786 Relive the Past Experience

Despite Twain's remark that "the players are not men if they lose", he was still worried. He might appear to be confident, but in fact, his inner pressure was no less than anyone else's. One must know that the pressure on the players if they lost the game would only last from the pitch to their home, while the pressure on the manager could last for days. Therefore, he could not be negligent.

In addition to using words to motivate the players, he needed to think of other ways.

The Inter Milan team had already arrived in Nottingham. Mourinho joked in an interview at London's Heathrow airport that he did not think he was competing in an away game because he was very familiar with many things in England. Mourinho's face looked relaxed, and he was smiling into the television cameras. He appeared to have something up his sleeve. And he did not care that the reporters mentioned Nottingham Forest's two away goals in front of him.

"I think it's a good thing for us. Yes, Nottingham Forest have two away goals. However, they only have two away goals while we're haven't yet had the chance to score any. Our away game hasn't started yet. Why wouldn't we be able to score three goals at the City Ground stadium?"

Mouinho's tone and demeanor made people think that it was he, and not Tony Twain, who had the advantage of the away goals...

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"It's psychological warfare," Twain snorted. "Mourinho lacks new ideas. He has taken a step backward because he's been in Italy for too long. He used to be like a sharp-toothed kitten."

Twain did not have to worry that the walls had ears in his office or that the paparazzi would put miniature cameras and microphones in his domain, so he could sneer at Mourinho without fear.

Kerslake guffawed when he heard Twain's analogy. He neither liked nor disliked Mourinho as a person, but he clearly did not like "Mourinho the enemy."

After commenting on his opponent, Twain looked at his assistant, Dunn.

"Dunn, have you prepared the thing?"

Dunn nodded and handed a disc to Twain. Twain did not put it into the computer but repeatedly played with it in his hand. The disc's surface reflected his face, although it was somewhat blurry.

I've decided to let them watch it twenty minutes before the game." He spun the disc around with his index finger.

"What's that?" Kerslake was a little curious.

"Something that we wouldn't really want to see." Twain glanced at Dunn. In fact, it was really Dunn who it reflected badly on. It was probably the biggest defeat he had faced during his time in sole charge of coaching Nottingham Forest. Twain wanted to allow Dunn to save face and did not want to say anything that reflected negatively on him.

"It's from the Champions League quarter final off the 2008-09 season, Nottingham Forest's home game against Inter Milan," Dunn himself explained.

"Ah, that game..." Kerslake was no longer curious. That game was a painful memory. If he could, he really did not want to think about it again. "Tony, you... Why do you want them to watch that?"

"Let them revive the old dream." Twain shrugged.

"That was a nightmare!" Kerslake cried.

"Revisiting a beautiful old dream will only deprive them of the motivation to move forward. I don't think the stimulus is enough."

Kerslake knew that Twain was someone who kept his word. His lips quivered a little and he stopped speaking. He just cast a sympathetic glance at Dunn. After all, Dunn had personally taken charge of that game. He suddenly realized in a flash what Twain had meant by "do whatever it takes to win."

Dunn had no objection and said, "Tony had discussed it with me, and I agreed. I also think it's a good idea."

Dunn had personally cut, edited and burnt the CD-ROM, in order to meet Twain's requirements. To make the video have more of an impact, he had needed to watch the game many times and select the best scenes to edit and put together. For Dunn, it was like looking in the mirror at his own worst moments. He had repeatedly watched the scenes and had placed his own shortcomings under the microscope to analyze them. No one liked that kind of feeling, but Dunn had needed to do the job for the good of the team.

Kerslake felt it was a hard job to be Tony's assistant, but fortunately, it was Dunn and not him.

"That's it, guys. Let's give Mourinho a lively welcome party!"

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On the day of the match, throngs of crowds milled around the City Ground stadium, with a large number of fans walking along the banks of River Trent to the City Ground stadium. A lot of fans were already in the stands, including Nottingham's most die-hard fan group, John, Bill, and the others from the Forest Bar.

They arrived in the stadium ahead of time and were busy hanging their banners.

"Welcome back to England, welcome to the City Ground stadium, José!"

