Chapter 575: Benítez

The UEFA Super Cup began in 1972.

Previously, it had been said that Nottingham Forest was the European champion because they were the Champions League winner. But at Liverpool, the Liverpool fans also thought of themselves as the European champion because their team had just won the UEFA Europa League.

In that way, there were two European champions, but there could only be one champion. What could they do about it? The winners of the two tournaments would have a match to determine the final winner. This method implied there would be a “king of all kings.” Everyone was a king, but which king was more powerful? It was believed that many fans would be interested in the answer to this question.

Initially Europe had three major cup tournaments, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, and the UEFA Europa League.

As the name implied, the UEFA Champions League was a cup tournament that only the champions from the various countries could compete in. It was the championship with the highest bearing and the coveted honor countless powerhouse teams yearned for.

The UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup was played by the winners of the various countries’ domestic cup competitions, second to the Champions League.

The UEFA Europa League had the shortest history. Its predecessor was the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. The participating teams were neither league champions nor cup winners, but the few teams other than the cup and league title winners. The spots allocated to each country’s league at the end were different.

The UEFA Super Cup was originally a contest for victory by the Champions League winner and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup champion. Later, going into the 21st century, UEFA thought that as the weaker teams from the various countries’ leagues were able to squeeze into the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, it led to the decline in standards for the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, which in turn caused it to be less attractive and unable to attract wealthier sponsors. Therefore, UEFA decided to reform the cup tournament and merged the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup with the UEFA Europa League. They canceled the cup tournament with its thirty-eight years of history and replaced it with the UEFA Europa League.

Today’s two competing teams in the UEFA Super Cup had become the Champions League winner and the UEFA Europa League champion. The UEFA Super Cup competition had also gone from the previous two rounds of home and away matches to a single match to determine the winner. Since 1998, the venue had been fixed in the famous tourist destination of Monaco.

Monaco was a beautiful country, with azure sea and blue sky. All kinds of luxury yachts were always moored in its port. Only the real wealthy people had the means to enjoy it. To a man like Twain, he did not have the money to keep up a yacht. Even Shania did not have enough. Among the people he knew, perhaps only Wood’s agent, Billy Woox was most likely to own a private yacht.

Monaco was best known for racing sport, and Monte Carlo was famous for its F1 track. Before he became a manager, Twain’s knowledge of Monaco came from two areas. One was racing and the other was football.

Monaco also had its own professional football club, which participated in the France Ligue 1. The French football world was also a force to be reckoned with. One of Twain’s deepest impressions of them was the former Real Madrid striker, Morientes, was on loan to AS Monaco and took his revenge against Real Madrid for abandoning him with a goal during the knockout round in the Champions League. His goal helped AS Monaco eliminated Real Madrid.

The footage of Morientes comforting his good friend, Raúl, after the game was unforgettable to Twain.

That was a legendary Champions League game as the two teams that ended up in the final were not the most famous and powerful teams in Europe. That match brought two young managers success — AS Monaco’s manager, Didier Deschamps, and Portugal’s Porto manager, José Mourinho. In the end, Mourinho got the last laugh and won the Champions League trophy. He completed a three-level jump from the Primeira Liga to the UEFA Europa League, and then to the UEFA Champions League. He became the hottest manager in Europe in one jump. Everyone knew the story that followed.

The same thing just happened last season to Twain, who led the team from League One to the Premier League, and then to the Champions League title. Twain also completed no less than Mourinho’s three-level jump. Given that he was in the more competitive and stronger Premier League, it might have been more difficult than what Mourinho went through. Tony Twain also leapt into becoming Europe’s hottest young manager. There was nothing unusual about a manager with great accomplishments since this line of work was based on experience and wisdom, which came with time and age. The older managers, such as Ferguson, Wenger, Capello, Scolari, Bosque, Aragoné, were all at least fifty years old. A head full of white hair made them appear wiser and more talented.

