Chapter 567: Wood’s Substitute

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The purchase of Rafinha boosted morale. While the fans paid little attention to Bundesliga, both Twain and people within football circles knew that there were a lot of geniuses in Bundesliga, and Rafinha was one of them. His arrival strengthened the team’s strength on the right flank. Rafinha was able to cope with both offense and defense.

Since coming to Russia, Rafinha had quickly thrown himself in the team’s daily training. Twain was not worried about how the Brazilian would fit in with the team. It should not be a problem with a fellow Brazilian like Pepe around.

So far, most of the players on the Twain’s list had basically been signed. The front line, midfield and rear defensive line had the considerably strong players, whether they were the main or substitute players. There was only one problem left that had been bothering Twain all this time that needed to be resolved — the issue of George Wood’s substitute.

Last season, Twain deployed Sun Jihai as Wood’s substitute. His performance was adequate, but it was also average. Sun Jihai tried very hard, but it could not be helped that there was a huge gap in their abilities. When up against stronger teams, his performance was not very reassuring. Moreover, as he grew older, Sun Jihai’s stamina and physical functionalities were declining, and Sun Jihai was plagued by injuries last season. They were not major injuries, but enough to alarm Twain.

He did not sell Sun Jihai because he recognized Sun Jihai’s sportsmanship and his ability to play multiple positions as a utility player. If he sold Sun Jihai, he might need to bring in a substitute with similar skills in multiple positions such as the right-back, defensive midfielder, left-back, right midfielder and many more.

After all, Sun Jihai was not specialized as a defensive midfielder. Twain decided to bring in a proper midfielder to strengthen the team. This midfielder had to meet several requirements:

To be able to accept being a substitute player and not get angry with the manager because he sat on the bench for a few games.

Although he was to play as a substitute, he had to have strong abilities and be strong enough. To be a substitute on the Forest team, he had to at least be the main force in mid-tiered teams in the English Premier League.

His salary requirements and transfer fee could not be high so that it would not add onto the team’s financial burden. Once Twain decided to let him go, he would not be criticized for losing too much money.

He would preferably be English to facilitate the team’s eligibility to register for the Champions League. It would also be an indication that he passed the English Premier League level test and could adapt to the league.

Twain was very strict with these four requirements and would not yield at all. After all, this player’s substitute position was the team’s backbone and the most important part of the team. It was more important than both the striker and the goalkeeper. He would prefer to go without than to accept a shoddy option.

As a result, the team had not been unable to find the right person.

Until after the end of last season.

If anyone could recall the time when George Wood represented the Nottingham Forest First Team and who his opponent was, this candidate would not be unfamiliar.

During the 03-04 season, the second half of the Football League First Division (later known as the English Football League Championship), George Wood was transferred to the First Team by Twain and made his debut in the game against Reading. At the time, he wore the number 33 jersey.

Reading was the team that made a deep impression in Twain’s coaching career, not to mention that they had played against the Forest team in the Football League First Division many times, or the personal feud between their manager Steve Coppell and Twain. For example, last season’s shocking “football violence scandal” that rocked the world in September caused a deep hatred to be forged between the two teams. When the two teams met in the Premier League for the second time, the police force in charge of maintaining order in the stadium was on high alert. Six members of the Referees’ Association were sent to oversee the enforcement of the game, despite the fact that it was usually only two people per game.

Even with such a background, the substitute player that Twain was interested in was a Reading player.

A former product of Arsenal youth academy, Steve Sidwell, had not been put in an important position by the Arsenal manager, Wenger, and was always on loan to lower league teams. In January 2003, Wenger formally decided to give up the England Under-21 national footballer and sold him to Reading at a low price. No one expected that playing in the Football League First Division would make Sidwell progress quickly and soon he had firmly won over the Reading manager, Steve Coppell, to become the absolute mainstay of the team’s midfield.

During Wood’s wonderful defensive performance in his debut, it was Steve Sidwell who was knocked to the ground by him.

Due to his position on the field, whenever the Forest team encountered the Reading team in a game, the poor Sidwell would meet with “the monster” George Wood again and again. The best case scenario would be to lose control of the ball, whereas a worse case would be being knocked over and then helping his team to get a free kick. The worst was he would be knocked to the ground and the referee would also turn a blind eye to it. Because Wood did not foul at all!

Naturally, Sidwell’s abilities could not be judged based on the criterion of comparing the two men one-on-one. In fact, to be able to secure the main position at Reading, appear in thirty-five games in Reading’s first Premier League season, be in the starting lineup for all of them, and score dead balls were considered remarkable results.

