Chapter 46 Outside the list

Tang En's intentional "public apology" and the last sentence "Who is that" made him once again become a sensational figure in major media. Before, no one had ever played a club in front of so many reporters, but Tang En did it.

Next, just like what he said to Shania. He no longer paid attention to the protests of the Chelsea club and the various voices from the outside media. He focused on his work and never made any reply. Chelsea club and Abramovich were unhappy? What's the matter with me...

His incident has added topics to many people after dinner, making the sales of big and tabloids in England prosper.

There is a point in hype about Mourinho's dismissal. After all, no matter how character Mourinho has, he is just a Portuguese. Don't have a swear word, but he will slowly make the public lose interest in continuing to pay attention because of his shut-up.

In fact, during this period and for some time to come, the focus of the English media is on the England team.

Because the battle of life and death is imminent.

There are two rounds left in the 2008 European Championship qualifiers between Switzerland and Austria. Since there are seven teams in Group E, there will inevitably be teams in the schedule at some point. When it is the second-last round, it is England's turn - they have one round left. The current standings are England, which has played eleven games, temporarily ranked second with 23 points.

According to the rules of the European Championship qualifiers, there are fourteen qualifiers for this European Championship, namely the first and second place in seven groups, and then the host teams are added, which is exactly sixteen teams.

Croatia, which ranked first and Russia, which ranked third, are now one game less than England, with Croatia having 26 points and Russia having 21 points. If England wants to qualify, they need to count on the group stage on November 17. Russia lost to Israel away, and then in the 21st game, England themselves defeated Croatia at home.

Only in this way can the team participate in next year's European Championship.

This condition seems a bit harsh, but it is not impossible.

The English media are pretty, Israel is not weak, let alone they are fighting at home. In the last round, Croatia, who is currently the first in the group, may have already obtained the right to qualify in advance. Then they do not need to use all their main players and all their energy to compete with England...

So, everything is possible.

Before the 17th match day, England was training in a concentrated manner, while the English media were cheering for Israel, hoping that they could defeat Russia at home and retain hope for qualifying for England.

From the end of the league with Chelsea, there will be no matches in the Premier League until November 24. Most of the leagues in other European countries are like this. The two weeks between this is the A-level match day for the national team. In Europe, it is the 2008 European Cup qualifiers day, and in South America, it is the longest scheduled South Africa World Cup South America qualifiers in the world. Although the official match is 2010, due to the special environment of South American football, the qualifiers here have already begun in full swing in October, which is really the longest time-lapse World Cup qualifiers.

As for Asia, the qualifiers in Asia will not start in February next year. The Olympics are hosts, soccer teams do not need to play any qualifiers. After losing all the Asian Cup, the Chinese Football Association basically disbanded the national team and focused on Olympic strategies. The national Olympic team was dragged to the public tourism of the whole world to play warm-up matches. Travel fees, accommodation fees, venue rental fees, appearance fees for opponents, and messy subsidies... This money has been spent a lot, and as for the effect... Tang En could only sneer and wish Chinese football good luck.

Fortunately, Sun Jihai, the only Chinese player in the Forest team, is not in this "Olympic Strategy" plan, because he is over 23 years old, and according to the news that Tang Jing once revealed, he will definitely not appear on the list of three over-age players at that time. So this national team match day has nothing to do with Sun Jihai. He doesn't have to travel thousands of miles to the United States to waste time playing warm-up games with several major league teams. Moreover, over-age players generally will not participate in such national Olympic warm-up games.

Nottingham Forest is already a Premier League team. It is also a force that cannot be ignored in Europe. There will inevitably be a large number of international players in the team lineup, and they will be recruited at this time. Don Eun has long seen such things. Apart from complaining that this will cause his team to work hard for the country and then recover from his injuries while playing for the club, he has no other way to prevent this from happening. After all, he is just a football coach, not a FIFA president.

David Beckham scored a goal at the last minute of the game against Chelsea and helped Nottingham Forest equalize the score. Recently, it has a high reputation in the English media. Many media are publicly calling for the veteran to be entrusted with important tasks again - although it is not for him to put on the captain's armband again. But don't let him go on the court and run two steps in garbage time. Although it is impossible for them to determine whether England qualifies or not. But as long as there is a theoretical possibility, they always have to give it a try, right?

McLaren refused to talk about whether Beckham would appear on the roster of the match against Croatia, and refused to answer the "boring question" of whether he would bet on Beckham. His reason was full - "to keep it secret."

