After saying goodbye to Eastwood, who was in a good mood, Twain once again visited the attending physician, Stephen Albert.
“The Forest team has been doing well recently. Congrats to you; Mr. Tony Twain, the youngest manager.” The two men talked about football as soon as they met.
Twain touched his nose and cleared his throat twice. “Let’s leave any talk about the Forest team aside for now.”
“You’re here to talk about Eastwood’s injury?” Albert smiled.
Twain nodded, “I wonder when he might be able to recover to the level where he can return to the training ground again.”
Albert turned over Eastwood’s medical chart to have a look. He looked up at Twain and said, “The second operation was very successful. I think he’ll be able to walk normally in about a month’s time. In another month, it shouldn’t be a problem to start simple rehabilitation training.”
Twain thought about the time and then nodded. “That’s really fantastic news. After a seven month wait, I can finally get some hope.”
“As a substitute to Eastwood, Anelka plays pretty well.”
“Wrong, Doctor Albert. No player can substitute for another. Anelka is Anelka, Eastwood is Eastwood.” Twain corrected Albert’s statement, but the other man was not annoyed.
“Maybe I have too little contact with football coaches. This is the first time I’ve seen a football manager who cares so much for his players like you do, Mr. Twain. I’m touched by your concern for Eastwood, but I’d like to remind you: even if Eastwood can return to the field, it is uncertain whether he’ll be able to return to his previous level. I think it’s better if you don’t hold out too much hope. His right knee has suffered two major injuries. With three surgeries in three years, it’ll be a miracle if he can continue to play.”
Twain was silent for a moment. It was not that he had not thought of that problem. When Ronaldo had returned after a major injury, he was a completely different player from The Phenomenon. There was also Michael Owen, who was no longer the wonder boy after his frequent injuries. There were plenty of examples in the football world of such players’ returning to the field after serious injuries and never being able to play as gloriously as before. Twain did not know if Eastwood would be another one of those examples.
“I think what you said makes a lot of sense, Doctor Albert. We have no way to see the future. No one knows what the future holds. Frankly speaking, I don’t know whether Freddy can return to his former condition. But…” He changed his tack. “I just went to see Freddy. He’s in a good place and looking forward to getting back on the field. And he disobeyed your request and watched every single Forest game.”
“I’ve known that for a long time.” Albert nodded.
“So, if the player hasn’t given up, how can I, as a manager, be the first to give up? We don’t know what the future will be, but we have to try to help him rehabilitate properly from now on. I can’t give up first because of the ‘possibility’ that he may never recover to his former state. That’s not a reason to give up.”
“I know, Mr. Twain. The hospital will also make every effort to help him recover soon.”
“Thank you, Doctor Albert.”
“That’s my duty as a doctor. There’s no need to thank me.” Albert waved his hand. “It’s my job to heal the pains of my patients. If my family had not been Notts County fans since my grandfather, I’d really like to be a fan of the Forest team.” He winked at Twain. “Maybe you can consider quitting as the Forest team manager and going to coach Notts County!”
Twain laughed. “I don’t think there’s a chance of that. However, I can’t guarantee what the future holds, Doctor.”
※※※
On October 27, in the third round of the EFL Cup, the Forest team challenged Birmingham City in an away game. Although the EFL Cup was where Twain had risen up from, Twain chose to give up the lesser tournament for two consecutive seasons when the Forest team had competed in a bigger arena.
He deployed all of the Second or Third teams composed of reserve and youth players to face Birmingham City. He let all the First Team players rest and prepare for the next round of the important league competition.
Entirely made up of substitutes, the Forest team played tenaciously in the away game. However, they were not as strong as Birmingham City with its main force. The score was 0:1 and they were eliminated from the EFL Cup in their first game. Everything was the same as last season.
Everyone could see that Twain’s drive was not in that game. Losing the EFL Cup had no effect on the team. At most, the reserves team and the youth team had lost a place to accumulate actual competition experience.
Everyone was focused on the Premier League game after the EFL Cup, where Nottingham Forest would face Chelsea’s challenge at their home ground in the eleventh round.
It was a direct contest between the top two teams in the league and a face-off between two young and highly-individualistic managers.
Even before the EFL Cup, the media began to hype the game.
There are so many stories to be publicized between Twain and Mourinho. Those included how they were considered “Brian Clough’s successors,” when Chelsea had won the championship title with their only defeat to Nottingham Forest last season, and how Mourinho had helped the Forest team with a player’s work permit by attending the FA hearing that summer. What kind of relationship the two men had was worth pondering.
“…Manager Mourinho came to England with the reputation of a European champion. In one season, he swept away most of the English Premier League and defeated almost all of the managers. He had led Chelsea to win the league title after half a century, but he never defeated Tony Twain. No matter what others think, I believe that Mourinho will not allow this embarrassing matter to go on.”
” After ten rounds of the league, Chelsea has had nine victories and one draw. They remain unbeaten with twenty-eight points, topping the league. Short one game, Nottingham Forest has won six games, tied and conceded once respectively. They are in second place with nineteen points. The two teams are currently in very good shape. I think this is going to be a very intense and exciting game to watch because the characters of those two managers make it such that they’ll never admit defeat when they meet each other.”
“Before the match, Manager Mourinho had refused to comment on his opponent, Manager Twain. On the other hand, when faced with reporters’ questions, Twain expressed that it was pointless to comment any further and that the outcome of the game would clear things up. This is quite strange. The Portuguese man, who always likes to wage a war of words with the opposing manager before the game, opted for silence, and Manager Twain was also very low-key. Perhaps in their minds, they thought that it was meaningless to spar with each other before the game.”
“The two teams are nine points apart. This is not a ‘turning point’ game that affects which team can win the championship at the end of the season. The Forest team also does not expect to rely on this game to overtake Chelsea and become the first in the league. In that case, why is this game the focus of so many people? Instead of saying that everyone cares about the result of this game, I think they’re more taking an interest in the outcome of the contest between the two managers: whether will it be Mourinho ending his embarrassing record of not being able to defeat Tony Twain since his arrival in England, or if Twain will continue to maintain his edge over Mourinho.”
“This has nothing to do with the points. It’s not about the rankings. It can even be said that it has nothing to do with the two teams. I think as long as Manager Mourinho and Manager Twain are still coaching in England, this will continue. This is a war between the two men.”