurance.

Even the team's substitute players couldn't help but stood up several times and turned their heads to stare at them. Tang En still watched the game without turning his head.

"You coward, an out-and-out coward! Did you see that I'm scolding you, scolding your whole family! Come here and punch me again if you have the ability! Where did your courage go when you beat me up? Trash! You bastard! You son of a bitch! Fucking bastard!" Michael cursed loudly, even attracting the camera of the TV broadcast.

So he danced and yelled and cursed above the stands, and the picture of Tang En sitting with his chest folded less than three meters below him entered the TV of countless people.Burns, who was helping in his own bar, also saw this scene. There was a burst of applause for Michael in the bar, and Burns could only shake his head slightly as he looked at the heads of people in the room.

Maybe it was just like what Michael and the others scolded, Tang En was an "out-and-out coward" and "coward", and he didn't even dare to fight back.His performance disappointed many players.To be honest, Michael scolded so badly that even the players who knew the head of the fans couldn't stand it.But Coach Twain still sat in his seat without moving, as if he couldn't hear those people's scolding at all.

Seeing this scene on the sidelines, Mortensen became excited again. "I found an interesting phenomenon. As long as Coach Tony Twain is on the field, the most exciting moment is definitely not on the field, but within ten yards of his coach's bench. Now there is some commotion behind his coach's bench, it seems There are fans saying something to him and seeing them getting emotional is not going to be a good thing anyway. I think tomorrow night on Match`of`the`Day we can have a lip expert Read what they're saying. If West Ham beat their opponents 3-0 away, there's nothing to report about that because they deserved to win. It's the sideline incident that deserves our attention."

The time of the game is passing by every minute and every second, and the situation on the field is still unfavorable to Nottingham Forest, but West Ham also slowed down their offensive pace after leading by three goals. kicked before.Maybe the players, like the manager, are thinking about the next Premier League game.

The scolding behind the coach's bench of the home team still hasn't subsided, and many players even had to ask to go to the sidelines to warm up and escape from the embarrassing bench.Twain didn't express anything about their request. Walker could only sigh and let all the substitute players go to warm up.Immediately, half of the bench was empty, only the members of the coaching staff remained.

Des Walker looked at Tang En with some concern, he felt that something was wrong with Tang En.His complexion seemed very ugly, gloomy like the weather of the previous two days.

When he looked down, he saw Tang En's hands clenched tightly into fists, because of too much force, the knuckles even turned white...

The referee's whistle gave everyone a relief, and this uncomfortable first half was over.

Tang En was the first to stand up and walk off the coach's bench, leaving behind the fans who were still insulting him, and walked into the aisle first.Walker glared at Michael and the others, then stood on the sidelines to comfort the players, patted this, patted that, shook his head, and sighed.Tell them it's also normal to lose three goals against a super team.

Anyway, we are a first-tier team...

(End of this chapter)