Chapter 5: My legend is still here (Part 1)

After the league champion Arsenal defeated the Cup champion Liverpool and won the Charity Shield Cup, the 2018-2019 season of the English Football Super League officially entered the countdown.

Everyone's attention in the new season is on the four traditional Premier League giants, and Manchester United and Arsenal have still received the most attention. No one has ever talked about the world championship that England just won, let alone what Tony Don decided to retire because of why.

Don Eun, who often takes his daughter out shopping, will be surrounded by fans and ask for a photo and autograph after being recognized by the fans, and no media has come to harass him. Don Eun doesn’t like the media, but he likes to deal with the fans very much. Especially with Nottingham fans, because this is his home court, and every fan here looks like a friend.

Of course, there are moments that make Don En feel embarrassed. For example, fans often ask him when they say hello to him: "Are you back, Tony?"

Tang En knew what they meant by asking this. Now the Nottingham Forest is in a mess, and everyone hopes that a powerful character will come out to save the team. After thinking about it, the only one who can convince them is Tony Tang En.

Faced with such enthusiastic fans, Tang En was unwilling to let them be sad and disappointed, but on the other hand, he couldn't take back what he said. He could only shake his head and smile helplessly: "I don't know, who can tell the future exactly?" He just made excuses.

Later, Donn received a call from John Motterson: "Tony, are you interested in coming to BBC5?"

Like CCTV5, BBC5 is a special sports station. The English national team's games are broadcasted by BBC5. In every World Cup and European Cup competition, Don En briefly signed BBC5 to serve as a commentator. However, since he became the head coach of the England team, the two sides have never cooperated like this again.

"Go to bbc5?" Tang En was a little surprised, but he immediately understood. Last year, bbc ended up laughing in the battle with Sky TV, Independent TV and other broadcasting agencies, and bought some of the live broadcast rights for Premier League events. They were recruiting soldiers everywhere, and Tang En, a commentator who was very popular among the audience, naturally had to recruit through Motson and him.

"Well, comment on the Premier League in the new season. Are you interested?"

"Ah, John... I haven't had enough rest yet." Tang En shook his head and refused. "I have just retired for two months. How could the rest time I have saved over the past ten years be here in two months?"

"What a pity..." Motson knew Don Eun's temper. If he didn't want to. Then no matter how much you said, it would be a waste of saliva. He only regretted that he had lost such an interesting commentary in the Premier League game in the new season.

The day after Motson called, Martin Taylor also called, and it was the same thing as Motson, asking him to join the Premier League commentary lineup for the new season of Sky TV. Although Taylor had retired long ago, he worked for Sky TV for more than 20 years, and even if he retired, he still thought about Sky TV. It is reasonable to come out to recruit talents for Sky TV.

But... Tang En still refused. The reason was the same: he hadn't had enough rest.

In fact, he knew very well. If he left his head coaching position, then going to the TV station is a good choice. However, on the one hand, he likes this kind of leisurely life, and on the other hand, he also has to take care of Teresa. My daughter has just been in the UK for more than half a month, so how could he leave her daughter and go to work? Shania works outside. He can be a "housewife" now. Anyway, the family is not short of money for a while, so there is no need to rush out to make money to support her family.

The new season of the Premier League kicked off on August 17, with Manchester United hosting the newly promoted Wolves at home. Manchester United won easily at home 2:0.

The next day, the Premier League was fully launched. Nottingham Forest also welcomed their first opponent in the new season - Everton at home.

Although the Forest team performed poorly, the ticket revenue before the new season is still considerable. The season tickets sold 38,000 units, which is not much different from the previous seasons. During the most glorious period of Nottingham Forest, due to the small capacity of the city stadium itself, the sales figures of local season tickets at that time now have no reference value. Although the 38,000 units are less than 10,000 units compared with Manchester United's 55,000 units, considering the size of Nottingham itself, it is already amazing to have such results.

The small ones see the big ones, and there is no problem with the management of Nottingham Forest. So Evan also has the capital to bargain with those consortiums.

The sales of season tickets can also show how the fans of Nottingham Forest are hard-working. Even if they are dissatisfied with the club's senior management, they still choose to support the team. However, some people explain the reason why they are so keen on buying season tickets: "Just treat Evan Dogette, who spends 35 pounds at home to scold the damn Evan Dogette."

