After a careful examination, the small unit of the team doctors handed Twain the conclusion that Eastwood’s knee was in good condition after the two surgeries. He could begin his physical training. He could undergo a month of training according to plan and then he would be able to meet the initial requirements to compete in the games.
Twain was very pleased with this and made thank-you calls to Professor Constantine and the main surgeon, Dr. Stephen Albert.
And then, just to be on the safe side, Twain asked the team doctors to set Eastwood’s return to the field to be at the end of February.
After all, they had already waited nine months. One and a half more month was not so bad.
Consequently, Eastwood would appear on the training ground on time every day, just like everyone else on the team. As the team trained together, he would undergo rehabilitation training under a dedicated coach, starting with the simplest running laps. The places where he went most often would be the strength training and physiotherapy rooms.
Occasionally he would feel the urge to play, so he would also kick a few balls with his instep to relieve the itch. But he would soon be stopped by the coach in charge of his physical recovery training.
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The tournament schedule in January was not very intense. All the teams were busy recruiting to reinforce their strength for the next half of the season. The Nottingham Forest team, which had been striking everywhere in the transfer market for the past few seasons, seemed quiet during this month.
Because they lost to Tony Twain’s Nottingham Forest in the scramble for the goalkeeper, Manchester United had been plagued by a defensive line problem for half of the season. Ferguson finally found a replacement for Edwin van der Sar this season: the young goalkeeper who played for Stoke City, Ben Forster.
Next, in the left back position, Manchester United introduced Patrice Evra, a young main force player from AS Monaco in France.
Currently, Manchester United was eight points behind the top-ranked Chelsea. Ferguson was not willing to give up the season. He had successfully overtaken Arsenal when he was more than twelve points behind, not to mention eight points.
Dunn had reminded Twain to watch out for Manchester United’s comeback for the next half of the season, and Twain had not taken it seriously. Now all his energies were focused on the Champions League round 16 competition, which was due to restart a month later.
After the group stage, the sixteen participating teams were already determined for the next stage of the competition. Next, the sixteen teams would be mixed up again for new pairings which would be decided with another ballot.
When Twain went to participate in the drawing ceremony again, he was no longer the nobody whom no one was interested in. He became the target that a lot of managers actively sought out to strike up conversations with. The reporters also directed the cameras towards this young and promising Champions League manager.
The UEFA Champions League Magazine had even set a time for an interview with him ——after the Champions League started again.
There were fewer people at this draw ceremony compared to the last time. It was slightly desolate. Among those who did not come that Twain was familiar with was Alex Ferguson. Manchester United was really unlucky the first half of the season. Keane dissolved his contract with the team and they were eliminated in the Champions League group stage. The Manchester United dynasty Ferguson had built seemed to have reached the end of the road.
Those certainly were other people’s affairs which Twain did not care about.
His concern was the outcome of the draw.
He was satisfied with the result of the draw this time because the Forest team drew a good ticket.
In the round 16 matches, Nottingham Forest would play an away game first and then a home game. Their opponent was the Rangers Football Club, a Scottish Premiership team.
Many of the managers cast envious or jealous glances toward Twain. Jumping for joy on the inside, Twain kept a frown on his face as if he had drawn a very strong team.
The draw results for the teams were as follows:
Bayern Munich versus AC Milan.
Real Betis versus Liverpool.
Real Madrid versus Arsenal.
PSV Eindhoven versus Lyon.
Chelsea versus Barcelona.
Rangers versus Nottingham Forest.
Ajax versus Inter Milan.
Werder Bremen versus Juventus.
As expected, Chelsea and Barcelona were paired by UEFA again.
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After he returned to England from the draw, Twain’s team was encouraged by this good news, winning two league matches in succession. They won 2:0 in an away game against Portsmouth and defeated West Ham United by 3:2 in a home game. Twain demanded that the team was to obtain as many points as possible before the start of the Champions League so as to lay a solid foundation for their future double league tournaments.
As for the FA Cup… Twain used it to train new players as always. He would not say that he had given it up, but rather he would say that it was to give the players more opportunities to play and train. So, those who rarely had the opportunity to play would try their hardest to perform. As a result, they played better and better until he could not give it up even if he wanted to.
On January 28th, during the fourth round of the FA Cup, Nottingham Forest had a modest victory of 1:0 over Bolton Wanderers at home, and successfully advanced to the next round of the FA Cup.
This was Manager Tony Twain’s best record in the FA Cup in his coaching career. He had lost to Manchester United in the fourth round last season. He did not know how far the team could go this season. He was only certain that each time the team advanced, a new “best record” was created.
Then, February arrived. Because Nottingham Forest maintained a winning record in all competitions in January, Tony Twain became the target of media attention once again. He was named the best manager in the English Premier League for the month of January. His team was rated as the best team, while his man Anelka was awarded the best player of the month with his constant scoring.
With three honors in a row, Twain’s career was in a wonderful upswing.
Needless to say, there would be detractors, saying that whoever was the best of last month would lose in the first game of this month.
And Twain again proved to be a magical manager who specialized in breaking all kinds of jinxes.
In the 24th round of the league tournament on February 1st, Nottingham Forest defeated Fulham by 2:0 at home. Those who waited to ridicule him were rendered speechless. He also settled the score for their previous defeat to their opponents for the first half of the season.