The first sentence appeared as if relations between Mourinho and them were really friendly, but the following sentence exposed the hostile relationship between the two rivals: "You won't win this time either!"

The Inter Milan fans were certainly not to be outdone. They also had their way to fight back.

A group of Inter Milan fans had hung a banner with the score below the stands. The scores of 2:0 and 3:0 were written on it. 2:0 had been the score at Inter Milan's home ground, and 3:0 was the result from their match at the City Ground stadium.

Since the Tony Twain era had begun at Nottingham Forest, no team had ever scored three goals at the City Ground stadium while preventing Nottingham Forest from scoring. Mourinho did it.

The matter would not have been worth mentioning if it had not been for Tony Twain's repeated provocations. The Inter Milan fans had simply written in bleeding colors to provoke the Nottingham Forest fans due to their constant goading of the Italian fans.

These two games, especially the score at the home ground, were indeed a "painful memory" for the Nottingham Forest fans.

They had let their opponents score five goals in both the home and away matches and had failed to score even one goal. In the game at the City Ground stadium, the Forest players had bottled up their energy and had wanted to teach Inter Milan a lesson when they got back to their home ground. No one had expected Inter Milan to catch hold of the Forest team's over-eagerness to press for an attacking goal and successfully be able to sneak in an attack when the game started. Once they led by three goals, Inter Milan played more comfortably, and Nottingham Forest played with increasing anxiety. The whole team had counted on their acting manager, Dunn to be able to step up and try hard to save a desperate crisis. Dunn could only look on helplessly. He had no idea what to do. He usually prepared a full head of football technical and tactical knowledge. But at this moment, he could not apply it in the slightest.

In the end, the team played more and more chaotically. Inter Milan took the opportunity to score consecutive goals and utterly crushed the Nottingham Forest players' fighting spirit with a 3:0 scoreline.

After the game, the local media in Nottingham angrily stated that, judging by the performance of the game, if Inter Milan had scored another goal, the Nottingham Forest players would have to collectively hold their hands up and kneel for mercy.

Even the Forest fans, who almost never booed their own team, could not help but hiss too.

After that game, countless Nottingham Forest fans gathered in all the major bars to talk about the same issue: what would it have been like if Tony was still there?

Now they had a chance to find out the answer.

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The buses carrying the players from both teams arrived in the stadium for the pre-match warm-up, but the Nottingham Forest players came out onto the pitch earlier. Only a quarter of the crowd was in the stands when they entered the stadium to warm up, while the Inter Milan players had just left the hotel where they stayed at.

When the Inter Milan players arrived at the stadium at the expected time to carry out their warm-up, they found that the Nottingham Forest players were getting ready to leave.

This surprised some people because it was customary for everyone to come out together to warm up at the same time. So why had the Nottingham Forest players finish their warm-up so early? With more than half an hour to go before the match, what would they do in the locker room? Take a bath and a nap?

The Nottingham Forest players brushed past the Inter Milan players, completely disinterested in the puzzled looks they received from the Inter Milan players.

All this, of course, was arranged by the boss. He had asked the players to make use of the home team's advantage to come to the City Ground stadium early, start warming up, and then return to the locker room. He had something mysterious and exciting to show everyone...

Everyone was guessing why the boss suddenty wanted to show them a "film" half an hour before kick-off. Who was in the right frame of mind to watch a film at this time?

Twain smiled and did not speak. After everyone entered the locker room, he switched off the lights and turned on the DVD projector and television.

After a brief moment of black on the screen, a sound rang out in the small space of the locker room:

"Ibrahimović!! Ibrahimović!! A beautiful turn and shot! Just three minutes into the game, Inter Milan have taken the lead in the most incredible way! Now Inter Milan are already 3:0 ahead of Nottingham Forest! Poor Nottingham Forest... Of course, they want to bring down Inter Milan at home, but they did not expect to concede another goal. It's not easy to play this game..."

The expressions of many of the Forest players in the locker room changed. They had made plenty of guesses about the film, but no one expected the boss to show them this. The players who had experienced that game would not easily forget the humiliation. The home fans had actually booed the team they supported! They clearly had the drive but could not execute it. They could only run back and forth behind the opponent. The pace of the game was controlled by Inter Milan right from the beginning. They did not even have the power to fight back.

