Godfather Of Champions

Tang En stood in Wilford Lane, which was shaded by the trees with the incessant song of the cicadas above him. To the north of him was the youth team training ground and to the south was the adult team training ground. Both training grounds were quiet and deserted today.

He knew that the adult team would only begin the formal training tomorrow, and the youth team was still on holiday. Other than the staff, there would be no one else in these two grounds. For them, their long and beautiful vacation was not over yet.

Tang En walked in from the gate of the youth training ground. There was not a single car in the parking lot and the office building door was closed. Both his feet felt hot as he walked on the asphalt road with the scorching afternoon sun beating down on it. Today might be the hottest day of the year.

He skirted around the two-story building and walked toward the sidelines of the first field, and it was empty with no one around. The first and third fields were connected and separated in the middle by wire mesh fence up to seven meters in high. Tang En looked out and saw that there was no one on the third field either. It seemed that the youth team was still on holiday.

Tang En stood on the empty training ground. If he chose to stay, this would become his domain, and Kerslake would become his assistant again. But what good was it to lead the youth team matches? Tang En was feeling a little depressed. In his eyes, the sense of achievement brought by the youth team\'s match victory was no more than one third of that of the adult team. As he was accustomed to being the focus of attention, what was the point, even, if he led the youth team to win the Youth FA Cup championship?

He looked at the field and decided to leave.

He came to a forked road when he stepped out from the first field. If he went straight ahead, he would return to the main gate. If he turned right, it would lead to the northernmost side of the second field. The quality of the turf in the second field was not very good, so it was rarely used.

Tang En had a completely different feeling from everyone else regarding the second field. He had only been on the second field once after he started coaching the Forest team. That experience occupied an important place in his memory. He had met the adorable Gavin there, and George Wood also gained his first fan.

It was a place of sadness for Tang En. All the events of great joy and sadness for the latter half of the 02-03 season started to turn from there.

Standing at the fork in the road, Tang En felt that all this seemed to reflect the choices he had to face now—move forward and leave the training ground, leave the sleeping Forest; or go right ...What does it mean to go right?

Tang En looked at the path that had been extended to the front and hesitated. He then chose to go to the second field.

As he approached, he found that there was a man on the field, running back and forth between two cone markers.

It was George Wood!

Tang En did not think that he would see him here. Had the clock turned back the time? Was it not June 27th now, but March 21st? Well, there was something different, like Wood did not have a coach around him, and Tang En did not have Michael and his son Gavin beside him.

He stood outside the wire mesh and quietly watched Wood train. Wood did not discover his presence. He just continued to concentrate on doing the most basic exercises.

Tang En stood and watched for about 15 minutes before George Wood finally changed his training routine. He put the two cone markers together with about half a meter gap in the middle. Then he stood five meters away to kick the ball toward the cone markers. Tang En did not understand what he was trying to do. He also did not see this kind of training routine in Kerslake\'s youth team training or Walker\'s adult team training. He had intended to quietly walk away, but now he decided to stay. He wanted to see what was going on.

Wood kicked the ball 10 times. He was obviously not training to shoot the goal, because he was deliberately suppressing the speed and power of his delivery and was very careful about his accuracy. If the football shot past in between or outside of the two cone markers, he would shake his head. If the ball hit the cone marker, he would make a fist.

Then Wood changed his angle and positioned himself at a 45-degree angle to the cone markers to repeat the 10 ball kicks. As before, most of his shots would pass the sides of the cone markers and only very few finally hit the target.

Tang En looked at the distance between the two markers, and then he looked down at his legs and separated them slightly, about half a meter apart. It was exactly the length of the gap between a man\'s legs when he stood with his legs apart!

This kid was trying to practice passing on his own!

The end of June was the hottest time of the year in Nottingham. In the empty training ground, only George Wood was hard at work and training. The hot season, bad weather, relaxing vacation... he was unconcerned with all of these. And because it was during the vacation, the training ground would not provide a lunch specifically for him. He had to make several round trips between here and his house every day. His training jersey had been soaked with perspiration many times over, so he simply took off his jersey and hung it on the goal crossbar every time he started training and trained shirtless. His muscular, tense body seemed to contain an explosive force. Every time Wood unleashed an action, the sweat would run down his clearly-defined body. His entire person would glisten with brilliance under the scorching sun.

