Godfather Of Champions

The most immediate impact of the Lehman Brothers’ collapse on the Nottingham Forest Football Club was that their new stadium landed in a predicament of a shortage of funds.

Though Nottingham Forest’s new stadium did not yet have an official name, it had become a highly anticipated British construction project. Because it was not merely about a construction of a stadium.

It was a massive real estate development plan. With Nottingham Forest’s new stadium as the core, the development radiated outward to form a commercial and residential circle, as well as facilities such as a football theme park, a national fitness park and green space. With Nottingham Forest’s increasing rise to fame, Allan Adams also planned to open the site as a tourist attraction to the world in the future. Like Real Madrid’s Bernabéu, Barcelona’s Camp Nou, and both AC Milan’s and Inter Milan’s San Siro and Meazza….and the other stadiums of famous European clubs, they were not just stadiums. Due to the glorious tradition of the teams, they had become sacred places for countless tourists and fans at the same time

The plan was huge, and the prospects were fantastic, but the cost was much bigger than building a single stadium.

Manchester City’s new stadium, City of Manchester Stadium, had cost just over one hundred and ten million pounds. If only one such stadium was built, it would not have been such a big deal for Nottingham Forest’s finances. They only had to tighten their belts for a year.

But Allan’s plan would cost at least six hundred million pounds. It did not include the investment from Nottingham City Council.

If they did not want to spend that much money, then the Forest Club would end up with the ownership of the stadium with no other facilities to earn money and accumulate wealth. In order to maximize the club’s development, Allan and Evan ventured to be the majority owner in the project, in return for the development rights of the stadium, football theme park, and a commercial area.

America’s financial problems were already prominent at that time. But who would have thought that the self-regulating capacity of the market economy was so vulnerable?

It took only a year to bankrupt Lehman Brothers, America’s fourth-largest investment bank….

Allan became more haggard during this period and flew around the world all the time. Evan Dougherty’s businesses in the U.S. were completely over, and now Allan was busy looking for follow-up funding for the new stadium. Many banks had refused to lend to Nottingham Forest because of the global financial downturn.

Without a choice, Evan had to announce a temporary shutdown of the new stadium construction and other building developments. Otherwise, if they continued to invest money in the project, the entire Nottingham Forest Football Club would sooner or later be dragged into this bottomless abyss.

The news immediately made headlines in the British press. Everyone knew that the Nottingham Forest club was finally in big trouble after a rapid expansion in the last few years.

“… I admit that the Nottingham Forest boss is ambitious and driven. But overly rapid development will lead to stalling. The Nottingham Forest team is widely popular in Europe, but their economic fundamentals have not kept pace with the team’ progress, with the club’s construction and their results not matching. Look at the other powerhouse clubs, both their results and the club’s conditions are very much in line with their status. Only Nottingham Forest… Like a deformed child, it has a pair of fast-moving feet, but without a body that can withstand the impact of this speed…” The various professional experts at the television stations, analyzed Nottingham Forest’s current predicament. They thought it was a reverse archetype of how a football club should survive and develop in the midst of the world’s economic downturn.

“I think the Nottingham Forest Football Club should reflect on their strategy of expanding everywhere. China, Japan, Southeast Asia, England, United States of America and the entire world…. Tony Twain’s magic has caused his boss to think that his team and club are omnipotent. To be honest, I am not at all surprised by the current predicament when I know that the chairman and market manager of Nottingham Forest are Americans who have never cared about football before. They ignore the important point—a football club is different from an ordinary listed company. Other than having to abide by the laws of the economy, it also has to obey the laws of football. Tony Twain’s magic has given the team a good foundation for development, but they still need to take it slowly and develop step by step. Evan Doughty had once revealed his goal of turning Nottingham Forest into a powerhouse club at a certain reception held in Nottingham. But I’ve never heard of a powerhouse club that can be built in just five or six years. Chelsea is rich and has good results, but is it a powerhouse now? I think the vast majority of people will disagree that it is a powerhouse club.”

“Nottingham Forest is one of the clubs established the longest in the history of the modern football world and the only team to still compete in the top leagues. However, now the club is giving everyone the impression that it is young. From the owners of the club to the manager of their team and to the players, they are all extremely young. Young people will always make some errors in judgment and their estimation of the situation will be overly optimistic…”

“Now they know how bad the situation is.”

※※※

“There are sounds of plaintive whines everywhere.” Evan sat in the large boss’s chair in the office and rested his chin on his hands. “It’s as if winter is coming early.”

He appeared to be talking to himself, and yet as if he was speaking to Twain sitting next to him.

Allan was not in the room. He was on his way to China. Those investment projects in China also ran into financial problems which he needed to personally solve.

Twain looked down at the sweater he wore inside his suit.