Twain did not even have to worry about the Forest players who had not played the game. Dunn's excellent clip was enough to give them an immersive experience of that 0:3 game.

Three minutes into the match, Ibrahimović had scored a goal. It was followed by another goal at the start of the second half. By this time, Inter Milan already had a 4:0 lead over Nottingham Forest and had scored two away goals. Nottingham Forest needed to score at least five goals in the remaining forty minutes if they wanted to qualify, and they could not afford to let their opponents score again. It was an impossible task for a team like the Forest team.

Eventually, there were fans in the stands who could not stand the ordeal and emitted shrill boos. Finally, the sporadic boos joined together and became an unstoppable mainstream voice. The commentator's voice sounded even more piercing amid the booing. "Even since Tony Twain became the manager of this team, there has never been anything like it in a game. The fans, labeled as the most loyal fans in the Premier League, are actually booing their home team... I don't even know what to say... The Nottingham Forest players' performances are really terrible!"

The players who had played in that game seemed to go back to that day and relive the scene, which made them all bow their heads and not want to watch the television screen. If possible, they even wanted to cover their ears. The booing was so shrill that it was as if there were needles poking at their hearts.tydfss

The players who joined the team later understood when matters better when they watched the game. To Nottingham Forest, who had been the defending champions at the time, it had been a heavy blow for a team that had been successful, fearless and thought that the whole world was in their hands...

On the video, they saw Samuel. "In the chaos in front of the goal, Samuel has got the ball. There's no Nottingham Forest player around him! It's incredible! 3:0! Inter Milan lead Nottingham Forest by 5:0! The game ends in twenty minutes, but I'd say... looking at the performance of the Nottingham Forest players, the game is now over way ahead of schedule."

No one could stare indifferently at the screen after hearing that, except for Tony Twain.

The coaches, including Dunn and Kerslake, averted their eyes from the television screen. They did not want to relive the nightmare either.

Twain was the devil for forcing them to recall such a cruel game. And he was still smiling. The light from the television screen shone on Twain's face. His expression was definitely a smile!

After the video clip of the game finished playing, Twain did not turn on the lights immediately. Instead, he told everyone in the dark with his hoarse voice why he had shown them this.

In this kind of environment, his voice sounded as if it came from the depths of hell. It was hoarse, sometimes low, sometimes sharp, and uncomfortable to listen to.

"Is anyone still speculating as to why I'm showing you something like this? I know that this game is definitely not a 'good memory' for some people. I just hope you know that we can laugh at some failures and they will pass. Some failures we absolutely cannot forget! What do you do if the enemy wants to humiliate you? Obediently climb through under his pants?! No! That's not our style! You should use your head to knock him in the testicles as you climb under his pants! Knock him to the ground and stamp with your feet! Stamp! Crush! Until his balls burst! If you don't want this game to happen again to you, if you don't want your own supporters to switch sides and cheer for your opponent, if you don't want the enemy to mock you as a bunch of sissies after they beat you, then remember to win this game! We lost three-nil! It's like being pinned under and attacked by eleven strong men, too powerless to fight back! Do you like the idea of that? I don't like it! I feel sick!"

Twain did not turn on the lights in the locker room until he had finished speaking.

The light was restored instantly and many people's eyes did not adjust to it immediately. They covered their faces and squinted their eyes to hide in the shadows.

"How does it feel to be back to reality?" Tony Twain's tone and emphasis did a one hundred and eighty-degree turn when he opened his mouth again, completely without the previous tone sternness and rebuke. His narrowed eyes and smiling face looked really harmless. But anyone who knew him was aware that this version of Tony Twain was more dangerous. "A lot of you must be relieved—fortunately it was only a dream, right? But dreams and reality are closely linked. Now that Inter Milan is at our door, is this still a dream? If you're not careful, the nightmare just now will come back! I don't want to hear the boos from the home fans on my own pitch. I'll never want that in my lifetime ever! You know what to do, don't you?"

"Yes, boss!" Was there any fool who would say "I don't know?"

"That's great." Twain put his hands together and said, "Remember the feeling you had in the dark just now. Never forget it, guys! That's the most valuable asset of your career..."