So the media began to speculate on the number of appearances of Beckham's national team - although there is no place to show off.   The last eight minutes of the away game against Moscow was indeed his 98th appearance for England... two games away from 100 games.   If England can finally defeat their opponents in the match against Croatia on November 21, then they still have a glimmer of hope to enter the finals. In that case, Beckham's 100 games will still have hope. Otherwise... what will happen is hard to say.

Watching the British media happily discuss Beckham's appearance record, they look forward to a hundred games, as if they have already qualified in the European Cup qualifiers.

This country is so strange. When you succeed, they are used to calling you "God". Once you fail, they rush to send you to the gallows with their own hands. utilitarianism is so rare. If Beckham hadn't scored a crucial goal in the last moment of the 2001 Greece game and made him become a god in an instant, he might not have been able to make a comeback in the UK now.

Somehow, Tang En suddenly thought of Chinese gymnast Li Ning. They were once the darlings of the entire country, and later they were abandoned by billions of people. Beckham was lucky than Li Ning that he could save himself in his career and prove himself again; and when Li Ning failed, he was already retired - he had always lost the opportunity to rely on his own efforts to prove that those who scolded him were wrong.

Sports are so cruel... There is actually no essential difference between the Olympics and the World Cup. The slogans are shouted beautifully, but the loser is actually the loser. Only the winner can enjoy cheers and glory - this is not determined by a certain sport, it is determined by people, people watching the game, people participating in the game, people manipulating the game... all humans.

It's gone far.

At least Beckham has the entire British media to build momentum for him and plead for him, hoping to appear on the starting list to fight against Croatia and become a hero who saves the country.

However, in the ambivalence of excitement and concern coexisting in the English media and the fans. One person became a victim of Beckham's star aura, or was not that serious, he was just a forgotten person.

In the list of McLaren's final battle announced by the end, there was no George Wood's name.

Tang has not come back yet, and Tang En is not very busy. The team's training is only one day during this period. The time is not much, but the intensity is high. The Christmas schedule is coming continuously. The team needs to reserve enough physical fitness in order to cope with the subsequent multi-line battles and one-week double games.

The training time was arranged in the afternoon. After lunch, Tang En had lunch and had a lunch break. He waited for him to wake up again and then went to Wilford to start the day's training.

Every time he came to the training base, George Wood was already warming up.

McLaren announced the entire list of the last match against Croatia yesterday. Nottingham Forest occupied two seats among the twenty-five people - David Beckham and Allen Lennon.

There is no name for George Wood.

Although George Wood is not a regular member of the national team, it is a fool who knows what it means to remove his name before this important game. Whether it is Erikson or the England team of McLaren's era, George Wood has never been reused except starting and appearing in some irrelevant warm-up matches and appearing on the bench during garbage time.

He sat on the bench for five games in the German World Cup. He didn't get a second of playing time.

England played twelve games in the European Championship qualifiers, and George Wood received a total of 180 minutes of playing time, an average of fifteen minutes per game. He has never been reused like that in Nottingham Forest. The coach did not trust him and had no place in the tactical system.

But George Wood has not expressed any dissatisfaction in public in front of the media. Perhaps he has not learned how to fight for greater benefits for himself in the national team?

However, some Nottingham media have looked at it and publicly questioned whether the head coach McLaren is biased against the players who came out of Nottingham Forest. McLaren's answer was: "The England team is concentrated and England's best players, each of them may be core players in their own clubs, but you cannot ask these core players to continue to be core players after coming to England."

It makes sense at first glance. After careful consideration, you will know that McLaren is just perfunctory to this group of reporters. No one asked George Wood to have a core position in England. But at least there is no playing time. Every time you play, you either win or send a gangster to the gangster time. Or lose or replace it with a gangster time... Anyway, it is gangster time. If the game is very fierce and cruel, you can't tell the winner until the last second, George Wood will definitely sit on the bench. The media, who has good things, collected information about those games and then came to this conclusion-McLarren must have a grudge against George Wood!

In fact, there is no question of having a grudge, and it is certain that you don’t trust or reuse it.

McLaren doesn’t trust the players trained by Don’t. McLaren doesn’t trust the players trained by Don’t use them, so he doesn’t use them.