“Winter is really not that far away…”

After a 0:0 draw with Middlesbrough, the team was dismissed again as the national teams’ games resumed. The players flew to various countries in the world for the World Cup qualifiers on all continents. Some of them did well and the others performed badly. The players who returned to the Forest team after two national games were mostly unsatisfactory in terms of their form and physical strength. Under such circumstances, Nottingham Forest lost its away game to Liverpool and quickly slipped to the seventh spot in the league table. It was the first time in two years that Nottingham Forest had placed at seventh in the league. The last time they were in the seventh spot in the league tournament was on October 14th, 2006, after they lost to Manchester City in the eighth round of the league tournament and the team finished seventh following three consecutive rounds of no victory.

The score was 2:3. They worked hard but still lost. In the post-match press conference, Twain expressed concern about the fatigue of the Premier League players and suggested that the Football Association should consider giving the players a breather by setting up a winter break. But his suggestion elicited no response and he did not receive any reply from the Football Association. The setting up of a winter break had hotly debated for so many years, but it was just wishful thinking of the coaches and players. Neither the Football Association nor the league committee would agree because it was directly related to their income…

Now he was about to lead the team to Italy to compete against a strong rival, Juventus.

Before he went to Italy, Evan came looking for him.

Twain knew what Evan was here for. Could it be anything else other than the team’s recent poor results?

But there was nothing he could do about the current situation. The players’ physical strength had been depleted by the club and national team competitions. The continuous twice weekly games had left them with no time to rest and adjust their form. For Benítez to have been able to reverse the score in the last five minutes, the Forest lads had already played outstandingly in the game against Liverpool. But it also took a lot of physical energy to play like this, and the whole team was exhausted after the game. He did not even know how to face Juventus.

He could not afford to buy anyone during the winter transfer window, and he must rely on the players to stand for one season. But he had not given up. He was still indoctrinating his players with the goal of winning at least one title this season. No matter how bad the situation might be, the team could not lose its confidence.

“I know what you’re going to say, Evan. The team will win against Juventus.” He stood up and wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

Evan smiled at him and did not detain him.

※※※

Two days later at the Stadio delle Alpi in Turin.

Nottingham Forest lost 2:0 in the away game against Juventus, which returned to the Champions League.

Twain sat in the technical area of Stadio delle Alpi’s visiting team, without any angry expression on his face. He did not throw his suit jacket down nor kick a water bottle. He just sat there with a helpless look on his face. In fact, just before the final whistle sounded, he was still angry like a bull that saw red on the sidelines. He flew into a rage on the sidelines over the team’s performance.

He had deployed the strongest lineup he currently had. But his tactics were not effective against Juventus at all. After all, his routine bore a lot of resemblance to the routine that Juventus was best at, and Ranieri knew how to deal with him.

Defensively, Juventus was no worse than Nottingham Forest. The Italians’ blood had long been infused with defensive instincts. No matter how much the Forest team dispatched back and forth, no matter how quickly and suddenly the Forest team counterattacked, Juventus’ rear defensive line was not disorderly. Moreover, they used sneak attacks to defeat Nottingham Forest by scoring a goal each at the start of the first and second half.

Twain’s tactics came from Juventus during Capello’s time. Juventus’s football was ugly to watch but stable and capable of obtaining victories and winning titles. Now that they were up against Juventus, which was more stable than themselves and hungry for victory, he could not take any advantage. On the other hand, the Forest players might have depleted their strength due to the consecutive campaigns and could not get into their competitive form, as if they ate too much and not fully awoke. After Juventus scored their second goal, they did not appear to have any desire for victory even though there were almost forty minutes left. They were simply too tired. The players were human too and not machines. They would be tired and following their fatigue, they would certainly be slack, which could produce some negative thoughts …

There was nothing Twain could do about it. No matter how energetically he tried to rouse the players in the locker room, the players did not have any strength at all. It was impossible for them to generate infinite power out of thin air and then POWER-MAX to blast their opponent away just because they heard him roar a few words of “we must win!” Nor could they definitely win the game just because he promised Evan Doughty that the game must be won before coming to Turin.

The Juventus players embraced each other with exceptional excitement after they won the game. Kerslake, who could not stand the spectacle, snorted, “It’s not as if they won the Champions League title. It’s only a victory in the group stage. Must they be so excited?”

“They did beat the defending champion after all, since their return to the Champions League…” Dunn explained. He thought that this could explain why the Juventus players were so excited. Many of these people had experienced the tragedy of relegation from Serie A to Serie B, also experienced the years of striving for Serie A while in Serie B and the joy of returning to Champions League qualifiers a season after a successful promotion.

Many of them must have tasted the ups and downs, as well as the joys and sorrows in life.

He looked at the Juventus captain Del Piero as he thought to himself.

