Chapter 630: Still Undefeated
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Advancing into the Champions League’s top four, and for three years in a row, was was a remarkable achievement. Even if they did not win the Champions League cup at the end of the season, Tony Twain’s name would be engraved in the history of the Champions League. His prestige in Nottingham Forest flourished. When people mentioned “Nottingham Forest” outside of England, they only knew of Tony Twain’s team and did not know real owner of the club. He became the face and spokesperson of Nottingham Forest. When Tony Twain was brought up, it was natural to a.s.sociate him with Nottingham Forest. When Nottingham Forest was mentioned, the first person that came to mind was Tony Twain.
Flushed with success on the field, Twain was also a winner outside the field. Just after the Champions League game, Armani made an announcement that Tony Twain had become their brand amba.s.sador in the United Kingdom. Large photographs of Tony Twain wearing an Armani windbreaker appeared in major shopping malls.
It had been decided a while back, but it was never made public. Armani had been looking for the right opportunity to make the announcement. The current progress to the Champions League semi finals was the best opportunity. Twain took time to have several sets of photographs taken, which could be used for the ads. Twain felt ashamed to say that he had desired it a year ago, but it was only recently facilitated by Shania, who had pulled strings and build the bridges from far away in the United States. It was his business, but Shania was more meticulous than him.
Speaking of Shania, the young girl was doing well in America. Because she had some friends in the show business world, she was not a newbie in Hollywood. She had people looking after her wherever she went, so Twain did not have to worry. There was nothing he could worry about since s...o...b..siness was not his field.
Shania was very fond of movies. She liked that she was now able to work in the production of films, and not just runways with their busy schedules and conflicts. Other than sometimes flying around the world to promote the fas.h.i.+on products she was the brand amba.s.sador for, she lived in Hollywood and interacted with famous movie stars. Another important job of hers was to attend cla.s.s — her agent, Mr. Fasal, arranged acting cla.s.ses for her. Since she had decided to attempt a film career, the lessons were indispensable.
Shania was very enthusiastic and in high spirits during her phone conversation with Twain. That was the most rea.s.suring thing for Twain. He was afraid that the young girl would throw tantrums and make things difficult for Fasal.
The only pity was that to smoothly pave the way for her career, Shania had to reside in the United States for some time and was unable to return to the United Kingdom.
After Shania settled in the United States, the most delighted was Beckham’s wife, Victoria. Although her husband went against her will and chose to return to Britain instead of going to the United States, she temporarily compromised. She never gave up her desire to move to America. It was not news that she wanted to go to the teeming world of Hollywood, and Beckham did not think there was anything wrong with it. After all, he had a career, and so did his wife.
Victoria sometimes flew to the United States to visit Shania and met with the other Hollywood stars.
Beckham was alone and in the same boat as Twain.
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Having advanced into the Champions League semi finals, the next game would be at the end of April. Tony Twain had nearly one month to carry out the strategies for the tournament. The battle for the league t.i.tle had already entered a white-hot stage:
After the 33rd round of the league tournament on April 5th, Nottingham Forest came in second with 76 points. Manchester United occupied the top of the rankings with 77 points and a.r.s.enal was in third place with 70 points. The team most likely to win the league t.i.tle was among those three teams.
Although Chelsea had changed their manager, their results in the league tournament had not improved. Currently pushed out of the top four by Liverpool, their league goal was no longer to win the league t.i.tle, but to achieve the qualification for next season’s UEFA Champions League.
It was a sorry sight for a Champions League winner to have fallen to such a point. However, professional football was like that. There was no victorious general in the world forever. There was always an ebb and flow.
Compared with the results in the league tournament, Chelsea was surprisingly resilient in the Champions League.
After Mourinho’s dismissal, everyone thought that Chelsea would face a full collapse and be routed in both league tournament and Champions League. Even if they had advanced from the group stage, they would not have gone far in the knockout stage.
That was what Tony Twain thought. He was not optimistic on Grant’s coaching ability. It was confirmed by their erratic performance in the league tournament, which was overturned by their strength in the Champions League.
There were three teams from the Premier League in the top four of the Champions League, of which one was Tony Twain’s Nottingham Forest. The other was Ferguson’s Manchester United, and the third was Chelsea led by Grant.
Both leading their teams into the Champions League semifinals, Tony Twain received acclaim whereas the voices surrounding Grant remained skeptical. The Forest team’s opponent in the quarterfinals was the powerful Real Madrid, while Chelsea’s opponent was Fenerbahçe. Putting aside the home ground factor, the team was at bottom out of the eight teams.
As a result, Chelsea’s victory was not convincing. Furthermore, popular opinion among the media and fans stated that Grant’s current achievements were built upon Mourinho’s foundation, so there was nothing to praise. Because the lineup that Grant used was basically Mourinho’s. Shevchenko still sat on the bench. Looking at the games, a strong Mourinho style was still present and the team’s training might be in accordance with the routine used during Mourinho’s time in office.
How could any achievements made against such a context be convincing?
Therefore, Grant had a bad relations.h.i.+p with the English media. Although Mourinho also had numerous disputes with the media, the media was fond of the existence of such a subject like Mourinho as a whole. Grant could not create any topic for the media as he was always taciturn, did not cause a war of words with other managers, was not attractive, and was not an idol of middle-aged and elderly women. He was an ordinary team manager. Compared to Mourinho, Grant was a real disappointment.
On the other hand, there was Tony Twain. To the English media, every day was like a holiday with Tony Twain around. After they sent away Real Madrid, which triggered the war of words between the two countries, they were now welcoming Chelsea, which they had an old grudge with.