This statement has a market share among the Forests fans, who formed a radical fan group called "Dog Day Evan". Among the slogans that insulted Evan Dogerty in the stands, this group accounted for the majority.

After using Don Eun’s own cooking lunch, Don Eun looked at Teresa sitting on the floor playing with rag dolls and asked, “Tresa, is it okay if Dad takes you out to play this afternoon?”

"Okay." Teresa stopped what she was doing and looked up at Tang En. She rarely objected and was very well-behaved.

"Dad, okay?" Tang En took you to the game, right?" He took out two tickets from behind like magic. He shook in front of Teresa's eyes.

Teresa tilted her head and thought for a moment. She realized what her father was talking about, and then she nodded again: "Okay."

Tang En was overjoyed. He quickly picked up Teresa and kissed her pink face hard.

"Let's go now!" He carried Teresa out and got into the car, heading towards the Crimson Field, southwest of Nottingham.

In fact, Tang En didn't really want to take his daughter out to watch the football, but he wanted to watch the football on site, but he couldn't leave his daughter alone at home. That was too dangerous. So he just brought it out together to let her experience the atmosphere of the football game. Maybe Teresa will still fall in love with football in the future? Her mother doesn't like football. Then let her like it, at home at that time, he will win.

As a coach who has coached at Nottingham Forest for 11 years, even though he was not a Forest fan before, he is now the most hardcore Forest fan. Those hardcore fans have devoted their feelings to Forest, but he himself is not? No matter how disappointed he is now, whether he is still the Forest coach, even in the four years he was the national team coach. He bought the Forest Season Ticket every season.

In fact, he has never watched the ball in the Forest's home stand as an ordinary fan. When he can watch the ball in the stand, there are generally two types: the first is that when he was still the head coach of the Forest, he was sent to the stand because he contradicted the referee and criticized the FA. The other is that after he became the head coach of the England team, he came to observe the performance of the England international in the Forest. In short, they have nothing to do with an "ordinary fan".

The so-called watching football as an "ordinary fan" means that when he watches the football, he does not analyze the tactical use of both sides, is not allowed to find loopholes in their floor, and does not think about how to correct these problems during the halftime break or the next game... Anyway, it is right to free his thinking from the head coaching model.

When Tang En thought of letting go of those heavy burdens, he felt very happy and was humming small songs while driving.

Sitting in the passenger seat. Teresa, wearing a seat belt, looks a bit like a doll. She turned her head to look at her father, probably not understanding why he was so happy. Because she was logically speaking, she should be the happiest person.

After arriving at the stadium, Tang En was not in a hurry to go down. He first put on his sunglasses, then put on a baseball cap, then raised his collar, and also put on a pair of toad sunglasses for Teresa, covering half of her face, and then put on a milline's hat for her to look carefully. After confirming that it was impossible to be recognized at first glance, he opened the car door, hugged Teresa and sneaked into the crowd, and walked towards the stadium.

Following the crowd, Tang En looked up at the huge exterior wall of the crimson court. This was the first time he had the leisure to slowly appreciate the appearance of the new stadium outside. He used to have a dedicated channel - the head coach of the national team came here to watch the game, and he would definitely not be allowed to line up with ordinary fans to enter the court.

It seems that it took six years to start. The stadium that caused frequent changes in the team was really magnificent... No wonder Evan confidently called him "the top stadium in the world". He was magnificent just looking at the exterior wall. The feeling of playing inside can be imagined. It's a pity... Such an excellent stadium witnessed the destruction of Nottingham Forest in one season is worse than that of a season.

Tang En sighed softly. He turned his head to look at the fans around him.

The new season is about to begin. No matter how the Forest team performed last season, they are still full of hope. For them, the club's senior management and the team are separated. Many people are talking about today's game with great enthusiasm. For example, how will George Wood perform, and whether Aaron Mitchel will score a goal...

The discussion was very exciting, but it was transferred to the head coach.

"McCaulist is not good at all...Look at what coaches the club hires? Nottingham Forest has won five European Champions League teams, how could anyone be the head coach?"

"That's right, right. I don't think there is someone else who can manage the locker room in the Forest Team..."

"It's a pity that Tony retires...I retire when I'm less than fifty..."

