158 The Curse of the South Changing Room (1/2)

Chapter 158: The Curse of the South Changing Room

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

When Nottingham Forest was in the midst of training hard for their first EFL Cup championship title in twelve years, an absolutely disadvantageous piece of news was heard from the EFL Cup committee. The committee had announced the allocation results of the two teams' changing rooms.

According to the rule, ”Northern teams will use the North changing room, while Southern teams will use the South changing room”. Middlesbrough, which was located even more to the North than Nottingham Forest, obtained the right to use the North changing room. Nottingham Forest, on the other hand, could only helplessly accept what fate had arranged for them — to use the ”cursed” South changing room at Cardiff Millennium Stadium.

Once this news was announced, Nottingham's local press erupted with complaints. The majority of them lamented about fate not being fair, and placed much emphasis on fatalism.

There were also a minority of them, who felt that this new rule of changing rooms was not logical. And that, instead, it should be abolished, and the allocation of rooms should be decided the ”old-fashioned” way, via balloting.

Of contrary opinion, Middlesbrough's side was overjoyed. Aside from the local media's advocating strongly that fate had treated its team well, they also did not forget to seize the opportunity to strike at their opponent's confidence.

They were opposed to the idea of changing this rule, because Middlesbrough City was one of the most northern cities in England. The only two teams, which were located even more to the North than Middlesbrough, and that also had the abilities to advance into this kind of Cup final, were probably only Newcastle and Sunderland.

The evidence, which they had provided to refute Nottingham's press, appeared to be extremely convincing. Before the 2002 FA Cup finals match, Chelsea and Arsenal had both advanced into the finals. Although both teams were based in London City, which was located in the south of England, Arsenal was based in North London, while Chelsea was based in West London. Hence, with Chelsea being located closer to the south, they had to use that south changing room.

It was noteworthy to know that, in the eighteen months prior to this, Cardiff Millennium Stadium, which replaced the under-construction Wembley Stadium, had hosted finals of various competitions (including FA Cup, FA Community Shield, EFL Cup, League One and below playoffs and elimination matches). Among these, all of the teams that used the south changing room had, without exception, lost in each of their respective matches. Cardiff Millennium Stadium's south changing room was, therefore, deemed to be a cursed changing room.

Chelsea was naturally dissatisfied with losing such an important match, as a result of what was dubbed the ”North-South fate”, and therefore, protested against the Football Association. The Football Association decided to use a coin toss to determine the allocation of the changing room, and in the end, Chelsea was still allocated the South changing room.

In order to counteract the ”curse of the south changing room”, all of the Chelsea players had worn their ”lucky white socks” during the match. But, in the end, they had lost to Arsenal in the finals, with a score of 0:2, and the players scoring for Arsenal were Parlour and Ljungberg.

By using Chelsea as an example, Middlesbrough's press was trying to tell Nottingham Forest's press that, in the face of the almighty fate, you should just stop struggling on your deathbed! Hence, even if they determined the room allocation by coin toss, you will still get the south changing room, and you will still lose to us, the mighty Middlesbrough!

In their minds, this was a result that was predetermined!

As soon as the changing room allocation was announced, Tang En felt that they still stood a chance — one that he could make good use of. As for how to use it, that would have to depend on the specific situation.

Tang En had heard tales about Cardiff Millennium Stadium long ago, when he was still a football fan. It was truly quite a severe spot. Out of the seventeen matches held there, fourteen of them were won by teams which had used the north changing room, and only three were won by those which used the south changing room.

Among the three wins, two of them were obtained by Arsenal, while the third victory was a promotion playoffs match in League Two, which had little significance. The team that had obtained the victory while using the south changing room was Stoke City. However, three wins were still unable to change the majority mindset that ”Cardiff Millennium Stadium's south changing room was inauspicious”, and that there was a valid reason for it.

Before Stoke City and Arsenal's victory, Cardiff Millennium Stadium specially invited a Fengshui master from China to resolve the issue for them. In the end, after switching the placement of some of the things in the room, and inviting Welsh artist Andrew Vicari to draw a seven-inch long wall painting, depicting a phoenix, galloping horses, and a sun to shield against the curse, Stoke City and Arsenal managed to attain victory.

