Chapter 922: Top of The Group

　England’s three-match winning streak in the qualifiers had greatly boosted the confidence of the English fans. Now they were beginning to feel that the media’s proclamation that “this is the strongest England national team in history” was finally credible.

In particular, the away game of a major 4:2 victory over Serbia showed the offensive strength of the England team.

The England team had won big points consecutively, and the happiest people were not the fans, the media, and not even Tony Twain himself. The happiest person was Shaun Harvey, the English Football Association chief executive, who first contacted him.

Although Twain was not his first choice, he was a candidate whom he found. His good results meant that he had a discerning eye for talent. Furthermore, since Tony Twain took the job, he had not been spouting nonsense everywhere with his big mouth, with the exception of bickering with the media about the team captain role. Which made Harvey who was worried about it, sighed with relief.

Truthfully, after choosing Twain to be England’s manager in the beginning, there was a time when he was really worried about getting up in the morning and finding his house door being fully blocked by the media, who came to ask him what he thought of Tony Twain’s latest comments.

If such a thing were to happen every day, then it would not be a wonderful experience.

Everything was good now. Twain was focused on his work with the team and rarely started a war with the media or be provoked into a quarrel with other people. He also did not criticize the work of UEFA or FIFA.

Perhaps the reason for Twain’s silence was due to the recent results? Once the results were not good, who knew what kind of universally shocking things the mad dog would do…

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Tony Twain was flushed with success working as the manager of the England national team. Even the UEFA’s official website had dedicated an article to reintroduce the young “Godfather of Champions.” He had previously been questioned by some pundits for having no experience in coaching the national team. Now those voices of doubts had disappeared.

But the more he was in the limelight, the more the Nottingham Forest fans would miss him.

The months of August and September were considered the honeymoon period between Flores and Nottingham Forest. He led the team to third place with five wins, one draw and one defeat after seven rounds of the league tournament.

The media which went where wind blew, touted Flores as the new hope for Nottingham Forest. The Forest team would be back on its path of glory under the helm of the Spaniard. To prove that they were not talking nonsense, they also gave many examples. One of the examples given was rather silly and pointless – Flores was a “madman coach” in Spain, which made him similar to Tony Twain’s character. If Twain with the same character could be successful at Nottingham Forest, why could Flores not be as successful too?

But now the good luck was over.

Nottingham Forest had lost two games in a row under Flores’ leadership before England’s match against Serbia. After the national team’s game had ended, the league tournament resumed. In the end, the Forest team tied the game with the “weak team”, Middlesbrough. They did not achieve a single victory throughout October.

However, it was not over. Going into November, Flores’s team beat Everton after much difficulty and Bentley was injured. Bentley left during the game with a serious injury and bad news came from the hospital the next day. He had to be sidelined for at least three months.

Bentley was seriously injured while the team captain, George Wood was suspended for two games after being red carded for a match against Manchester United. The game against Manchester United was widely watched. As the result, the two teams played an explosive game. Mourinho came on strong in the game against the Forest team while Flores was also not willing to lose to Mourinho, who was also an individualistic manager.

A violent physical collision happened from the very minute the game began.

Twain also visited Old Trafford to watch the high anticipated game, which he called the “rugby game” after.

Moke, who was the substitute for Bentley in the starting lineup, was fouled against twice in the opening ten minutes, which ignited a fury among the Forest players.

Following which, the referee became the protagonist in the ensuing match. He showed a total of thirteen yellow cards and two red cards.

Nottingham Forest won 7:6 on the number of yellow cards, while the two teams tied in terms of the red card count. George Wood and Anderson were both sent off for a red card each.

In the end, Manchester United beat the Forest team 2:1 at its home ground based on a somewhat controversial penalty shot and returned to the top of the points table. Nottingham Forest, on the other hand, dropped to the seventh place.

After the game, the commentator said, “Flores is in a big trouble.”

Tony Twain would agree with him on this.

He was supposed to be here to observe the players for the next game against Denmark. However, both teams played really badly for the game and Nottingham Forest was even worse. The players whom he wanted to inspect did not play at the level which they were supposed to. It frustrated him. He had intended to follow the deployment of the squad which he had used for the previous game against Serbia, but now it looked like he might have to be forced to make adjustments.

Bentley’s serious injury put him out of the running for the national team. Wayne Rooney’s alleged assault charges from beating someone in a bar caused him to be plagued by the media and legal battles recently. Michael Carrick was injured during the game and the Manchester United football club did not want the national team to mobilize him for the match against Denmark because it would aggravate his injury.