"George.  " Tang En saw Wood doing a warm-up alone on the training ground, and he actually did not agree with this kind of warm-up move in advance.   Because it unnecessary to consume physical energy, it will affect the effect of subsequent training.   But, a biochemical robot... it is not a big problem.

He walked forward and stood beside Wood, watching him finish a warm-up set.

"I saw you warm up here on the national team game day. Actually, it's quite rare..." Tang En smiled.

It's really rare. Although he has very little playing time in England, he will basically be on the most important roster. After all, he is the captain of the European champion team. He is a defensive midfielder that is favored by countless people. If he were placed in other national teams, he might have been the main force that could not be beaten. In other countries, there is a little helplessness in England. The "double German problem" is enough for every head coach to have a headache. If there is another Wood, the "double German" will become "three Germans"...

Wood said in a muffled voice: "It's not bad, I can't play the game anyway." He put on a pullover and stood in front of Tang En.

He was not in a high mood. It seemed that he was also affected by this roster. You should know that this is a key game, and it is the most popular game that countless professional players encounter - because they can prove their ability, turn the tide, and become a hero of the entire country. For people like Wood who likes to constantly challenge their limits, this is even more so. The stronger the opponent is, the harder the game is to play, and he is more excited. McLaren deprived him of the power to go out for the game more than ten days before the game.

When Tang En heard him say this, he was amused: "I thought you didn't care about such things at all."

Wood glanced at him.

Tang En was still laughing: "Because you have never expressed your dissatisfaction anywhere. Everyone thought you were honest and easy to bully. It became a habit to sit on the bench, George. If I were you, I would jump out and accuse McLaren of not knowing how to use people. From then on, I announced that he or not me, if he or she doesn't have him, if he or she doesn't get off the get out of class, I will not join the England team..."

"I'm not you." Wood glanced at him. "But I'm really unhappy. I'm not happy with... England. I thought I'd just not go."

Unexpectedly, Wood would say such words, Tang En was still a little surprised. It seems that his life in the national team is indeed difficult.

"I hate being a substitute. If McLaren said directly that it was just to let me be a substitute, I would simply reject him. But he didn't say... The first people from the Jamaican Football Association also came to me and hoped that I would play for Jamaica. At that time, I refused... Now that I think about it, I might as well go to Jamaica."

Tang En was silent.

He has heard countless similar stories: because of the strong domestic competitiveness, a certain star has no choice but to change his nationality. He plays for weak countries. He only wants to participate in the World Cup or other Intercontinental Cup matches. Brazil has the most common situation.

In fact, George Wood also has Brazilian nationality, but when he became famous, the Brazilian Football Association did not even look at him because there are too many geniuses in Brazil. He doesn't care about George Wood who is far away in the UK.

Don Neng was silent for a while and comforted: "Your choice is right. It's impossible to win what you want in Jamaica, so it's better not to go. Don't worry, in England... If England can't go out this time, McLaren's life at that position will not last long. Maybe it's better to change the head coach."

"What if it's not going to work?" Wood asked with his head raised.

Tang En didn't know how to answer. It was not impossible for this kind of possibility - some players had to announce their withdrawal from the national team because they were always unable to be reused in the national team, and since then they lost the opportunity to show themselves on a larger world stage.

He couldn't say to Wood: "It's good to concentrate on playing for the club, and it can keep your form longer." Because he also hopes to see Wood play his abilities on the wider stage and amazed the whole world.

"Things will always get better." Tang En didn't know what the future would be, so he could only comfort him like this.

It became lively outside gradually, and the players and coaches who came to train arrived at the base one after another.

Done was planning to go back to his office to handle some trivial matters, and just as he was about to turn around, he heard Wood say, "If... McLaren is gone, will you go?"

Don Eun understood what Wood meant. He looked at Wood with some confusion: "Then I will give up my current job, do you like it?"

Wood thought for a while and shook his head: "Forget it. If you don't go to England, I won't go at most. If you don't go here... I won't have a job."

Donn laughed. “When did you learn to joke, George?”

Wood said nothing, and he turned around and walked towards the locker room.

Tang En also felt bored. He stood there watching Wood leave with his back, then turned around and walked back to his office.

His premonition ability has long expired, so he cannot know whether England can pass the Croatia level this time, nor whether McLaren will be dismissed, and who will be the one who will be the one who will be dismissed if he is dismissed, and whether that person likes Wood's football style... There are too many questions.

But now he especially hopes that England will lose key games and lose tickets to the European Championship finals.
Chapter completed!