Chapter 457: Volume 3: The Red Forest Owes a Favor

Tang En was holding the wine glass and Wood squeezed to the lower left in front of his fixed seat.

Everyone could see that he had brought Wood here, and he must have something to talk about, so no one stepped forward to disturb him. They drank the wine Tang En invited and chatted casually. Of course, the main topic was the game that just ended.

"Haven't you been here?" Tang En asked Wood after he was seated.

Wood nodded. "Mom won't let me drink."

"Your mother is right." After speaking, Tang En drank on his own, ignoring Wood.

Wood was a little embarrassed, he sat here and began to focus on the people around him. When those people caught his sight, they would raise their glasses to salute him.

Tang En looked up at Wood who was looking around, and then asked, "Why didn't you ask me why I brought you here?"

"Why?" Wood was very obedient and asked immediately. "Why do you ask?"

"You really... where did your wisdom in the competition go?"

"Are you still thinking about that?" Wood said, referring to the yellow card.

Tang En nodded: "After the game, I thought about it even more. It's okay if we lose, it doesn't matter if you get ten red cards. Now that we have won, the opponents in the final, whether it's Barcelona or AC Milan, are very strong. It gives me a headache to think that we will lose a screen in midfield in the final," he said, rubbing his temples.

Wood looked at the head coach who kept rubbing his temples in front of him, his lips twitched several times, and finally said: "I don't want to...but there is no way..."

"Even if you didn't foul at the time, they might not necessarily score, right?" Tang En looked up at him.

"I never believed in 'not necessarily'." Wood answered firmly this time.

Seeing Wood's determined expression, Tang En sighed, leaned back on the chair and spread his hands: "Okay, I admit that I am too greedy. Not only do I hope that the team will advance to the finals, but I also hope that it is a complete and complete team. Everyone No injuries or no cards, we can use the strongest lineup to deal with our opponents..."

Wood listened quietly as he fantasized about the impossible.

"George, do you want to play in the final?" Tang En suddenly changed the subject and asked.

Wood was taken aback, then nodded.

"I really want to?"

Wood continued to nod.

"Why? I remember that before you didn't even know who Riquelme was and didn't care. You didn't have such a great enthusiasm for football..."

"Because mom wants to see me play in the final."

Tang En put down the wine glass on his lips. He looked up at Wood, as if he didn't quite believe it.

"Before today's game, she told me."

"You... bastard..." Tang En cursed in a low voice.

Kenny Burns came over with the bottle, he put the bottle on the table, and sat down. "Tony, I think you're going to run out of wine."

"Thank you." Dunn picked up the wine bottle and poured it for himself. When he remembered it, he pointed to Burns and said to Wood, "I don't seem to have introduced him to you. Kenny Burns, Nottingham Forest's main player who won the European Champions Cup twice, and the winner of England's Matthews Award."

Burns smiled at Wood.

Wood turned to look at him and nodded: "Hello, sir."

"Don't be so prudish, lad. I heard Tony talk about you, when you were in the youth team. He told us he picked up a kid from the street who couldn't play football, and we laughed at him. Unexpectedly, three years later, the kid who couldn't play football became the captain of the forest team."

Wood glanced at Tang En who was drinking alone.

"George, I heard you found an agent?" Burns was the one who talked to Wood during this time.

"Um."

"how is he?"

"It's okay. Seriously..."

"I mean... did he connect you with other teams?"

Wood shook his head: "No, now he only cares about my business contract."

Burns glanced at Dunn and said with a smile, "Tony is very worried about losing you."

Tang En coughed.

"We are also worried about losing you. Let me be honest, I am not too relieved about your agent. I heard that he did not come from football before, and his knowledge of football is also very limited. Some things he will only benefit from Consider it, and I hope you will make up your own mind when the time comes."

Of course Wood knew what Burns meant when he said this, "I like it here, and so does my mother. I don't plan to go anywhere else."

"That's good." Seeing Wood's serious expression, Burns smiled. But... Who can say clearly about the future? He has been in professional football for decades. Even if he retires, he can still open a bar here and continue to pay attention to the big and small things in that circle. How many people who say "loyalty" can really go to the end like this? Some are voluntary, while others are involuntary. In short, population mobility follows only one truth—benefits.