While the two men talked, Twain stood up from his seat without a word and walked slowly toward the tunnel. He did not want to see the Juventus players get so excited that they were crazy because he felt that it was the victor showing off to the loser and a disgrace to the loser. He did not want to sit here and be treated as such.

In the post-match press conference, Ranieri looked very excited, while Twain was reticent and refrained from answering. Even if he must answer a question, he would try to be as succinct as possible.

“What do you think about losing this vital game?”

“I have no opinion.”

“Žigić, who was the substitute for the injured van Nistelrooy, performed poorly in the starting lineup for the game. Do you think it was a mistake to buy him?”

“No.”

“Will the loss to Juventus affect the team’s eventual advancement out of the group stage?”

“There’s no impact.”

“What’s your assessment of Juventus’ performance?”

“It has nothing to do with me.”

When the reporters saw that he was so uncooperative, they directed their questions at him, and not the team or the game.

“Are you in a bad mood since you lost the game?”

“Take a guess.”

“Then why are you acting like you’re unwilling to answer questions?”

“I don’t feel like talking.”

“Why don’t you want to talk?”

“I have a toothache.” Twain replied with a straight face.

“… All right. Are the team’s recent results related to the financial difficulties the club has encountered?”

“I can assure you that the worldwide financial crisis has nothing to do with the performance of our team.” This was the longest sentence Twain had uttered at the press conference.

The press conference ended unhappily amid such a cold atmosphere.

※※※

Having to break his promise, Twain was in a bad mood and did not even criticize the players’ poor performance in Turin. Back in Nottingham, the Forest team beat Aston Villa, which ranked above them, 1:0 at home after much difficulty. With this hard-won victory, their ranking rose from seventh to fifth.

But in the Champions League, the Forest team was in big trouble.

Back at home, Nottingham Forest, which swore revenge, were forced to a 1:1 draw at the City Ground stadium by Juventus, which used its usual method of clinging to defense, holding their ground and sneak attacks. A draw with Juventus left the Forest team now uncertain of their advancement out of the group stage. After the grouping came out for the Champions League group stage, the pundits were unanimous in their bullish view of Nottingham Forest and believed that it would be normal for them to be the first team to advance.

Tony Twain, who liked to go up against the media, had done it once again. However, it did not go as he wanted this time. If possible, he would rather cater to the media’s predictions this time.

Juventus was at top of the table with three wins and one draw; Nottingham Forest was second with two wins, one draw and one loss.; FC Kyiv Dynamo was third with two wins and two losses, following close behind with six points; FC BATE Borisov lost all four games with nary a point gained and had basically been declared out of the group ahead of schedule.

If there was no other surprise, it would not be a problem for Juventus to advance. Now the problem was between Nottingham Forest and FC Kyiv Dynamo. The gap between the two teams was so narrow that no one knew which team would advance until the last minute.

The final two rounds of the Champions League group stage were scheduled as followed: on November 26th, Nottingham Forest would challenge Belarus’ Borisov in an away game and against FC Kyiv Dynamo in a home game on December 11th.

The away game against Borisov would be crucial. If they lost in this game, Nottingham Forest might bid farewell to the Champions League early. As for why the game was so important, it was not because Borisov was strong, but because the impact from the long journey to Belarus and the harsh natural climate would have on the Forest team would be too great to be ignored.

At the end of November, Belarus had already entered a cold winter. The worst-case scenario would be that Nottingham Forest would have to play in a world of ice and snow against the opponent which had the home-field advantage and was adapted to the icy weather in order to take the lead in the knockout stage against FC Kyiv Dynamo.

In that game, they would not only play against the Borisov team, but also against the cold weather in Belarus. Furthermore, it was often when the players were the most tired and the most vulnerable to injuries during that time period.

The players’ fitness needed to be guaranteed to win and so that no one would get hurt.

As soon as Twain remembered the condition, he felt a boulder pressing on his chest and making him breathless.

In early November, in the morning of Nottingham, the mist from the Sherwood Forest still shrouded the city, the roads were wet, and it was still raining. The sun had already risen but was blocked by the thick dark clouds in the sky, not even letting in a ray of sunshine. The men who went to work huddled their bodies in black coats and hurried along. The headlights on the cars were still on as they drove across the roads, splashing sprays of icy water.

Twain stood outside Wilford Lane, looking up at the training base in front of him shrouded in the woods and fog. He tugged open the collar of his turtleneck, and the cold air took advantage of the opportunity to thread in, giving him the chills which he was unprepared for. But the good thing was that the feeling of breathlessness had finally eased a little.

He had just opened his mouth to take a deep breath when a puff of white breath from his mouth gushed out. It was dispersed by the chill in front of his eyes and diffused into wisps of white mist which gradually faded until it finally disappeared and melded with the white fog in the early winter morning.

Winter had arrived.