At the same time, he had attracted the attention of English teams because of his performance. Nottingham Forest was one of them.

Although the first game and this season’s game against the Forest team produced terrible consequences, Sidwell was not directly involved in the entire conflict and Twain was not afraid that Sidwell would be isolated within the locker room after he was bought.

It was common to purchase players from the enemy ranks in professional football.

When Luís Figo played in Barcelona, he was Barcelona’s captain and a leader in the fight against Real Madrid. He breached Real Madrid’s goal several times and was a hero in the minds of the Barcelona fans.

And remember what happened after Barcelona won the league title a few years later under the leadership of Rijkaard? At Barcelona’s championship celebrations, the striker, Eto’o, who graduated from Real Madrid’s youth camp, shouted in front of tens of thousands of people, “Real Madrid’s scumbags and cowards, come and pay homage to the champion!”

This remark infuriated a number of Real Madrid people, but in fact it was Luís Figo who first shouted it out. While Eto’o imitated his seniors, Luís Figo had already turned into the embrace of Real Madrid, Barcelona’s nemesis in 2001.

Even earlier than Figo to turn to the nemesis’ arms was the former Real Madrid midfielder, Luis Enrique. He later became a banner character in Barcelona.

Twain was not worried about Sidwell’s Reading background, and because he was a Reading player, he had to find a way to snatch him up.

Why did he want to snatch him up?

Because Sidwell’s contract with Reading was up after the end of the 06-07 season. His agent did not renew his contract with Reading. He wanted to find a team with more prospects than Reading for Sidwell.

Chelsea was the first to express their appreciation of Sidwell. Due to the continued deterioration in Mourinho’s relationship with Abramovich, Abramovich did not want to continue to invest in the transfer market, forcing the Portuguese manager to search for only free players. Sidwell was one of them.

Once he heard that Chelsea was going to snatch up Sidwell, Twain immediately contacted Sidwell’s agent to express to him Nottingham Forest’s attention on the twenty-five-year-old midfielder.

Arteta had not left yet and the Forest team did not go all out to work on the signing of Sidwell.

Things were different now. Arteta’s departure had left the team short of a good player who could be a substitute in the defensive midfielder position. Sidwell was the perfect fit for Twain’s series of requirements. The Forest team had also accelerated the pace of contact with the other party’s agent.

Chelsea and Sidwell might have signed a personal contract if the Forest team had not gotten involved. But the addition of the European champion allow Sidwell’s agent to have a good discussion with the clubs in pursuit of his player.

Sidwell was a clear-headed, professional player who knew what he wanted. Initially, when he heard that Chelsea was interested in him, he excitedly told his agent that he was going to Stamford Bridge no matter what it took because it was a powerhouse club with the best group of star players on the planet.

However, when he learned that the Forest team, which had just won the Champions League title, was also interested in him, he immediately changed his tune. Going to Nottingham Forest was also a good option.

Nottingham Forest, which had just won the Champions League, was no longer the provincial team that was despised a few years ago. It was now about to become a powerhouse club.

Franck Ribéry, Ruud van Nistelrooy, David Beckham, Edwin van der Sar, George Wood… Which of these players were not one of the best players in their respective positions?

Coupled with what this team had just achieved, it was hard not to have interest in this team.

The agent did not immediately give an answer to the several teams pursuing Sidwell. He only said that the answer would be given after vacation was over. It was clear that the other competing clubs were not attractive enough in front of Chelsea and Nottingham Forest. Now it was just a matter of choosing between Chelsea or Nottingham Forest.

The Forest team left early for their training in Moscow, and someone in the club continued to be in charge of contacting Sidwell’s agent to discuss with him a contract that was satisfactory to both sides.

Chelsea agreed to a re-negotiation, but they did not know the terms given by the other team. Whether they could satisfy Sidwell or not, they could only wait for him to respond.

On July 13th, Sidwell’s agent officially announced that his client, the former Reading team’s main midfielder, Steve Sidwell, had accepted a 60,000 pound weekly salary contract from Nottingham Forest and would become a member of Nottingham Forest in the new season. He had now flown to Moscow for a physical examination before joining the team for the training.

The Forest team’s final weekly salary for Sidwell was sixty thousand pounds whereas Chelsea had offered fifty thousand. This amount of ten thousand pounds became the deciding factor. Sidwell wanted to make more money while undergoing high-level football training and Nottingham Forest met his wishes. Therefore, he chose the Forest team and turned down Chelsea.

Twain was delighted to learn that Sidwell had become his man. This signing was like using a stone to hit three birds. Not only did he not spend a penny to strengthen the team, increase the abilities in the midfield bench as well as to poach Coppell’s most valued player from the Reading team, he also struck Coppell’s arrogance. Finally, Twain had beaten his old rival, Mourinho’s Chelsea, in in the transfer market.