The national team manager looked more relaxed than the clubs’ managers because he could pick the right player from the entire country without having to consider the transfer fees. But there were not many players in the country who could meet Twain’s requirements, especially in some positions. In a country such as England, where professional football was highly developed, no more than forty people could qualify for the national team.

Any major position that needed to be changed was a source of headache for Twain.

Therefore, Twain must be cursing both Mourinho and Flores at the very moment.

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On Wednesday, November 17th, the day of the national team’s international match.

England was back at its home ground after two away games, welcoming the second-placed team, Denmark at the Wembley Stadium.

The twenty-six-years-old, Nicklas Bendtner, Denmark’s number one star player, was repeatedly asked by the media, attempting to find out what he thought of Twain in interviews days before the game. He refused to answer all of these questions. For him, Nottingham Forest and Tony Twain were a thing of the past.

As of now, he had also left the unpromising Manchester City in the summer to join Everton. Although it was still a team with little hope of winning the championship title, at least the team had a desire to take a stab at winning honors. He rediscovered the joy of playing football in this team.

Twain did not use Bendtner to incite a psychological warfare. That once-talented kid was one of the biggest regrets of his coaching career. But now it ceased to matter a long time ago.

He was already a manager who had won the Treble. What else could he not let go of?

So, this game was just an ordinary qualifier for him. It was impossible for the media to hype things up through the feud with Bendtner.

If they hyped up the game as the fight for the top spot in the group, he would go along with a few remarks.

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It was really a battle for the top spot in the group, with Denmark and England accumulating the same number of points and both teams had three wins with nine points each. But Denmark had fewer net goals and smaller goal difference than England, so they occupied the second place.

In fact, the top team in the group was just to fight for face. As long as a team was in the top two spots in the group, it could directly advance to the final stage of the competition. Even if a team was in third place, as long as it had the best result among the third-place holder in the group, there was a chance to go to Spain.

With the expansion of the 2016 UEFA European Championship, the number of teams allowed to participate in the competition had increased from sixteen to twenty-four teams, giving many mid-tiered European teams hope. The qualifiers for this time were also divided into ten groups. With the exception of England’s group, which comprised of seven teams, the other nine groups had five teams. The top two teams in each group would advance directly to the next level. Then the third-placed teams with the best results in the top six teams would play two playoff games at home and away, where the final three teams would head to Spain.

England had done well for the group draw and it would not be a problem for the team to advance to the next level. But to advance as the top team in the group was more in line with the English Football Association’s desired requirement. It would also make the English fans proud.

Twain made some adjustments to England’s squad list for the game. Walcott would be in the right midfielder position while James Milner was on the left. Gerrard and George Wood were in the middle. Mitchell would start in the forward line while Rooney disappeared from the starting lineup. His replacement was Agbonlahor.

Both left backs, Leighton Baines and Joe Mattock were not in the starting lineup. Lescott, who could play as both center back and left back, was starting.

The right back was Glen Johnson, who had not appeared in the national team for quite some time.

In the press box, media from all over England gathered to discuss Twain’s starting lineup list.

“He hasn’t had a fixed lineup since he took over!”

“It’s normal, he has only just taken over. How many games has the team played?”

“He’s trying hard to find the same feel of the Forest team, isn’t he?”

“It’s not just Tony. I’m not always happy with England’s selection in several positions, such as the right back…”

It’s great that he can lead the team to three straight wins in this kind of situation.”

“Denmark is not Serbia. The team is absolutely capable of creating trouble for us at home. I think the many changes that Twain makes, is not conducive to the results.”

For the reporters to be able to have the time to chat in the stands, it was obviously because the game was not good to watch.

The game played at the Wembley stadium was dull. Denmark’s tactic for the away game was very conservative and England had no other idea to deal with it in the face of such tight defense.

And Twain was not too interested in competing with Denmark for the first place in the group. He did not care as long as they could advance to the next level.

Having to face the Christmas period’s devil’s calendar in the league tournament soon, the players appeared to be weak and dispirited. They were afraid of injuring themselves. It was only natural for people not to be able to lift their spirits when the game was being played like this.

In the end, the “fight for the top spot in the group” that was hyped by the media before the game, dully concluded with a 0:0 score. The Asian fans who had waited to stay up in front of the television to watch the game must have been disappointed. But Tony Twain was not here to serve them.

Although the result was a 0:0 draw and the game was extremely dull, Twain was still satisfied. In the post-match press conference, he praised the performance of the Danish team. In fact, the performance of the Danish team had nothing to crow about. He also praised his team’s performance, which sounded more like a bald-faced lie. As long as one was not mentally challenged or brain damaged, anyone could tell that the England team did not perform well. Twain did this only so as not to put too much pressure on the players.