Forty-something years old managers were considered young in the coaching circle. If they were players, they would be considered old. Mourinho was already forty years old when he won the Champions League, while Twain was not yet forty. It was difficult to achieve such accomplishments at such an age and not to be noticed by others. The young managers’ successes showed that they still had more glorious years to look forward to than the older men. The old men would only grow older and at that time, the football world would be in the hands of the young people. Twain had no qualms about using his age as an advantage and rule for the next thirty or forty years.

After Nottingham Forest won the Champions League title, some Forest fans feared their “boss” would be poached by a billionaire like Abramovich. Mourinho relied on Porto’s Champions League victory to jump to a higher-level Premier League.

In response to this, Twain promised in front of more than 30,000 fans live and countless television viewers that he would not leave the Forest team. He did not say he would not leave during his contract, nor did he state he will not leave for the next few years. He meant “I’m never going to leave.”

He had received coaching invitations from several clubs in the hope of inviting him to coach those teams. The most famous was Real Madrid.

Both President Calderón and Real Madrid fans thought that Capello’s Real Madrid was too rigid and had no artistic football flair, so they swept Capello out the door after they won the league title. Therefore, when Twain received the invitation, he felt that it was ironic. Could it be that his style of football was better to watch than Capello’s? Nottingham Forest was slammed by the European media all the time as a representative of ugly and passive football, and that it was a step backwards in modern football for a team like Nottingham Forest to win the Champions League title and so on. Why was Calderón interested in him?

Consequently, Twain treated the invitation as a joke and did not reply. Shortly after, he heard that Real Madrid had hired Schuster, and paid a penalty fee to Getafe CF, who agreed to release the manager.

That made more sense. Schuster’s style of football looked pretty good when he coached a small team. He used to be a Real Madrid player, so he was the best manager for Real Madrid right now. Twain did not have nothing better to do than to get in on the action…

※※※

Monaco was a beautiful seaside city, but the Forest team was not there on holiday. They arrived in Monaco two days earlier for their training and to adapt to the venue. Their time was split between two points: the hotel and the stadium.

The hotel that the Liverpool team was staying at was not far from the Forest team’s hotel, only twenty minutes by food. Monaco was a small country, with the narrowest section between the North and South only two hundred meters wide.

With them staying so close, they may have encountered each other if they went out for a walk. Both teams were at each other’s throats due to the media hype. Therefore, it was better for them not to meet.

The man who was cursed by countless Liverpool people many times over, sat in the hotel lobby and drank coffee as he was interviewed by a Chinese media collective. He appeared to be at ease.

Why was it “a media collective”? The reporters were from more than one media company. The ten reporters around Twain were all from China. Ever since the World Cup in Germany, Twain had been writing articles for the newspaper that Tang Jing worked for, so he and a lot of Chinese media outlets knew each other. During the AFC Asian Cup, as a foreigner, he had rebuked everyone from the China team, to the Chinese Football Association, to the players, which caused a stir in China. But after all, the repercussions were only in China, so Twain did not take it to heart and just left those media and fans to brood over it.

This interview was agreed upon during the Asian Cup, and he just kept his promise.

The reporters asked a wide range of questions, from the Super Cup, which would begin the next day, to the previous Asian Cup. Some even asked about Twain’s personal interests. For example, why did he like Chinese culture so much?

Twain freely answered their questions in Mandarin and immensely enjoyed using his mother tongue.

A Chinese reporter was kind enough to remind him, “Aren’t you worried about tomorrow’s game, Manager Twain?”

Twain found it funny and somewhat awkward. “What does my worrying have to do with me being here for the interview?”

“As far as I know, Manager Benítez is busy studying your profile.”

“That’s just because you don’t know when we study our opponents.” Twain stopped smiling. He wondered if the ignorant reporter was there to deliberately muck things up.

Tang Jing hurriedly stepped in to the rescue to smooth things over.

“Manager Twain, can you care to elaborate on your outlook for tomorrow’s game?”

