Up until now, the Forest team had rarely targeted African players in the transfer market even though Twain knew that the African players were very valuable. He used the more expensive European players rather than buy the Africans players. Why?
It was because of the continent’s conflict with the league tournaments and football clubs’ match schedules. The biennial African Cup of Nations was different from the other continents’ tournaments. Due to its special geographical location, their competition was not held during the Northern Hemisphere summer break of most national leagues, but during the red-hot winter tournament period of every national league. In that way, if a team had too many African players, then come January, most of its players would be missing. How were they supposed to play? Tang En was not without such an experience. When he played the FM game, he could not even get eleven players in the starting lineup in some key games because there were so many African and South American players on the team who returned to their countries for the tournaments.
Fortunately, that was just a video game. But Twain did not want that to happen in reality. It would kill him.
Twain had never wanted to be a manager of a national team, so he would certainly consider those issues from the football club’s standpoint. As the Chinese saying went, “The butt decides the head.” That meant that one’s position determined one’s perspective and scope. Wherever one was positioned would determine how they viewed the world.
However, because the two games of the national teams were not friendly matches or warm-up games, all the national teams viewed their two games with great importance. Therefore, Twain’s wishful thinking was not correct.
In the end, Brynjar Gunnarsson, the club’s perpetual substitute, was only a substitute in the Icelandic national team for two games and did not get a minute to play. How could he maintain his condition?
Ashley Young played two games for England’s under-21 national youth team for a total of one hundred and forty minutes. Aaron Lennon represented the under-18 national youth team and played the two games in their entirety, for a total of one hundred and eighty minutes. On behalf of the Netherlands’ national team, Edwin van der Sar played one hundred and eighty minutes of two games. Gerard Piqué represented Spain’s under-21 national youth team and also played two games in their entirety.
Franck Ribéry made his debut on his national team and performed well until he was brought off amidst the cheers and applause in Stade de France at the 87th minute. Ribéry looked proud of his success while Twain gnashed his teeth in front of the television. He could tell from tiny clues that Ribéry’s stamina was flagging in the final moments of the game. In the next game, Ribéry was a substitute; but still, he played for almost twenty minutes.
As the main center forward of the Australian national team, Mark Viduka naturally would not play as a substitute. He also played for the entire one hundred and eighty minutes.
Nicklas Bendtner fully played the two games on behalf of Denmark’s national youth team.
Although most of the players performed well in the games, Bendtner and Viduka both scored goals. Ribéry had his first assist in his national team career and the French media fell over themselves in their eagerness to make him the target of their reports after the game.
But Twain only saw those players’ listless appearances on the first day of training after they returned.
The training for that day was mainly to restore their physical fitness. Twain still had to rotate for the league game in three days’ time. Any players who played on the national team game had to take a break. His goal shifted from England to the Iberian Peninsula.
To Madrid, the capital of Spain.
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Ribéry, who had represented the national team for the first time, was thrilled. He could not imagine he would have had such an opportunity a season ago. At that time, he was still at a loss about his future at a small pier in a town west of France. He did not know whether he was right to persist at being a professional player.
The phone call from the Nottingham Forest Club had changed the trajectory of his life.
From the familiar France to the completely unfamiliar England, he had made a mark for himself. Not only did he play in the top league, but he also quickly became the team’s main force and was well-known. Now he also became a member of the French national team. No one mocked his facial scar. Everyone put the focus on his legs.
This was the life he had wanted.
Therefore, when he started the game on the behalf of his national team, he gnashed his teeth to persist even when he was down to the last bit of his physical strength. He did not want to be replaced because he could not run. If that happened, he would have regrets in his first national team game.
After he returned to the club, the cost was that Twain had told him that he did not even make the cut for the next league game. He had to stay at home and rest.
Ribéry was not the only one. Piqué and Ashley Young also did not make the list for the game.
Wes Morgan and Aaron Lennon took their places.
Who their next opponent was, how strong they were, what the outcome of the game would be and whether their ranking would slip… Twain did not worry about those questions at all. A season was long. Even if they were halted at this point, they still had a chance to pull ahead.
However, Twain did not want to miss the game with Real Madrid. He wanted to make sure his team was in good condition and use his strongest lineup to be a “guest” of Bernabeu.
Apart from the revenge factor, Tang En had a tinny tiny wish in his heart, a fan’s wish. He wanted to compete with Zidane once at the Bernabeu before Zidane’s retirement.
Because of his arrival in this world, many things had slightly deviated. Twain did not know whether Zidane would continue to play after the end of the season. But he knew there were not many chances to play against Zidane. This time, the ballot had coincidentally grouped his team with Real Madrid. He had no reason to miss these two games.
In the first game at his home ground, the inadequate Forest team lost to Real Madrid. This time, in the away game, Twain could send his strongest squad. He wanted the challenge to see if he had the ability to defeat Real Madrid.
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The Forest team needed to deal with their rivals in the league before they dealt with Real Madrid.
On November 19th, Nottingham Forest lost to Newcastle United at St James’ Park by 1:2. Their league points stalled.
For the first time in his real-life career, Tony Twain experienced the power of the FIFA virus.
Although his players had not been injured in the national team games and he had allowed the players who had not recovered physically to rest at home in Nottingham, he could not resolve the predicament of the Wilford training base being empty for one and half weeks. His main players were picked clean and he could not even carry the overall tactical training for the entire team. He could only let those who were left behind do simple physical training and technical exercises.
Then, three days after the players’ return, they traveled north to Newcastle and hurriedly challenged their opponents who had a strong home advantage.
With only one goal conceded, Twain had to be thankful for the players’ fighting spirit.
As Wigan Athletic lost to Arsenal at home by 2:3, the Forest team was able to keep their current second-place ranking in the league. However, the gap between them and Chelsea had widened to five points. Chelsea had defeated Blackburn Rovers at their home ground with a score of 3:0.
Twain exposed his lack of experience. After two consecutive defeats, he could only watch as Chelsea widened what was once a narrow gap.
But no matter how much rue he had in his heart, he still must smile in front of his team to encourage and console them.
“All right, let’s forget about the past games.” In the visitors’ locker room at St James’ Park, Twain smiled at his men and said, “There are more important games ahead of us. Two months ago, our opponents beat us on our home ground. Now we’re going to their home to get back what we lost!”