Although he thought about so many messy things, Burns would not break the "ideal" of young people.

The conversation between Burns and Wood was over, he patted Wood on the shoulder, got up and walked back. There are more guests who need to be greeted by him. The forest bar is really full tonight.

Tang En didn't put down his glass until Burns left.

"George, I don't care what you think... But, I owe you a favor."

Wood was puzzled, and Dunn didn't intend to explain. That's right, he really owes Wood a debt of gratitude. Wood has made Twain a success by sacrificing himself. When he leads the team to the Stade de France in Paris on May 17, he will be the Champions League Champions League Champion. Since its establishment, the youngest head coach to appear on the final court. Regardless of whether the Forest team won the championship in the end, his name, Tony Twain, would already be engraved in history.

And who is the biggest hero behind this? At that time, you will only be able to sit in the stands.

"I will give you a chance to make up for this regret."

Wood shook his head: "The semifinals are over..."

"That's right, it's over. But it's just this season that's over. Next season, next season, next season, next season, we'll still have a chance. This is definitely..." Dunn stretched out his index finger in front of Wood Shaking, "It's definitely not our only chance. Look at them..." He pointed at the jubilant fans again.

"They have this night as one of their fondest memories. And we're going to bring them more nights like that in the future. George, you know that Demi is going to retire at the end of next season, right?"

Wood nodded.

"He said he would retire at the end of the season."

Hearing what Tang En said, Wood was a little surprised. He obviously didn't know the inside story.

"Didn't he tell you? Well... I understand. I tried to persuade him to stay, but I didn't have a good reason. He's not in the right shape and you've seen how little he's played in the second half of the season... …then I moved you out and I told him I hoped he would stay for another year and develop you into a midfielder who is as good as Demy in attack and defense. He said yes .”

Tang En stretched out his index finger again: "You only have one year, George. I don't want to go all over the world to find the core midfielder for the Forest team after one year. Your mother said that she hopes to see you appear in the Champions League final, I also hope that."

Wood listened quietly, without speaking.

After saying this, Tang En raised his hand and looked at his watch: "Go back."

Wood stood up.

"Not going back to the hotel. Go home, go back to your home. Spend time with your mother." Tang En waved his hand. "Get your things from the locker room during training tomorrow afternoon."

"Okay. Aren't you going back?"

"Me? My night life has just begun!" Tang En winked at him.

Wood picked up the juice and drank it, "Goodbye, boss."

"By the way, George. Did I tell you that your game was absolutely perfect?"

Wood shook his head. "I thought you were going to criticize me."

"That's to scare you." Tang En made a face at him. "Perfect, I give you a 10 for your performance. I can't ask you to do better. Go back and tell your mother that although you will not appear in the Champions League final, you are a hero of the team. She will definitely Proud of you."

"Yeah." Wood nodded, turned and squeezed out of the crowd.

Seeing that he was about to leave, the fans in the bar shouted loudly: "Goodbye George!"

"I'll ask you for an autograph when I go to the training ground tomorrow...Damn it, I didn't know you would come here today..."

"George! Come on! Come on!"

The door opened and closed, and Wood left the noisy bar, where the usual atmosphere soon returned. Everyone was excitedly discussing the game that just ended, or talking about topics that had nothing to do with the game.

Burns sat down next to Dunn again: "I didn't expect you to bring the team captain to the bar. How many head coaches would do this?"

"Well... I also thought of it on the spur of the moment."

"Because of Wood's yellow card?"

"I'm still worried about it... But ah, after a few drinks, there are no worries. So what if there is no Wood? The opponent is the same whether it is AC Milan or Barcelona. If our opponent thinks Nottingham Forest are vulnerable without Wood, I wish they thought so."

"You're good enough, Tony. Whether we win the championship or not, you're good enough."

Tang En pointed to Burns and said, "Is this considered comfort?"

"No." Burns shook his head, "I understand it as 'praise'."

The two looked at each other and smiled.

