803 The Puppet Master

"To all our friends and spectators: welcome to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals of the 10-11 season. We are now broadcasting the high-profile game live for you at the City Ground stadium, with Nottingham Forest taking on Barcelona at home!

"Well, we say it's the City Ground stadium, but I imagine a lot of people must think we're talking nonsense," the guest commentator next to him interjected.

The first commentator laughed. "I couldn't believe it at first—Nottingham Forest's pitch is so poor... Half a week ago, Nottingham Forest said that it was carrying out maintenance works and turf replacement. Who would have thought that the turf would turn out so bad a few days later? Are we watching a friendly match between Nottingham Forest and an amateur team?"

The guest cleared his throat and said, "Putting it that way, you'd better watch out for protests from Barcelona. You actually likened them to 'an amateur team.'"

"Ha!" The commentator laughed drily and hurriedly changed the subject. "There's still some time before the start of the game, and we've got the starting lineup from both sides. Barcelona's list is not surprising—an extension of the same one from the last round. Speaking of which, Tony Twain was really wronged by the Catalan media—he didn't really use any lethal tactics against Messi and the others. Messi, Bojan—even Iniesta, who had only just returned after recovering from his injury, is still in the starting lineup. George Wood also did not mark Messi in the last game, and his performance did not stand out."

"Well, let's take a look at Nottingham Forest... Will you look at that! Compared with Barcelona's consistency, the Nottingham Forest team has changed a lot!" The commentator raised his voice to deliberately evoke a sense of mystery.

"First of all, there's been a big adjustment in the rear defensive line. Leighton Baines was automatically suspended for one game due to his accumulation of yellow cards. His replacement is Joe Mattock, who is thought to be England's new star defender. Even though he's young, he already has a record of two appearances in the starting lineup for England's national team. Twain has put him in an important role since Gareth Bale's injury. He has received many opportunities to be in the starting lineup for the league tournament and is currently rotating with Baines in the left fullback position. With Baines currently suspended, he's naturally the one to replace him. This is not the first time he has played in the Champions League. But it is believed that this young player will still be a key target as Barcelona tries to break through, since they have Messi and Alves on this side. We can take a good look at young Joe Mattock's performance in this game. Hopefully, he will not betray Twain's trust...

"As for the center back here, Pepe is suspended due to a red card, and the player who is replacing him is Woodgate. His partner is Kompany. The right fullback has also been subbed out. Rafinha is said to have suffered some injuries in training, and so Nkoulou has appeared in this position. With a height of 1.88 meters, he can also play as the center back, and has played in both positions in the league tournament."

"In the midfield, Fernández has been suspended for accumulating yellow cards, like Baines. Twain has arranged for Lennon to play on the left and Bentley on the right. It's no surprise that Cohen isn't appearing in the starting lineup. The middle is still the unshakable George Wood and Tiago's partner. Since Twain started using the double defensive midfielder, Tiago has found a new lease on life. Şahin is not starting in this game because Tony Twain is not using his favorite lineup of late, the 4-5-1. Instead, he went back to the old 4-4-2 formation. All right, ladies and gentlemen, here comes the main highlight! Let's see who the two strikers are in the starting lineup!

"Agbonlahor!"

The guest commenter next to him chimed in to say, "There's no issue with it. Agbonlahor is very fast, and if Tony Twain wants to fight back, he's a very good player to deploy. Eastwood is also injured from training and is unable to play in this game. He had only a few strikers to choose from..."

"That's right, but they still have Ibišević. The 'Super Ibi,' who scored two goals in a row at Camp Nou, the second of which might have won the game for the Forest team if it hadn't been for the referee's whistle! But he's not on the starting list! Yes, you heard right. He's not on the starting list, and he's not injured. He's fit as a fiddle, in good shape, and can overcome Camp Nou. But he is not on the starting list. Why not? That, we don't know. Maybe Tony Twain, who is watching from the stands, would know. I believe that, if Nottingham Forest loses the game and is eliminated, the media will definitely bombard him with this question. Having jabbered on about all that, who is the player that replaced Ibišević?"

Aaron Mitchell's headshot and name appeared on the screen.

"That's right—it's this kid, Aaron Mitchell. The young striker, who was born on May 5th,1990, and is about to turn twenty-one, was only transferred from the reserves to the First Team by Twain in January of this season. He had made five appearances on the bench and one appearance in the starting lineup during the course of the league tournament, with a total of one hundred and seventeen minutes on the field. He has not made his debut in the Champions League, and appeared once in the starting lineup for the FA Cup, but did not score any goals. His record is as clean as a white piece of paper. That's not a good thing for a striker. What's more, before he became a striker, Aaron Mitchell played seven years of defense on the youth team and one year as a goalkeeper... It wasn't until the age of eighteen that he started playing as a striker at Twain's suggestion, and he was inconspicuous at that time. We don't have any information on hand about him. Maybe Tony Twain doesn't have, either. He was neither the player with the highest scoring rate in the youth team, nor an effective hitter who consistently scored in the Premier Reserve League. We know nothing other than he is very tall. Why would Tony Twain put such a player in the starting lineup for such an important game?"

※※※

The commentator's doubts were shared by all the media reporters. Due to Tony Twain's practice of not releasing the starting lineup until the last minute, they had just gotten the Forest team's squad list. Everyone was stunned by the name of the starting striker.

The English reporters took it slightly better. They at least knew who the written name was. "Aaron Mitchell has just made his Premier League debut in the last round, albeit without making any contribution to speak of." The media in Catalonia, Spain, were baffled. They even asked, "Is there such a player in the Nottingham Forest First Team?"