"It would be great if he could come back..."

"Yeah yeah!"

...

Teresa, who was held in Tang En's arms, suddenly fell to Tang En's ear and said to him: "Dad, are they calling you?"

Donne suddenly felt embarrassed. Two months ago, he had not introduced his previous career to Teresa. On the one hand, he felt that Teresa was still young and might not be able to understand what the "football coach" did; on the other hand, he had retired, so there was no need to mention what he did before.

Some time ago, I always took Teresa to Kenny's bar. Fatty John's group of people always called "Tony" and "Tony". Teresa completely remembered this word. She was still young. I don't know that there are thousands of people in this world called "Tony", and I thought that only my father was called "Tony".

"Uh... no, they said it was another 'Tony'." Tang En didn't want to explain more here because he was afraid that the people next to him would recognize him. Because he was guilty, he pulled down his hat again. "Let's go in, Teresa."

After holding his daughter, he climbed up the steps step by step and finally entered the interior of this giant, Tang En did not rush to find his own actions. He stood at the entrance, and the situation ahead and below were clearly visible. Opposite was a packed stand, and the players from both sides were warming up in the green field below. The fans of the two teams gathered in their own local formations one after another, competing with each other.

Tang En is not unfamiliar with this scene, but when he looks at it from another angle, he still feels a little excited - this is football!

Teresa, who was held in Don't, suddenly stretched out her hands and covered her ears. For her, the stadium was too noisy... You should know that Schalke 04's home fans once set a record. The decibels of their shouting at a certain period exceeded the noise of the jets when they took off. The Crimson Field was not behind.

Fortunately, Tang En was ready, so he took out a furry headphone and put it on Teresa, and the noise suddenly weakened a lot.

"Let's go. Baby." Tang En gently patted Teresa's little face and hugged her and walked down.

Fans around responded to the call from the home broadcast, stood up and sang loudly, and expressed their "welcome" to the Everton fans who came from afar. Don Eun only buried his head in looking for his seat. But Teresa lay on his shoulder, very curious about these things, no longer as scared as when she came in. Instead, she looked around and looked like a curious baby.

After finding the seat, Tang En sat down quietly, and did not stand up and shout the slogan "Everton to die" like the people around him.

In fact, the stadium is not a good place to bring children to play, because it is full of various swear words and swear words. It is easy for children to learn bad things. Tang En remembered that when he was a Chinese fan, a picture circulated widely on the Internet, which was a photo of a child wearing an English jersey raising a middle finger at the camera in the stands, and looking at the child's lip shape, it was clearly yelling "fuck".

But Teresa still doesn't understand the incomprehensible Nottingham local accent slang.

When the players entered the court, every starter of Nottingham Forest received warm cheers from home fans. Even after a while, Don Eun kept a low profile, he shouted with the people around him - on the one hand, because he was infected by the atmosphere at that time, and on the other hand, everyone stood up and shouted "St. George!" You sat firmly on the chair. That was the biggest "not low-key".

Seeing Wood's back in the stands, Tang En was quite relieved and proud. This kid is already the leader of the team and is a little domineering.

Unexpectedly, Teresa recognized Wood.    Donn had taken her to visit Sophia and Wood’s family after returning to the UK.                                                                                                          �

Fortunately, everyone was a hundred times more excited than her at this time, and no one noticed the strangeness of this little girl, which surprised Tang En - but when he saw Wood, he could recognize it by looking at his back. Teresa's memory is really good!

Turning his eyes to the stadium again, the players on both sides had already appeared. They were lined up on both sides of the referee and asked the media to take photos. Tang En looked at him and found that most of the Nottingham Forest was someone he felt strange to.

Strange does not mean that he doesn't know what those people are called or where they play.

Instead, his understanding of these people is limited to knowing their names and where they are playing.

Thinking about the group of people ten years ago, even if they were a substitute, he felt as familiar with them as if they were family members. They stood together and they were a whole, a red area with the words "Nottingham Forest" written on it.

What about now?

They stood there, but they were just eleven unrelated individuals. George Wood, Mario Balotelli, Gareth Bale, Nkuru, Joe Matok, Chris Cohen... They stood there one by one, but couldn't form a team.

The fans around them were still shouting: "Forest Forest! Nottingham Forest!!"
Chapter completed!