Chapter 31: Night in Istanbul

The media are still making various speculations about the conflict between Zimbonda and Bentner during training, hoping to get live videos. Everyone knows that the Forest team has the habit of recording in-team videos in training.

Sometimes, they can get some training videos through insiders with better relationships. But this time, they all hit a wall. Those who have better relationships with the media told them that after the videotape of the fight happened, Tang En took it to himself and no one gave it to him. As for where he put it, no one knew.

Don En doesn't want the media to continue to hype this past thing. The team's atmosphere has finally become normal, and this situation must be maintained. So he left all the speculations of the English media behind and took the team out of England and went to Turkey.

Nottingham Forest will face a very important game next. This game will be related to whether his team can take the first step in qualifying in the group and whether it can block the mouths of the media behind him. As long as the performance is not outstanding, any contradiction will be made to dig three feet into the ground, but as long as the ball is won, no contradiction is a contradiction, and no problem is there.

This is the only truth in competitive sports - victory covers everything.

Having said so many nice things, this game is actually not easy to play, or rather... it is quite difficult to play.

Besiktas is not a weak team that can be easily dealt with. Turkey's home atmosphere is even more famous in the world. Britain and Turkey have grudges in football. A few years ago, Leeds United fans were stabbed to death by Turkish fans in Istanbul. During the match between the English national team and the Turkish national team, Beckham lost a penalty and was provoked by Turkish player Alpay. After the game, the two teams fought each other in the locker room passage. Alpay, who caused the incident, even lost his job for it - he was swept out by Aston Villa who played for him.

The media dug out the old accounts of the Forest team's previous unbeatable victory, as well as the recent news of the fight between Zimbonda and Bentner, to prove that the Forest team has many internal conflicts. People are in panic, how bad the trip to Turkey is...

Don Encai didn't care. What the outside world said is that as long as it doesn't affect his team, it's okay. And... from another perspective, he wishes the English media to hype it like this. Because it will confuse his opponent in this game, the Turks.

Besiktas is a strong team in the Turkish League and a team that often participates in the European League. In Turkey, they are co-starred with Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, and are a strong team representing Turkish football strength. At the same time, their landlord stadium Inonu Stadium is also a commonly used home stadium for the Turkish national team. It is the "devil's home stadium" that is well-known in European football.

Istanbul is a city spanning two continents. It was once called "Constantinople" by Westerners. It was the capital of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. This country once brought blood and war to the European continent. At its peak, they once regarded the Mediterranean as their inner lake. Several "yellow perils" that made Europeans fearful, one of which originated from the Ottoman Turkish Empire conquered Europe.

The predecessor of this country has planted the seeds of fear in the hearts of Westerners, and the football atmosphere in this country also makes Westerners feel fear. In England, football hooligans may have transformed because they drank too much. But in Turkey, fans here are already fanatical enough without drinking. The atmosphere of a certain stadium is described in the football circle. Generally, "devil's home court" is used. But for the Turkish stadium, "hell home court" may be more vivid.

Since the beginning of its landing, Nottingham Forest fully felt the enthusiasm of Turkish fans-

"Get back crying, English bastard!"

This is a banner next to the highway from the airport to the hotel, and it is available every once in a while. There is absolutely no need to worry that the players of the Forest team cannot see it. Radical fans in Turkey believe that doing so can make the English team feel tremendous psychological pressure, and thus perform poorly when playing against their team.

In fact, the players of the Forest team did see it, but they really think like the Turkish fans hoped.

Before leaving, British TV station BBC made an album to introduce the style of Turkish fans and solemnly warned Nottingham Forest fans who follow the Forest team to Istanbul to not go out alone at night, it is best not to go out together, and do not go to crowded places in normal times and stay away from bars. Finally, follow the team organized by the Forest Club to act together.

The schedule of the cheering group organized by Nottingham Forest Club for fans is as follows:

On the morning of the day of the competition, we arrived in Istanbul by plane from London to eat uniformly. We acted uniformly. After watching the competition in the evening, we immediately took a flight back to London.

This did not give fans a night stay in Turkey, which greatly improved safety. However, it also made many fans who like to have free activities regard watching football abroad as a restriction of personal freedom, and they could not do anything except watching games.

Not only Nottingham Forest Club, but other English clubs do this. On the one hand, from the perspective of cost savings, on the other hand, they consider the safety of fans - English fans have become the target of public criticism abroad, and the frequent fan conflicts and riots have forced many clubs to consider the safety of their supporters' lives.

This is actually a common contradiction. Fans want to be more free and finally go abroad for a while, no one wants to spend on planes or buses. But the clubs are not willing to cause trouble for themselves because of any negative incidents. In addition, such an arrangement can indeed save the club a lot of money...

Considering the particularity of Turkey, before leaving, Tang En also posted an open letter to the club's official website, suggesting that those fans who want to go to Turkey themselves give up this idea and act with the cheering team organized by the club.

"...I fully understand your mood, but for football or travel, life is obviously more important. The players and I don't want to hear bad news about the incident of supporters after winning the game. Gavin Bernard's incident should not be repeated among Nottingham Forest fans. So, I sincerely hope that the fans can follow the club's cheering team to Turkey... Don't worry about what the team that arrived in Istanbul early would be without the cheers of their own people. What I want to tell you is that our players will not be affected by those messy things... So, please pay attention to safety after coming to Istanbul!"

He said this very sincerely, so many people eventually gave up their plan to come to Turkey and chose to follow the club's cheering team to Istanbul on the day of the game. After all, Gavin Bernard's affairs are almost a household tragedy in Nottingham, and no one wants his children or himself to be the protagonist of the next tragedy.

Therefore, Nottingham Forest arrived in Istanbul for a day and a half. Apart from the media reporters who came here to report the events and a few Forest fans, he never saw the British again.

