champion godfather

Chapter 21 Away: Coventry
The English media described the FA's "rape scandal" against Twain—the name given to this incident by the British media. Twain described it as "unimaginative" because it sounded as if he had really raped someone— The punishment seemed to tickle Tang En, but in the end it only made Tang En more comfortable.As for the matter of Tang En's curse of West Ham's relegation, the FA didn't care at all. Rhodes jumped up and down for a long time without getting any explanation. Angrily, he accused the FA of ineffectiveness. As a result, the FA reacted very quickly. They immediately A £[-] fine for the poor acting West Ham manager.

Another victim, the on-duty referee Winter of the FA Cup match, seemed very helpless about this, but he did not issue any statement and refused to accept any media interviews.At this point, he is much smarter than Rhodes.

Twain was not severely fined, and this became the focus of discussion in the subsequent issue of "Today's Game".When the host Lineker talked about this issue with Mark Hansen, Hansen sarcastically guessed whether Tang En was Palios' brother-in-law.After the broadcast of this episode, the BBC received a letter of protest from the Football Association, but they ignored it.

As a party involved in the whole incident, Tang En has long stayed out of it.The media likes to hype that it's their business, Tang En is now putting all his thoughts on training.The team's daily training affairs are still presided over by Des Walker and Ian Bowyer. Dunn will stand on the training ground wearing sunglasses every day, but he can only say a few words.He still has to study.What made Tang En happiest was that Bowyer seemed to have put an end to his previous feud with him. Although he still didn't communicate much, he didn't make things difficult for him in his daily work. On the contrary, he was very cooperative.

It turned out that Twain was worried that Bowyer would be the last straw that crushed the Forest team, but now it seems that he was worrying too much.Over drinks at Burns' Forest Bar that day, Walker had said something about Bowyer.It was then that Dunn realized how brilliant a career this 51-year-old man had had.He is the main contributor to Forest's two European Champions Cup wins!

His experience will surely become his greatest help.Tang En decided to establish a good relationship with this person.

The Forest team's next game will be on the afternoon of January 20th. During this period, the League One has already played a round. Because the Forest team will play the FA Cup, their No.25 eighth round of the league was postponed to the 20th. held.This also gave them a fourteen-day rest period.On the 1th, they will go to an away game against Coventry`City, which is a tough battle.First of all, the team's head coach is in a suspension period and will not be able to direct the game from the coach's bench.Secondly, Coventry is currently ranked sixth in the league standings. Since they lost 2:[-] at home to Preston in the No.[-] round of the league, they have remained unbeaten in seven rounds of the league. The current team morale is high. In addition, it is home again... What makes Tang En even more troublesome is the style of this team. This is a tenacious team with a stubborn temperament. invincible position.This record may have been terminated several times, but they were all saved by themselves.

Twain hates this kind of team very much, because he also has this kind of style.This game is completely different from the FA Cup.West Ham will not put down their figure and fight to the death with themselves, but Coventry will, because it is related to whether they will stay in the League One or be promoted to the Premier League after the end of the season.These days, he doesn't go to Burns' Forest Bar anymore, as if he has returned to the life of a Puritan. He always takes his work home after the team training every day.He must thoroughly study this team before the game and understand each of their players.If possible, he even wants to see all the videotapes of those seven rounds of unbeaten games.It's a pity that the intelligence work of the forest team can't meet his requirements.

"I'm sorry, Tony. The only video we have about Coventry's game is their away game at City Stadium in the first half of the season. We beat them 1-0." Looking at Walker who felt sorry, Dunn felt that maybe he should find someone else The scout is responsible for observing every opponent of the team in the next game, and puts all the information about the opponent that he can learn on his desk in time before the game for his reference.Just like he played FM2007.

However, the team currently only has three full-time scouts, and two of them have been away for a long time, looking for talented children all over the UK, and then trying their best to bring them to Wilford's youth training camp.The other is mainly responsible for the inspection of players in the Nottingham area.It is simply impossible to help him finish that job.

