Chapter 90: Beautiful Tackle Part 1
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
As the team that had reached the last round of playoffs the previous season, Reading was seen by Nottingham's media as Forest's main competitor for promotion to the Premier League. In the first round of matches, Reading had been forced to a draw by Ipswich. Therefore, as long as Forest won against them in the second round, Forest would be able to widen their point difference with Reading.
However, who could have guessed that Nottingham Forest would suffer such a miserable defeat?
"0:3! This is really a complete defeat!" That was the evaluation given by John Motson, the commentator, after the match. It was clear that he, too, understood exactly what awaited this new manager one week after the match—typhoon-like warnings!
The completely unmotivated Forest!
The crushing defeat of Forest!
Collymore helpless!
0:3!
Ever since the start of the press conference after the match, the tips of the media's spears had all been pointed at the team's manager, Stan Collymore. It was now Collymore's turn to have a taste of the blame which Tang En had once faced in the past.
Collymore had become the target of blame for all of the mistakes during the match: The initial lineup, the substitution lineup, his shots calling, player substitution, halftime adjustments, etc. As for the other players Collymore had bought during the summer transfer window, their performances were not good either. However, those were not considered too serious a sin, because everyone's attention was still focused on the most expensive Rebrov.
Faced with the tall and burly English defenders, Rebrov was completely unable to adapt, causing the audience to begin missing Harewood, who had continuously performed well in the second half of the previous season. The striker, whose techniques were gradually maturing, had already scored goals during both rounds on his new team.
The Nottingham Evening Post even brought it up: Who was the one who chased away our best striker?!
Who? Of course it was Manager Collymore.
Faced with the sea of complaints, Collymore managed to quickly and completely shirk his responsibilities. He felt that the reason as to why the team was unable to score any goals during the match with Reading, and could not do anything against their concentrated defense, was due to the team lacking a strong center forward. Looking into the camera lens, he said sternly, "Before the summer transfer window closes, I will make a request to the club's board of directors and buy a strong center forward! When that time comes, I will let all of you see what the true Nottingham Forest is!"
Edward Doughty consented to Collymore's request enthusiastically. On the 20th of August, three days before the third round of matches, he brought a strong center forward to Collymore—Gareth Taylor. This 30-year-old center forward formerly from Burnley, was 1.88 meters tall, weighed 85kg, and was good with headers. He had been on loan from Man City to Burnley in the second half of the 00-01 season. After scoring 4 goals in 15 matches, he then joined the team for free. After that, he was fielded a total of 18 matches in the next two seasons, and scored 32 goals. The numbers were very equal, having scored 16 goals in 40 matches in both seasons. As a center forward from a League One team, one could not ask for too much, and the result was impressive enough.
Collymore's words gave Burnley F.C. the heads-up to hike the price. This burly player's value suddenly inflated from £2000,000 all the way to £550,000, before Edward Doughty could finally bring him to City Ground Stadium to meet the media and fans.
During the press conference meet and greet session, Collymore happily patted Taylor's shoulders and announced to the media, "I'm extremely happy to obtain Taylor. He is a very good player. With him on our team, we will be able to blast away the gates of all the teams in League One!"
Blast away all the gates of the teams?
Cardiff City laughed as they left City Ground Stadium contentedly with their three points, while leaving Collymore with a score of 1:2, as well as a mess to clean up after.
The guest team, Cardiff City, scored two goals 10 minutes into the match, completely beating Nottingham Forest senseless. It was only at the 70th minute that Reid managed to score a goal with a free kick, but it was already too late. Collymore sent the Rebrov-Taylor striker combination out, but the pair, which he had high hopes for, did not score a single goal, causing him to lose face completely.
Faced with the media and fans who were already complaining, Collymore found yet another excuse. "Taylor has only been with the team for a short three days, without even having time to have a combined practice with them. Not having chemistry is extremely normal. But I believe that as long as I'm given a bit more time, I assure you that you will see a strong Nottingham Forest!"
Well said!
How beautiful it sounded!
Feeling the immense pressure from the outside, Nottingham Forest and Collymore finally won a match. They defeated Coventry City in their away match with a score of 3:1. However, what made things awkward for Collymore was that his trusted Rebrov and Taylor still did not score any goals. The first two goals were scored by Andy Reid at the 19th and 61st minutes respectively, while the third goal was scored by David Johnson at the 85th, and who was substituted in at the 77th minute. They were completely unrelated to Rebrov and Taylor.
Four rounds into the season, and the team's best scorer was actually Andy Reid, who was positioned in the midfield, with a total of three goals.
The 20-year-old Reid had a weekly salary of £1,000, while the 29-year-old Rebrov had a weekly salary as high as £11,500, the highest salary on the team. In terms of salary, Reid was not even one-tenth of Rebrov's, and yet the number of goals he scored was three times that of the Ukrainian's. What irony!