"Three years, Tony. You've done a good job. You're young. You can do it for thirty years if you want. Don't rush it. Take your time."

Dunn looked at the ceiling. Thirty years... It's really a long time, he never thought of such a distant future. For him, the "future" is tomorrow, and next year is already far away...

"Well..." He nodded. "You're right, Kenny. Compared with old men like Ferguson and Wenger, I'm still young."

That's right, the thirty-seven-year-old Tony Twain is indeed still very young for a head coach.

※ ※ ※

The next day, the major media reported on this high-profile game. Nottingham Forest made headlines on the front pages of all the sports media. The experience of returning to the Champions League final after 26 years, and the rocket-like ascension speed of one year at a time, are all very interesting, and it is even more interesting for Tang En. The young head coach was shrouded in a layer of legend.

When the team resumed training in the afternoon, Wilford surrounded countless reporters, and non-English reporters accounted for the majority here. The team has attracted attention from all over Europe.

Of course, most of the media's attention is still on George Wood's yellow card and how his absence will affect the team. Tang En avoided talking about such issues at all. He doesn't want to exaggerate Wood's role in the team, although maybe Wood really has such a big role.

Some media also found another way, hyping the topic of Wood's absence would make them rejected in the interview, so they simply turned their attention to the final penalty kick.

In fact, Van der Sar was not a goalkeeper known for his ability to save penalty kicks before. The factors that made him a world-class goalkeeper were his height of 1.97 meters, his excellent reaction, his agility, and his ability to block single-handed shots. Skills - these are the performances in mobile warfare. On the contrary, in a game like a penalty shootout, he has no shortage of painful memories:

In the Champions League final of the 95-96 season, Ajax lost to Juventus 2:4 on penalties. This was the first time he had a penalty nightmare. In the following European Championships in 1996, the Dutch team, which struggled to advance to the quarter-finals, was eliminated by the French team on penalties. In the semi-finals of the World Cup in 1998, the Dutch team fell to the penalty spot again. This time, the Brazilian goalkeeper Taffarel, who is good at saving penalties, shined brilliantly. Of course, the most painful memory comes from the European Championship in 2000. In the match held at home, the Dutch team lost to Italy. The reason for the loss was still a penalty. Can feel dejected... With these experiences, it is not difficult to understand people's surprise when Van der Sar saved Gilberto Silva's penalty at a critical moment.

According to the photos taken by the photographer at the end, people found that Van der Sar would turn over the socks before every penalty kick, and then took out a small note from it, looked at it and stuffed it back.

Some media pointed out that this is actually the secret to the Forest team's final victory, and their speculation was quickly confirmed. After the training, Van der Sar revealed the content of the note when he was interviewed by reporters. The result surprised many media - none of them expected that Nottingham Forest had prepared so well for this semi-final.

Of course, Wenger, who wanted to study Tang En, naturally also paid attention to this news. When Van der Sar said it was Tang En's idea, what else could he do besides shaking his head and smiling bitterly?

The mysterious little note became famous all over the world from the First World War. Later, in the World Cup finals, the German team used this trick to deal with the Argentine penalty shooters. After the game, Germany's main goalkeeper Lehmann admitted that he was inspired by this game... Of course, these are the aftermath. That's it.

The European Champions Cup final is on the evening of May 17, while the final round of the English Premier League is on May 7. In this way, the Forest team will have up to ten days of preparation time. They don't need to be distracted by the league or other domestic cups, and they can concentrate on preparing for the game. This may be good news for Twain's team.

A day later, Forest's final opponent was freshly released-Barcelona played 0:0 against AC Milan at home, so they relied on a goal in the first round on the road to eliminate AC Milan with a total score of 1:0 and advanced to the final .

Everything was no different from Tang En's memory. Barcelona broke into the final, this team called "Dream II" is the hottest representative of attacking football in today's football, they will be cheered by the fans wherever they go, because they symbolize the best Art football.

But Tang En didn't care about art or not. For him, no matter how good the game was, it was not as cost-effective as winning the championship. He wants to make the proud Barcelona people suffer in Paris! (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in

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