With the game against Denmark over, the two teams were tied in the points. England continued to rely on its advantage in the goal difference to come out ahead of Denmark and was ranked first in the group. Holding on to the top spot in the group, the English fans and the media would not make things too difficult for Twain.

After this match, the UEFA European Championship Qualifying tournament would not resume until April next year. In between, other than playing in friendly games, Twain would be flying around to pay attention to the performance of those players on the squad list.

This was the source of the biggest headache for him – unlike at the football club where he was able to closely inspect each player’s form every day, the national team’s players were scattered all over the place and they might not be able to maintain their forms, so he needed to be a “frequent flyer” in order to keep abreast of the latest status of those national footballers.

The most hateful thing was that the English Premier League did not have a “winter break” which meant that if he were a manager of another country’s national team, he would be able to have a break of more than a week during the Christmas period which he could spend the Christmas holidays with his wife. But in the English Premier League, the games were more frequent especially during this period. So, he could only fly around to follow the teams, with his feet off the ground all the time.

“Maybe I should have bought a private jet…” complained Twain.

“You should be glad that you don’t have to pay for the accommodation and expenses for all the trips out of your own pocket, Tony.” Walker dampened his enthusiasm. Like Twain, Des Walker also had to fly around as the assistant manager. He was Twain’s most trusted man.

“I’d better be thankful that we’ve had no problems with the flights taken so far…” Twain rolled his eyes.

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During the competition schedule in November, Nottingham Forest had two losses, one draw and one victory which led to a further decline. More and more negative news about the Forest team could be seen in the media. There was also talk of discord in the locker room, with Gareth Bale openly questioning Flores’ coaching standards. In addition to him being previously blocked by Flores, his questioning caused a stir in the media.

Despite Flores’s strong denials that he was at odds with the players, it was clear that he was losing control of the team.

It was Evan Doughty who came out to voice his support of Flores, saying his manager position was solid regardless of the performance.

But only half a month later, he had to eat his own words that he spat out.

Before Christmas, the Forest team suffered three straight defeats and it was a mess inside and outside the team. Evan Doughty announced the suspension of Flores’ contract with Nottingham Forest. Flores became the first manager to be dismissed in the English Premier League’s new season.

Flores was also unhappy with the club’s top brass going back on its word. In an interview with the Spanish media after his dismissal, he lashed out at the club’s top brass, saying, “… They said they wanted to support me the day before yesterday, and then pushed me into the abyss when their backs were turned… I thought the managers in the English Premier League would have room to implement a long-term plan, but obviously I was wrong. In a team like this, you can’t get the time you need…”

Some people cheered Flores’ departure because they could not stand Flores’ botched performance long ago. They were looking forward to the new manager leading the team to a path of new glory. The other people felt that Flores was nothing more than a poor scapegoat. Nottingham Forest had been unable to find a suitable manager since O’Neill’s departure. Constant change of managers could only accelerate the team’s decline.

The locker room was very quiet with regards to the change of manager. No one came forward to comment on Flores’ departure, even if it was to say a good thing about him. It could be another indication of the terrible relationship between Flores and the players in the locker room.

Evan Doughty appointed the assistant manager, David Kerslake as the team’s interim manager before a new manager was found. But no one thought that Kerslake was competent enough to take on the position. He had been living in the shadow of Tony Twain all along. In many people’s view, he was famous because it had a lot to do with him being Tony Twain’s assistant manager. As to what he was capable of as a person… Who would really care?

Tony Twain did not care if there was a change of personnel at Nottingham Forest that could shake up the English football world. For him, Nottingham Forest had really become a thing of the past. Pierce Brosnan once called Twain after Flores’ dismissal, hoping to hear what he thought of the incident.

However, Twain felt that there was nothing to say. He said, “… It’s quite normal. His results were not good, naturally he would be dismissed. Evan Doughty is unlikely to pay for the team’s results. Flores must have forgotten the words on the wall of the players’ tunnel at the Crimson Stadium. ‘In addition to victory, it’s still victory.’ This is the Forest team’s tradition … When you can’t bring home victory, then you have to go. What’s the future for the Forest team? I don’t know, I’m not a prophet…”

Now he was flying over the European continent. Before the arrival of Christmas, he had to go to Milan to watch a game and pay some attention to some of Lennon’s recent performances. Lennon had inherited the traditions of Paul Ince and Gascoigne since his transfer out of the Forest team. He showed the signs of an English player not being able to acclimatize to playing in Italy. He had not been selected for the national team for a long time and hoped his performance would impress him this time.