Just when Collymore thought that he could finally catch a breather, on the last day of August, Nottingham Forest welcomed Norwich City on their home ground in the fifth round of the league. Forest was forced to a 0:0 draw in a home match. Before he assumed his managerial position, he promised the media and fans that they would be able to see beautiful offensive football, insinuating that the previous style was not beautiful at all. What about now?
In terms of the quality of the players, perhaps his predecessor Tony Twain's Nottingham Forest was not as good as the current one. However, they had been able to crush Stoke City with a score of 6:0 on their home ground. Collymore's team, on the other hand, was not able to win even against Norwich City, not managing to score a single goal.
Rebrov could already clearly hear the jeers from City Ground's viewing platform directed at him. Taylor was also not having a good time, as he had a height of 1.88 meters, and yet he was unable to score even a single header.
Goals! Goals! Goals! We need to score goals! the media was shouting, and the fans were also questioning why a £2,500,000-striker combination could not score a single goal.
After five rounds of the 03-04 English League One season, Nottingham Forest, which had been previously regarded by the media as the favorites to advance into the Premier League, had two wins, two losses, and one draw, and was ranked 12th in the season with a total of only seven points. Those kinds of opening results were even worse than Paul Hart's in the previous season.
The Nottingham Evening Post did a short survey on the streets of Nottingham, and the fans who felt that Nottingham Forest would return to the Premier League by the end of the season, had already decreased to 36 percent from the original 71 percent before the season began. Sixty-two percent of the fans felt that this terrible situation was the result of Manager Stan Collymore's incapability. On top of that, 4 percent of the people surveyed even felt that, should Stan Collymore continue to be the manager of the team, it would not be possible for Nottingham Forest to remain in League One by the end of the season—next season, people would find Nottingham Forest's name on League Two's roster.
Before he promised to become the Manager of Nottingham Forest, Stan Collymore thought that it was easy to be the manager of a team, as simple as scoring a goal was to him. However, he was currently in a fix.
Collymore was completely clueless regarding the means to improve the team's results. Perhaps he could only hope that Rebrov and Taylor, whom he had pinned his hopes on, would have an explosive performance and score a goal soon to salvage the situation.
Collymore had thrown the planning of the training to Des Walker during the preparation phase before the start of the season, showing no interest in it. He was even regularly absent from practices. God knows where he had gone to… perhaps lying in the arms of some woman, or vomiting in front of some toilet bowl in a drunken state.
Regarding Collymore's habits, Des Walker was felt very helpless. He had reminded Collymore several times to pay attention to his actions as the manager of the team, as they would negatively affect the players, as well. However, Collymore simply rebutted him saying, "I am the boss here."
Seeing the team's low morale as a result of their poor performance, even Walker, as the assistant manager, felt dull. Walker suddenly missed Twain, who was sent back to the youth team, and wondered how he was doing on the northern side.
If he was here, he definitely would not have allowed things to develop to the current state. I really don't know why Mr. Chairman fired Twain from his post... Hey, Mr. Chairman, seated high above on the second floor, please open your eyes. Collymore is better than Twain? Can someone tell me, in what way is Collymore better?
While Collymore was blamed for the team's poor performance, Tang En's youth team, on the other hand, had gotten a three-win streak in the fourth group of the youth league. The three wins were, 4:1 against Leicester on home grounds, 2:1 against Derby County on away grounds, and 1:0 against Walsall on home grounds. In addition, the team had even won 2:1 against West Bromwich in the first round of the FA youth cup on the 19th of August, advancing to the second round. On the 27th of September, they would be welcoming Bradford youth team on their home grounds.
When Tang En was in charge of the youth team, he discovered his own strengths and shortcomings. Just like when he was on the first team, he was still not adept at training the players. Although he could perhaps say something general, such as advising a certain player to train more on a certain aspect, he could not give specific details regarding the training plan. Deep within his heart, Tang En understood that perhaps that would be the shortcoming that would accompany him for the rest of his managerial career. However, he also did not have plans to improve his ability in this aspect. A person's time and energy is limited, and one being good in one aspect would invariably cause him to be lacking in another aspect. Becoming an all around talent was impossible for Tang En, who had only joined the scene recently.
Although his ability to train the players was lackluster, his ability to direct the match and tune the psychological state of the players made assistant manager David Kerslake extremely ashamed. This person, who was an apprentice under Paul Hart together with Twain, also felt that Twain leading the youth team was too much of a waste of his talents.
A certain day after training, Kerslake pointed to the training field of the Wilford training ground and said to Tang En, "Tony, your field is not here." He then pointed to the north, which was where the City Ground field was located, and said, "Your filed should be there."
"David, you're right. My field is there. But not now. I'm still waiting," Tang En muttered as he looked at the evening sky in the north.