There was no better result than this.

※※※

Sidwell came to the Forest team’s training base outside Moscow with some trepidation, because the whole world knew about the feud between the two teams last season. He did not know what his new teammates would think of him as the man who just came out of the Reading team.

Since George Wood was always touted by the media as an overbearing fiend who was simple-minded, all brawns and no brains, short-tempered, only knew how to frequently foul and be sent off, Sidwell did not know if he would be shunned by the captain, Wood, in the locker room.

He eventually arrived at the training ground. After Twain routinely introduced Sidwell to the team, Wood took over and introduced Sidwell to his new teammates in a tone that he had used to try to appear calm, but came off as cold and detached.

No one spoke of the feud between the two teams last season. Sidwell was relieved when Ribéry and Eastwood joked with Sidwell as soon as they met. Sidwell admired the team that had won the UEFA Champions League, and he did not want to be shunned here because of some things connected with his former club.

As the biggest star in the team, Beckham was also approachable and had no airs in front of Sidwell. Looking at the interaction between him and the others, they all got along very well. Sidwell was completely reassured.

The only person who looked unhappy was Pepe, who was injured twice in the games against Reading. The second injury nearly prevented him from playing in the Champions League final. How could he have forgotten such a painful experience? He merely shook hands with Sidwell and said nothing else.

Sidwell did not care. It was impossible to get along with everyone on a team. There was bound to teammates who were always going to be particularly good and those who were not that great. He was mentally prepared for this.

※※※

Sidwell’s signing did not cost the team a penny, but the Forest team, who still had large sums of money left, decided not to continue their search for new players. Twain told Evan and Allan that the Forest team’s current lineup was enough, not to mention that they worked well together and did not require any major adjustments. In Twain’s words, “this is the championship-class team.”

Then Twain set out to renew the contracts with the players in the team. After they won the Champions League title, the Forest team was in the position to raise the players’ salaries. Since Sidwell, a substitute player for the Forest team, had a weekly salary of 60,000 pounds, the main players of the Forest team would not be likely to live with their previous salary standards.

Franck Ribéry, Eastwood, Pepe, Piqué, Bale, Baines, Chimbonda and the others were given new contracts, and the salary packages on them were satisfactory to everyone, so they signed them.

Having won the Champions League title, the Forest team was not a poor and lowly team anymore. Twain was also aware that these players had to be offered new contracts that would satisfy them. Otherwise, no matter how loyal the players were, they could still be poached by their opponents’ high salaries.

The broad contract extension was actually Twain’s response to the swirl of rumors about the transfers.

With the success of the Forest team in the Champions League, the players in the team had also become high-profile targets in the transfer market. Twain did not want his team to be divided by those powerhouse clubs’ covetous eyes on them. To the outside world, the way he treated all kinds of transfer rumors was simple and crude —”not for sale.”

Just as he said there was nothing in the world that was “not for sale”, he had made his entire team “not for sale.”

There was really no good way to deal with such a shameless scoundrel. He insisted on not selling and the club was behind him on this. The players’ current relationship with the manager was like that of a newlywed, stuck together like glue. How could there be a turncoat? In any case, the Forest team was now at its best. They had a chance to create new achievements that were more brilliant than last season’s.

That was what Twain said to his players, and his players believed it.

One Champions League title was not enough. After all, they had not yet won the league title, and had not dipped a finger in the Football Association Challenge Cup championship.

Continuing to motivate them with honor was a means used by Twain internally. Another means was the extensive renewal that had just been mentioned.

Glory would quickly disappear in the future. Contracts were the most effective way.

After all the First Team players were confirmed for the new season, the Forest team officially started to train as a team. Once all the new players got to experience the legendary ” madmen originator” Brian Clough’s successor, Tony Twain’s manner firsthand, they were put into the training for the Forest team’s overall tactics. Defense was still a top priority, which was is the Forest team’s “pièce de résistance.” However, the team also paid more attention to the team’s offense tactics in the event of positional play.

As the defending champion of the Champions League, the Forest team might face opponents that could choose to use defensive counterattack against them whether in Europe or in the league tournament.

At that time, the issues on how to break the compact defense and how to deal with the other side’s quick counterattack after a solid defense were what Twain and his coaching staff needed to address.

But Twain did not worry, as he had confidence in his squad and the entire team behind him. This team was currently so imposing and powerful that there was nothing to stop the Forest team from charging ahead.

AC Milan could not, and neither could Real Madrid.

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