Tang En rubbed his temples. It seems that the team still needs to change a lot. It's a pity that he doesn't have the energy and dare not try it now.A head coach who doesn't know what his future will be, naturally dare not try his plan.Tang En feels that he is a bit like Ranieri, the head coach of Chelsea.The difference is that Ranieri is tinkering with the team's tactics, while he is making small tinkering with the entire team. He dares not use any ideas, for fear that he will arrange a plan on the front foot, and the back foot will be defeated because of poor record. Jia was dismissed, so all efforts were in vain.

Because he became the head coach, Tang En would get used to looking for the head coach of the team first when looking at the information of a team.In a sense, a head coach greatly affects a team's style, tactics, temperament, and performance... To understand a team, the best way is to start with the current head coach .Tang En looked at the current head coach of Coventry...he saw a somewhat familiar name: Gary`Mcallister.

Tang En stared at the English name for a long time, and then hesitantly translated it into Chinese: Gary McAllister.

McAllister? !
Dunn almost jumped up from his chair.Does he remember that this old guy was still in Liverpool last season? The 2000-01 season was the most glorious moment for Liverpool in the past 14 years. Since 1984, it became the first time to win the Triple Crown. McAllister scored a penalty in the UEFA Cup final that year, in the last minute of overtime. He also "assisted" Alaves player Gurley with a free kick to score an own goal, which achieved the most glorious scene of Liverpool's Houllier era. They won a total of five championships that season.

It's only been two years, why did you come to the League One team Coventry?
The data shows that the Scot returned to Coventry after the end of the 2001-02 season, and his identity is the head coach and player.

Dunn knew that McAllister was very good as a player, and his free kicks often helped Liverpool score goals, but he knew nothing about the head coach, McAllister.

Tang En stared at the name for a long time, and seemed to be able to see what he needed from the name.Indeed it was, and he giggled after a few minutes.

"A player-coach?"

Coventry used to be one of the four major cities in the UK with a history of 1000 years, but that was all yesterday.And for Tang En, a Chinese, the so-called "big city" in England may be just the size of a county-level city in China.The city was bombed by the Luftwaffe during World War II, and almost all of it was turned into ruins.Coventry, which was rebuilt after the war, became the center of the British automobile industry, where cars specially supplied to the British royal family were produced.

Tang En's knowledge of this city was almost zero, and he didn't intend to focus on looking through tourist brochures.For football coaches, knowing the history of a city is far less important and useful than knowing the history of a certain team in the city.

Although Nottingham, where the Forest team is located, is only about [-] miles away from Coventry, it can be reached in less than an hour by car.However, as an away game, the Forest team came to the city one day in advance to prepare for the next day's game.

Sitting on the team bus, Dunn looked at the gloomy sky outside and the newspapers that were blown into the air, then turned his head and asked Walker who was sitting next to him: "What does the weather forecast say?"

"It will rain tomorrow and the temperature will be very low."

Tang En thought of Kenny's description about Britain, and he couldn't help but curse.He hates racing in the rain, hates any weather that is not conducive to racing, rain, snow, wind, hail and lightning...if there is one.

At this time, outside the bus window, a cheese-colored building slowly rose from behind the houses on the street like the rising sun.

"Hayfield Road Stadium." Walker introduced to Dunn, "Coventry's home stadium."

Hearing what Walker said, Dunn couldn't help but take a few more glances at the building where his team will play tomorrow.Most of the pitches in England are small and not as grand as those in Italy or Spain or Germany.Four low stands, barely covering the roof of the stands, and a piece of green lawn are all of a stadium.Forest's home city stadium can accommodate 3 people. It is built by the river and looks like an affiliated stadium of a middle school. The same is true for the stadium in Coventry.

The stands of the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, home of the Spanish giants Real Madrid, have six floors, which is equivalent to the height of a 6-story residential building, and the stands are designed to be steep.Tang En had never been there, but he could tell what kind of momentum it was from the TV broadcast.When you stand on the top of the stands, you can't see the numbers and movements of the players on the field clearly when you look down, but you have the illusion that you may fall down at any time.This shocking sense of oppression is rarely experienced in British stadiums. Most of the British stadiums have two or three floors of stands. Manchester United's home stadium, Old Trafford, is currently the largest professional football stadium in England, and it can only accommodate [-] people. Tier stands.