Remember the series of storms triggered by Mourinho’s dismissal? Tony Twain, who had nothing to do with it, became the protagonist, but the media liked it. They openly criticized Tony Twain for shooting his mouth off without using his brain, but also counted on the great Tony Twain to have a few more gaffes so that they could increase their circulation.
Nottingham Forest challenged Chelsea in an away game in the 34th round of the league tournament. The media was as excited as a pack of wild dogs in heat.
Grant did not want to talk more about his feud with Twain. In truth, they did not used to have a grudge. It was Twain’s remark of “who is that?” that made one.
However, the media was relentless and insisted that Grant expressed his views on it. They surrounded him with questions that had nothing to do with the team. It was all variations of “how’s Tony Twain?”.
Grant could not take it anymore and roared, “when I first took over the helm, you always talked about Mourinho. Now you’re talking about Tony Twain. Are you here to interview me, or to interview those two people? I know you’re comparing me with Mourinho, but I think I’ve done a great job, leading the team into the Champions League semi finals! What does it have to do with me when our league ranking is not ideal?”
His sudden outburst left the reporters in an uproar.
Grant finished by saying, “why aren’t we in a good position in the rankings? What other explanation can I give? I can do my job well, but when I accepted to lead the team, we were already too many points behind the leading teams. We have been playing catch up with those teams, which is not easy. What else do you want? You think I’m inferior to Mourinho. So why is it me, not him, who is sitting here for an interview now?”
There was a strong sense of attacking Mourinho within these remarks.
Previously when the media had been critical that Grant was inferior to Mourinho, he did not come out to refute. They did not expect his first counterattack to be so bold. Was he not afraid to offend the power in the locker room with his remarks? Everyone knew that his ability to run the locker room was poor and that he could not hold down the big names at all. Now his words would no doubt add fuel to the fire. Could it be that leading the team into the Champions League semi finals had hardened his backbone?
Having said that, Grant got up and turned to leave abruptly.
As soon as he left, Twain came in and watched Grant leave with a smirk on his face. He had heard the entirety of Grant’s rage outside the door. He felt that Grant’s remarks were laughable and that the way in which he offed the blame to his predecessor was crude.
He decided to further irritate the other man.
“When I took over Nottingham Forest in the second half of the EFL Champions.h.i.+p season, the team ranked fourth from the bottom. After half a season, we returned to the English Premier League,” he said with a grin. “I hope to use this story to encourage Manager Grant. Saying that ‘when I took over this team, this team is at a certain ranking on the list’ is an excuse that only incompetent people use. Ah, I’m not saying that Mr. Grant is incompetent. Please stop distorting my words. You know, to be able to lead the team to the Champions League semifinals is a remarkable result. If I were Grant, I would give up the league tournament and concentrate on preparing for the Champions League, since Chelsea will definitely not be able to win the league t.i.tle this season anyway.”
Although he told the truth and his advice also made a lot of sense, the Chelsea fans would be able to accept it from anyone besides Tony Twain. It had to be a provocation when he said it.
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Twain did not know if Grant was further enraged before the game because he did not accept any more interviews, so no one knew his thoughts.
Twain got the answer at the game — Grant was furious and wanted to settle the scores with Twain.
Chelsea did their best at home with the intention of defeating Nottingham Forest. I did not matter whether he angered their manager or not, Chelsea would not let Nottingham Forest off at home.
The two teams had acc.u.mulated a deep enough feud over the past few years. All Twain did was to add firewood to an already burning fire.
If Chelsea wanted to attack, Nottingham Forest would defend. Playing defensive counterattack in an away game was what the Forest team was best at. Twain was worried that Chelsea would not attack, but it was all good now.
No matter how fierce the Chelsea offense was, Nottingham Forest was accustomed to such scenarios and patiently contended with Chelsea amid the sprawling boos. Defense came first in defensive counterattack. The Chelsea fans in the stands tried to insult and provoke Nottingham Forest, but Twain’s team was unmoved.
Chelsea besieged the Forest team’s half of the field. The score remained at 0:0.
With ten minutes left to play before the end of the game, Grant suddenly figured it out. For Nottingham Forest, the only acceptable result was to win because they were in a tight race with Manchester United. They would lose all hope of winning the t.i.tle if they did not win the game. Then even if it was a draw, it might still be a failure for Twain. I can accept a draw, so in that case…
He decided to let the team stop its attack and contend with the Forest team. Getting one point was enough to make Twain furious. For someone who did not respect his opponent, preventing him from getting the result he wanted was the best revenge.
Playing for the sake of retaliation against his opponent, Grant was already at a disadvantage in terms of standards.
Twain brought on two attacking players, Arshavin and Petrov, in one go and replaced the exhausted full-backs, Rafinha and Leighton Baines. He pulled George Wood back to play center-back with Pepe and Kompany. The Forest team was pa.s.sively beaten and looked pathetic before the changes. Now, they began to take the initiative to attack and also dared to put in the forces — everyone but the three center-backs went up. They no longer looked pathetic with only two or three players involved in the counterattacks.
The pressure on their defense was eased and Nottingham Forest’s offense began to display its prowess.
Chelsea was surprised by the sudden turn of events and the Forest team instantly strengthened their offensive, which overwhelmed them.
In the 87th minute, Chelsea, who had been attacking for the last eighty minutes, became the trailing team.
1:0!
Arshavin shook his arms and shouted.
Nottingham Forest eventually won the game. Twain left Stamford Bridge with a smile. Although Mourinho was gone, his unbeaten record against Chelsea continued. The feud between him and Chelsea would also continue…