George... If you can\'t succeed, then no one in the world canl succeed!

In order not to disturb Wood\'s training, he quietly left the remote training ground surrounded by the woods. Looking up at the sky, Tang En decided to go to one last place.

Nottingham was a city built on hills, with undulating and varied terrains. The church in front of Tang En was built on a small hill. The bricked chapel was not as grand and exquisite as the famous St. Mary\'s Church in the city center. Like the buildings surrounding it, the ash grey fa?ade was not very impressive. But under the clear blue sky, the chapel, which stood on the green grass, made him feel comfortable. He felt calm just looking at its fa?ade.

Tang En went around the church and walked along a gravel road through the woods. He came to a cemetery surrounded by a forest.

To his surprise, a man was standing in front of Gavin Bernard\'s tombstone.

"Michael!" He shouted, breaking the quiet atmosphere of the cemetery.

The man turned around and was somewhat surprised to find that the man who had called him was Twain. "Tony? What are you doing here?"

Tang En stepped forward and placed a bouquet of lilies in front of the tombstone. "I came here to do exactly what you came here to do. It\'s been more than a month, how are you feeling?"

Michael shook his head. He was still in low spirits. "Tony, it\'s just as well that I ran into you here. I was planning to say goodbye to you."

"Goodbye?" Tang En sensed something was not quite right in the air. "Why are you saying goodbye? Where are you going?"

"Los Angeles."

"America?!" Tang En exclaimed. "Why are you going so far away?"

Michael looked at his son\'s gravestone and slowly said, "I forgot to tell you that my wife is American. She can\'t bear the pain and grief of staying here and thinking of Gavin all the time. Now Nottingham is a place of sadness for our family. Everything she sees reminds her of Gavin, the house, the yard, the street outside our door, a neighbor, even a football match... I don\'t want her to cry all day long. I want to take her form here and return to her hometown. Perhaps it will be better."

Tang En frowned. "What about Gavin?"

"Gavin is not like us." Michael knelt to brush away a few fallen leaves off the tombstone. Then he looked at the golden name on the white marble tombstone. "I can change my feelings about football for my family. But he won\'t. He\'ll always be a Forest fan. From birth to death, he will always be."

After those words, he stood up again and said to Twain, "You must be feeling pretty happy? You don\'t have to be afraid that someone will abuse you in the back of the technical area the next season."

Tang En gave a wry smile. "Michael, don\'t you even read the football news anymore? I was sacked by the new chairman of the Forest team, and my agency contract has expired."

Michael did not expect this answer, and he stared at Twain in astonishment for a long while to make sure he was not joking. "Damn it! Where will you go? The youth team? Or...?"

Tang En shook his head. "I have asked myself these questions many times in the last two days, and I still haven\'t got an answer."

"Are you here looking for answers?"

"I don\'t know."

"Tony, would you like to hear the advice of an old fan who used to follow the Forest team for 44 years?"

Tang En looked up at Michael.

"Although I have decided to leave football, I still recall the first half of my life. The time that I will miss the most, besides Clough\'s era, is that half of the season when you led the team. Both of you have some similarities, such as passion and attention to details. You are both full of talent and many conditions required for success. I still remember that day Clough came to the team was January 3rd, 1975, and you came on January 1st, a difference of only two days. What a shame. We all may have missed a very legendary story." Michael patted Twain\'s shoulder and walked past him.

"Goodbye, Tony."

"Goodbye, Michael." Tang En stared blankly as the man gradually faded away in the distance.

After his strange arrival in that place, he was in a bar fight with that man, and then they became good friends. In this unfamiliar place, Michael gave him a lot of help that could not be thanked with just words. He had wanted to repay Michael\'s friendship with achievements, but all that vanished with the accident.