I have fully appreciated what "host's enthusiasm" means.

They were arranged to stay in the hotel in the downtown area of ​​Istanbul. When they were resting at night, they could hear the carnival of Turkish fans outside all night. This was obviously specifically to stimulate the forest team and interfere with their rest. Everything was to support themselves in the team to win the next day's game.

Chris Lack once negotiated with the hotel's head, but the other party spread his hands: "Our hotel can't help with the fans' personal actions, not to mention that they are all on the street outside the hotel... We can't even care about it."

The team called to warn the people to disturb the people. As a result, the group ran away before the police came. After the police arrived, they pretended to be around, and then said to the people of the Forest Team: "I didn't see the people you said." They retreated. Not long after, the group of people came back and sang Turkish songs below, which sounded like fan songs cheering Besiktas. Of course, there were naturally mixed in the middle of the forest team's insults and middle fingers.

Tang En was lying on the bed, unable to sleep due to the clamor of singing downstairs. He got up and walked to the window, opened the curtains, and looked down.

The glass window has been completely closed, but it still cannot stop the noise deliberately created by these lunatics.

The group of people lit fireworks. They waved the black and white flags representing Besiktas, sang loudly, scolded when they were tired, and kept comparing to the hotel with middle fingers. If they saw a window lit up, these fans would cheer for victory, and then make a more exciting noise. Under the street lights and the fireworks in their hands, Tang En clearly saw the bottles scattered all over the floor.

It's really Türkiye...

He turned his head. He could not see the situation in the room next to him at all. But he knew that such a degree of noise would definitely have a certain impact on the team. Some people were born with dull nerves and could sleep even if they thundered, while others were neurasthenia. A slight noise could wake them up from their sleep.

Both of these people in the Forest Team are available.

Tang En felt that he had no choice in the face of such a situation. Even if he knocked on the door from one room to another, let the players ignore the noise outside and sleep peacefully. It would be useless. Those who should not sleep still cannot sleep. Those who were sleeping might be awakened by him. Feed sleeping pills? Not to mention, if you find something that is not conducive to the Forest team after the game? You told them that this is because you can't sleep at night and take some tranquilizers. Will they listen?

So... this move by Turkish fans is really poisonous and makes their opponents helpless.

Tang En stood in front of the window and looked for a while. He had no expression on his face from beginning to end. From the expression alone, others could not tell whether he was angry or helpless at this moment.

The Turkish fans are still struggling, and Tang En decided not to play with them. Their purpose is to make the people in the Forest Team unable to sleep. If they stand here and fuck them up, they will fall into the trick of these people.

Don Eun returned to the bed, stuffed the ipod's headphones into his ears, and fell asleep listening to the music.

He is between a big nerve streak and neurasthenia.

When having breakfast the next day, Tang En was always observing the players' mental state. Yawning for a long time does not mean that he has not had a good rest at night. Maybe he just got up and his spirit has not recovered. The person who has not had a good sleep looked haggard and his eyes were a little dark. Tang En noticed such a few people, and he was wondering whether he would start several of these people in the evening game.

Gareth Bell was obviously one of these people. He lowered his head while having breakfast, was listless and looked no more appetite. He mechanically used a fork to pull the fruit salad on the plate.

There are several others like him, including... the team's assistant coach David Chris Lack.

"Good morning, Tony..." David Chris Lack held the plate and was depressed and reached the coaching staff's special table.

"You haven't had a good sleep at night." Don Eun glanced at his plate. There was very little food on it, and it seemed that Chris Lak had no appetite to eat.

"Did you have a good sleep?"

"It's okay." Tang En shrugged, "I listened to the music and fell asleep in a while."

Hearing Don't say this, Chris Lack sighed: "You can still fall asleep if you have a sound in your ear... I can't have any other sound, otherwise it's like this." He opened his eyelids and let Don't look at the blood-filled eyes.

"It's so pitiful." Tang En smacked his lips. "What are our plans for the morning?"

"Go to the court to do your last training to adapt to the court." Tang next to him answered.

"Cancel." Tang En waved the fork in his hand, "Let the whole team go to bed. The idiots during the day shouldn't be here to make a noise, right?"

"It's noisy during the day, and this is a downtown area." Tang reminded him.

"But our players must have enough sleep, otherwise they will definitely be inactive in the evening game. Moreover, I think it sounds noisy at night because the idiots deliberately made a lot of noise, and the sounds were very clear in the quiet late night. But during the day... everyone is used to this level of noise, and maybe they don't think it's noisy now. People who haven't had good sleep at night are not mentally impatient. I think they will fall asleep as soon as they fall on the bed, so they won't care whether they are not quarrel outside. The one who can't sleep should be like me who sleeps well at night." Donn blinked at Chris Lack, as if showing off his ability to sleep in such a noisy environment. "You have to go to bed, too."

"But... we have agreed with the people at Besiktas in advance that they will open the stadium for us to perform adaptive training in the morning..."

Tang En waved his hand: "Then let them drive the court and wait in vain.  My team has the biggest business, their business... Well, I can't control it."

He made a little willful decision. If he had been tortured all night, he was not angry at all. He was an inflatable doll. Tang En was naturally angry, and it was not small. He just didn't want to be too excited in front of his own people, otherwise he would be distracted. But he didn't care if he had the opportunity to take revenge on the Turks. Although what happened last night might have nothing to do with Besiktas Club, and it had nothing to do with the poor stadium administrator. But Tang En equaled all the Turks at this moment.

So when the reporters gathered at Inonu Stadium to prepare for shooting the Forest Team for field adaptation training, the Forest Team players slept soundly in their hotel room. The poor reporters waited for half an hour and did not wait for the arrival of Nottingham Forest.
Chapter completed!