Twain stood up, as it was the last question. He did not have that much time to spend playing word games with the reporters. “Outlook? What’s there to elaborate? Of course we’re going to win.” With that, he grinned and made the hand gesture of victory, and the photographers obligingly took pictures.

At the end of the interview, Twain shook hands with the reporters to say goodbye. He was going back to his room to prepare for that evening’s tactical meeting.

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“Can you say more nice things about me to your Chinese readers? I know I don’t seem to have a good reputation in China right now,” he said jokingly, which made the reporters laugh. “Maybe I’ll have a chance to develop in China later, and I’ll need everyone’s support at that time!”

He cupped his fists and shook them, which was a very Chinese gesture.

With that, he turned around and walked away.

Was he joking? Some people felt he was, and some thought he was not. Tang Jing was one of them.

Nottingham Forest had a Chinese player, a Chinese assistant manager, and a manager who loved Chinese culture and had chosen to spend his vacation in China twice. How could such a team with close links to China, turn a blind eye to a “virgin land” like China?

Real Madrid had gone to China and so had Barcelona. There was also Manchester United and Chelsea. The English Premier League was even more devoted to the development of the Asian market. Those teams had already gone. In that case, the newly minted European champion would not be too far off?

She looked forward to it.

※※※

Twain did not return to his room. He went straight into Dunn’s room, where the coaches were discussing issues related to the tactical meeting that evening. Everyone just looked up and went back to what they were doing when Twain walked in. No one minded.

Dunn got up and greeted him.

“How was the interview?”

“It’s a lot easier to deal with than the British media.” Twain swept his eyes over the room. “Still in discussion?”

“It’s basically done, just a few side discussions, that’s all.”

The side discussion was not specific to the game, but to the issues that arose from it. The coaching unit thought that Benítez would choose a more moderate tactic in the game. He would not emphasize too much on defense or offense, but patiently contend with the Forest team. Even if that meant they would drag to a penalty shootout. They went off on a tangent about Benítez as a person. They talked about his likes, habits, and how being a Spaniard influenced his choices in football tactics. After all, the concepts of Spanish football and English football were completely different.

They continued to the Liverpool team’s traditions and the conversation quickly changed again. This time, Twain became the subject, and everyone discussed the war of words between Twain and half of Liverpool City.

This time when they saw Twain sitting to the side, everyone smiled at Twain.

Kerslake cracked a joke about Twain and told him not to travel to Liverpool on vacation for the rest of his life. Otherwise, he could be in danger.

Twain did not join in on their tangent. His mind went back to the source of the men’s discussion and then stopped at the subject of Benítez.

As a manager, studying a team would naturally start with his peers. He knew Benítez and understood him extremely well. Thanks to the well-developed information dissemination technology, he could easily know a lot of things he wanted to find out.

Like him, Benítez was a tactical master and good at on-field command. In the 2004-05 season’s UEFA Champions League final, the first season Benítez took the helm at Liverpool, he created the miraculous night at Istanbul.

Twain was aware that he had been promoted directly from a rookie to a manager and did not receive an orthodox training. Besides relying on his own talent, he constantly learned from the experience and knowledge of others. Therefore, he read up on tactical notes and studied the methods of other managers. He also studied many classic battles in the history of football and the essential points in those battles.

The average fan watched the games only for star players. Twain already liked to study game tactics before his transmigration. He only played video games such as CM and FM. He was a complete rookie when it came to the Pro Evolution Soccer game and could not win against a five-star computer, let alone against other gamers. Playing the Football Manager Game was different. He played against other people online and would always win. He benefited greatly. There was always something worth learning and drawing on in those classic battle.

In the Champions League final against AC Milan, he instructed George Wood to closely follow Kaka, which could be said to have been influenced by Benítez. And that Champions League final during that? When the Liverpool defender, Finnan, was injured, Benítez replaced Finnan with Hamann and Liverpool changed to the 3-5-2 formation. Hamann’s appearance gave the Reds a player to specifically mark Kaka. As a result, the Brazilian, who was unusually active in the first half, had since disappeared.