However, right when people thought that the curse had been completely dispelled by Arsenal, they lost to Manchester United in the FA Community Shield. Since then, the lore and legend of Cardiff Millennium Stadium's south changing room curse have continued….

The curse's impact on the team was definitely not something to be overlooked. Football players were mostly superstitious, which could explain why there were many weird rules, such as women not being allowed in the same car as the football team. There were even more instances of small, personal superstitions, such as stepping into the field with the right foot, some managers always wearing their lucky ties… etcetera.

Tang En was originally not a superstitious person, but thinking from the perspective of the entire team, he had to be superstitious for once. At this time, if Tang En said things like ”Curses are all bluffs! Those are superstitions not backed by science! Ability is the foundation for winning matches” to the players, nobody would actually believe him.

There was something, in this case, that was extremely advantageous for Tang En — his love for Chinese culture was a fact well-known by the entire Nottingham City, especially within the team. In addition, the person who temporarily dispelled the curse of Cardiff Millennium Stadium also happened to be a Chinese Fengshui master, a fact that was also known throughout England.

Therefore, in order for the team to not lose, in terms of psychological warfare, before the match even started, it was necessary for Tang En to pretend, and put up a show! Hence, when he was being interviewed by the reporters, Tang En appeared to be extremely confident towards the match, and completely showed no signs of worry regarding the south changing room ”curse”.

Not only that, but he also spoke casually about Cardiff Millennium Stadium's invitation to the Fengshui master to dispel the curse. Pearce Bruce cleverly guessed Tang En's hidden agenda, and therefore, wrote this in the following day's :

”…Manager Twain mentioned inviting a Fengshui master to dispel the curse. On top of that, we all know that he personally loves Chinese culture. It was rumored that his Chinese teacher had brought back from China a mysterious gift for him, and he has never told anyone else what it was. Exactly what kind of ”mysterious gift” was it, we wonder?”

In answer to this thinly veiled query regarding the gift, actually, there was nothing mysterious about it! It was merely a set of traditional Chinese costumes. As Tang En told Yang Yan that he liked traditional Chinese culture, Yang Yan went home and decided that buying a traditional Chinese costume for Tang En would be most appropriate.

Moreover, she also wanted to see how a westerner, especially one with such a high nose bridge and white skin, would look when wearing a traditional Chinese costume. However, because of the nature of Tang En's work, he was required to be in a suit almost all-year round. Hence, that set of traditional Chinese costumes was left hanging inside his closet.

Fortunately, the traditional Chinese costume that Yang Yan bought for Tang En was not flowery and bright-colored, or else Tang En would be too embarrassed to use it as a Taoist priest's robe…. Although the westerners would not be able to tell the difference, but, still, an actor's tool had to be slightly more professional.

As for the other important tools which he needed, Tang En had no choice but to ask Yang Yan for her help again, to try and see if there were any Fengshui compasses for sale around Manchester's Chinatown. Tang En thought that some traditional items would be much more well-preserved in places like Chinatown, as opposed to in mainland China. Something like a Fengshui compass should be very easily found in Chinatown.

Yang Yan asked Tang En why he needed a Fengshui compass, so he told Yang Yan his plans. Over the phone, Yang Yan smiled happily, exclaiming, ”Mr Twain, I look forward to your shaman dance on the television!”

They were currently able to directly converse in Mandarin, so Yang Yan was not afraid that Tang En did not understand what ”shaman dance” meant. After conversing a while, Yang Yan continued to ask, ”Can putting up a show, and doing such gimmicks, also help to win matches?”

”Hmm, this question is difficult to answer. But you can treat this as part my job of fine-tuning the team psychologically…”

”Hearing you say it like this, being a football manager seems to be very interesting!”

”Hehe, the team's changing room is even more interesting. However, I'm really sorry that I'm unable to share with you these stories.”

Tang En was not wrong in saying such a thing. To an outsider, a changing room was a very mysterious place, and there were many interesting and fun happenings taking place inside it every day.

The players and managers treated this place as their private venue, and no outsiders were allowed to probe into it. There were many unspoken rules in the football industry, and ”nobody in the team is allowed to divulge anything that takes place in the changing room” was one.

Although Tang En was the manager of the team, he also could not violate this rule. Otherwise, he would lose his players' trusts, and his colleagues' respects. A manager, who could not control the team, was viewed as being no different from trash.