And the English media were not simply bound to nod and go "Oh, all right," when they know who Aaron Mitchell was.

In fact, their response was:

"Is Tony Twain crazy?! What's he doing? Ibišević is not injured and has no problem with his form. Why would he use this young boy?!"

"Lord knows. He's been acting out of character since his sudden outburst at Camp Nou..."

"No, I think he's become harder to pin down ever since he had a heart attack. Before that, he was like a hot-blooded young guy. Now, he is a sinister and cunning middle-aged man."

"Is he going through menopause?"

"I think he's covering his ass and getting ready for defeat in this game. Once he loses, he can put the blame on the boy—'I had high hopes for him, but his performance... Everybody saw it!'"

"You all seem to know Tony Twain well." retorted Pierce Brosnan, who had been quiet, but finally could not stand it.

"Ah, look who's here. The big reporter who knows Tony Twain the best, Pierce Brosnan. Are you saying that you have some inside information?"

Brosnan shook his head awkwardly and said, "I have no idea, either..."

A burst of laughter rang out in the crowd. "You have no idea, either? Today is full of surprises. I thought Mr. Tony Twain would give you some exclusive information!"

"Anyway, Tony Twain is not the kind of manager who will put the blame on the players after a defeat in the game." Brosnan might not have understood the industry's tactics, but he believed he knew Tony Twain's character better than these people. "He always places the blame on himself. I've only ever seen a few managers like that."

The reporters saw that Brosnan was quite serious. and suddenly found things dull—Everyone was joking just now. If you talk about it so gravely, it takes the fun out of it. You missed the point if you're being so serious!

The group dispersed, wondering doubtfully why Tony Twain had used Aaron Mitchell and not Ibišević, as they got ready to focus on the start of the game.

※※※

The outside media was guaranteed to examine Aaron Mitchell's performance with preconceived notions and be determined to find faults. But, in the home team's locker room, Mitchell did not feel any change in the mood.

It was a Champions League quarterfinal game, and he was part of the team. That was all.

Dunn was explaining, for the last time, their tactics and the things for everyone to take note of in the upcoming game.

After Dunn finished speaking, he suddenly turned on the television and DVD player, saying he wanted to show the players a video.

This surprised many people. They had watched videos of Barcelona's games countless times, and had long understood this opponent clearly. There was no need to watch any video with ten minutes to go before their appearance.

"This is not a video analysis of the opponent," Dunn explained, and then pressed the play button.

Suddenly the sort of clamor that could only exist in a stadium assaulted their senses. It did not seem to be coming from the tiny square of the screen on the TV rack.

"...Offside? Is the ball in an offside position? ... Barcelona scored! A beautiful counterattack! The Nottingham Forest players cannot believe their eyes. The referee invalidated one of their goals with a whistle and almost immediately ruled Barcelona's goal valid. The situation has turned around in an instant! ... Tony Twain is in a heated confrontation with the fourth official on the sidelines. He looks furious. If we copied the NBA and gave every manager a microphone, that would be fantastic... A red card! Tony Twain was sent off to the stands by the referee! The game has suddenly reached another climax near its end! The Nottingham Forest players surround the referee, but cannot change his mind. Their manager, Tony Twain, has been kicked off the pitch again!"

What he was showing on the screen was, of course, the mess that had happened in the final stages of their game.

After the video finished playing, Dunn said, "Tony wanted me to show you this segment of the video. He hoped that you would not forget how the other side treated us in the last game, and what we were made to suffer. We are slightly inferior in this match in terms of base strength, but he wants you to ignore this disparity and teach your opponent a hard lesson. Teach those who want us to lose... a good lesson!"

Although Dunn did his best, and tried very hard to display vehemence while speaking, he was, after all, not Twain. The impact of his speech was not as great. Fortunately, the players were outraged by the video they had just watched, because it had reminded them of the scene in the last moment of the first round. No one would feel comfortable after experiencing such a stinging defeat.

In fact, each of them had a ball of fire in their hearts. A week of closed-door training had not extinguished the fire gradually, but instead had made it burn brighter. Tony Twain had kept bringing up the matter all week and telling them that they had been insulted in the away-game, and so had to take revenge on their home turf.

It was now time for this ball of anger to explode!

The man sitting in the stands had been planning for a week to take revenge on this day. Even though he was not in the locker room, his influence was still there.

He had calculated everything: the transformation of the training ground, the notice to replace the turf in the City Ground stadium, the ongoing war of words with Barcelona, the repeatedly voiced connections between them and the UEFA to remind the public of the close relationship between the UEFA and Barcelona, the change in the formation and strikers, the use of a young player with whom Barcelona was completely unfamiliar, the video which served as a catalyst in the locker room at the last minute. Now everything was ready except for only one tiny, crucial detail.

If anyone thought that Nottingham Forest was finished and scattered because Tony Twain was banned, then they were gravely mistaken!

He was no longer simply the king of Nottingham Forest for the duration of the game. He was its puppet master...

Even if he was not working in a technical area, he could still control every detail of the team.

The moment that the Barcelona team filed out of the tunnel, they were, in Tony Twain's eyes, embarking on the road to Hell.

Hey, Mr. Guardiola, he thought, do you see the sea of red in front of you? That's not our Nottingham Forest fans. It's the red lava that spews out of the eighteen levels of hell! It's erupting and surging in front of your eyes. Do you feel the boiling heat hitting you in the face?

Welcome to hell.