Sometimes, a manager’s substitution did not have to be momentous. A seemingly unremarkable change was more threatening. Benítez was an underrated manager. Most of his tactical masterpieces appeared unremarkable. During that same season, Liverpool went to Turin with a home score of 2:1 to challenge Juventus in an away game. With the public opinion overwhelmingly bullish on the Italians, Liverpool eliminated the Old Lady with a boring 0:0. In that game, the fans shouted in frustration, drowsy from watching a boring game at 2:45 AM. Twain watched the entire game from start to finish in full spirit. He saw Benítez’s tactical wisdom. The transformation of the three center backs produced a fantastic effect. Juventus, who was best at defense and tedious warfare had been smothered by Liverpool’s sudden turnaround. Capello could only nurse his grievance.

Twain remembered the season he had first led his team to advance to the Premier League. He forced Arsenal into a draw of 1:1 at home and won a 2:1 home game against Chelsea. He felt like he was flying high. However, he ended up losing to Benítez’s Liverpool team in the away game by 1:4. That game remained his biggest loss since coaching the Nottingham Forest team.

He still remembered every detail of the game because the score of 1:4 was just too offensive. All his tactical arrangements in that game were seen clearly by the other side, and his on-field command skills, which he was so proud of, were suppressed by Benítez. No matter how he adjusted through substitutions, he was unable to adjust out of the circle that Benítez had drawn for him. He was like the Monkey King that was too powerless to escape from the Buddha’s palm.

Twain was not a man whose wisdom would be blinded by the anger of his failure. He was willing to gamble and accept the consequences. Now that he had lost, the only thing he could do was to study the game carefully, find his shortcomings, and then improve in future games. Failure was the mother of success. Although the phrase was cliché, it was indeed a saying for all ages. He had learned far more from that game than winning.

Twain was no longer a novice. Nottingham Forest often won against Liverpool. The relationship between both sides was no longer that of a powerhouse team and a newly promoted team.

The best thing about Twain was that he was never contaminated with Chinese football’s bad habit of phobia, so he did not have any psychological shadow because he once lost to an opponent and would always stumble over the same stone. He believed more in the philosophy of “if someone slaps me, I’m going to return the favor with a hundred slaps.” To put it mildly, it would be “he who crosses me will be punished,” or in a harsher tone, “seek revenge for the smallest grievance.”

Benítez was a composed manager. Therefore, before the game, Twain did everything he could to provoke Liverpool and drag the Spaniard through the mud. But would Benítez be affected by it?

He did not respond to Twain’s provocations and insults against him in the media. He only talked about the game and nothing else.

It looked like Twain’s psychological tactics did not work on him, but whether it was effective or not would only be known during the game.

Twain snapped out of his contemplation. His coaches had already changed the topic from Earth to Mars. A group of people were discussing the recent popular star in the United Kingdom, Paul Potts, who sang opera and amazed everyone on Britain’s Got Talent.

“All right, guys. If there’s nothing else, it’s time for you to go back. Don’t you think it’s too crowded in here?” Twain stood up and clapped his hands to interrupt their discussion. “After dinner, inform the players of the meeting,” he said to Kerslake.

Kerslake nodded, but he did not leave. “Anything else?” he asked.

“Remind them to rest early tonight.”

Kerslake and the other coaches left. Dunn stood in front of the couch and asked as he watched Twain sit down. “You’re not going back to your room?”

Twain paused at the question before he looked up and grunted. “Oh this is your room.”

Dunn did not know whether to laugh or cry. He pushed him out. “I’ll call you at dinner. You’d better take a break now. I think you’re tired and confused.”

Twain muttered something like “I’m used to living with you” as he walked back to his room.

Lying on the bed in his room, before he closed his eyes and fell asleep, he was still thinking “what is Benítez doing?”