However, the design of the England stadium also has great advantages. It brings fans closer to the stadium and is more conducive to developing a good relationship between fans and players.So playing in England's stadiums has two diametrically opposed feelings: the home team will think it's a paradise, they can clearly hear the fans singing and supporting their slogans, and they can rush to the sidelines to talk to the audience after scoring a goal Celebrate together; while the away team will think it is hell, they will suffer under the boos and songs of the home fans all the time, clearly hear every word of those people who abuse themselves, clearly see the tall roots High raised middle finger.

Even though Twain only experienced one game, he was also deeply touched by this.The FA Cup game at the City Stadium made him deeply understand these two feelings. He felt that he was away in the first half and returned to home in the second half.

I wonder if the fans in Coventry are friendly...

The match took place at two o'clock in the afternoon, and the car park outside the Highfield Road stadium was hard to find vacant spaces by one o'clock.There was a drizzle in the gloomy sky, but this did not disturb the interest of the fans at all. They waved the sky blue team flag of Coventry with alcohol, and sang songs praising Coventry from all directions to the stadium. From the air, it looks like a swarm of ants is running towards a large block of fragrant cheese.

The players of the Forest team are obviously used to this. They are doing their own things in the car, listening to music, closing their eyes, or looking around.Twain still couldn't get used to it. This was his first away game with the team.When he was at the city stadium eleven days ago, he didn't think there was anything special about the atmosphere of the stadium.Now he really feels that he is in an away game: a completely strange city, fans who make a living, a strange stadium, a strange opponent...

Finding that Tang En's attention was on the fans outside the car, Walker decided to say something to ease the tension in the heart of the acting head coach.

"Don't worry, Tony. Do you know Old Trafford?"

"Of course, famous."

"Old Trafford has a dedicated security system. They will divide the security level of away fans based on historical data. Liverpool and Leeds fans are rated as C level, requiring high security measures and a large number of police; Coventry is B level. Level, just a few police officers. So they're nothing to be afraid of." Walker said, pointing to the Coventry fans passing by the team bus outside.

Obviously Twain is more interested in the security system at Old Trafford: "Then where are the fans who are classified as A-level?"

"Wimbledon."

Hearing Walker's answer, a guy's name flashed through Tang En's mind, and then he laughed: "It's so interesting. The fans of the 'Crazy Gang' with Vinnie Jones turned out to be the most civilized...Old Didn't the guys at Trafford count Wimbledon spectators as football spectators and type them into the computer?"

The Wimbledon team that defeated Liverpool and won the FA Cup in 1988 has the title of "Crazy Gang" in English football. Just by looking at the name, you can know the style of this team.Not to mention that they had two lunatic leaders back then: the gang leader was the well-known villain Vinnie`Jones in English football, and the deputy gang leader was the equally rough, tough and direct Dennis Wise.Ten minutes before the kick-off of the FA Cup final, the captain of the team, Vinnie Jones, led his men in the player tunnel to hurl insults and roars at Liverpool's big-name players. Shoveled Liverpool striker McMahon onto a stretcher.In the end, Wimbledon defeated the thriving Liverpool 1-1 in the game, creating a legend.Jones and his team are also in the history books.

There are countless things like before the FA Cup final in the "Crazy Gang".You must know that in the season when Wimbledon had just been promoted to the top league, after Liverpool's guest game at Wimbledon's home court Plow Lane (Plow Lane), those proud Red Army players almost ran back to the lounge crying. They said to the media: Wimbledon fans are terrible, this stadium is hell!
Hell, that's the impression other clubs have of Wimbledon and their fans.

How can a "hell devil" fan be a civilized audience of security level A?Tang En felt that it was incredible.

"So... I don't believe in the security system at Old Trafford anymore. Instead of believing in the data summarized by the computer, I think it's better to experience it myself." At this point, Dunn suddenly realized that Walker had nothing to say. The reason for the talker to tell him this, he smiled and said to Walker, "Des, thank you for your kindness, but I have never been afraid of anyone."

Walker also smiled: "Me too."

(End of this chapter)