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

Two days after speaking to Yang Yan on the phone, right before Tang En was about to lead the team to Cardiff, he received an express delivery parcel, sent from Manchester. Opening the parcel, Tang En discovered that it was exactly the Fengshui compass that he needed.

Chinese characters and the symbol of eight trigrams were engraved all over it. It was a Fengshui compass that appeared very mysterious in the eyes of westerners.

Having obtained such an item, Tang En was confident that he could intimidate everyone by using it. When the time came, it would definitely cause an uproar among the English media. The sheer thought of his impending successful mischief made Tang En chuckle.

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Cardiff, the capital of Wales, was where Cardiff Millennium Stadium, which hosted the EFL Cup finals' match venue, was located. It was not considered as being too far from Nottingham. For Middlesbrough to arrive there for the match, they had to take an airplane, while Nottingham Forest only had to take the bus.

On the bus, the players' morale was low. Evidently, they had been scared by that ”south changing room curse”. Quite a handful of them felt that this was an inauspicious sign, signalling that the team's defeat was imminent.

A football team was a combined entity. One person with such a though could very well affect two other people. From there, two people then could easily turn to four people, four people to eight people, eight people to sixteen people…and so on. In the end, no matter if one said ”those are just baseless nonsense”, they would still question themselves, wondering, ”Is the curse real? Will we really lose the match, all because we used the south changing room?”

As the saying went, ”Repeat a lie enough times, and it will be believed”, this was the same rationale behind the Chinese teams'”koreaphobia”. They were originally equally matched, in terms of ability, and it wasn't much of a big deal to lose to them a few times.

However, after the press proposed the idea of ”koreaphobia”, as well as promoted its propagation, in the end, even the Chinese teams themselves felt that they were born fearing the Korean teams. This was in spite of the fact that they were a team comprised solely of players born after 1989, and they were not even born when ”koreaphobia” first started out. This, however, still did not change the fact that they were equally ”afraid of Korea”.

Tang En knew very well about how terrifying words could be, just from looking at these silent players on the bus. In the past, everyone used to talk a lot and crack jokes on their way to the matches.

He knew that it was impossible for them to win with this mental state. Before the match even started, his team had already lost to the opponent, in terms of its morale and desire for victory. How were they, then, supposed to put up a good fight in the match later on? This cannot carry on, so thank goodness, Tang En had long made preparations for such a situation as this.

The coach bus driver was in the midst of driving attentively, until he suddenly discovered that there was someone else beside him. He turned his head around to see, and discovered that the person beside him was the team's manager, Mr. Tony Twain. He held a disc in his hand, which he was inserting into the bus's DVD player. As he only glanced up for a split second, he could only catch a glimpse of the disc cover, which seemed to have the words ”85' LIVE AID” written on it.

After inserting the disc into the player, Tang En continued to dabble with some of its settings. Afterwards, he took the remote controller and stood near the front bus door. At this moment, the players were either keeping quiet with their heads lowered, or they were looking outside the window, as though they had a lot on their minds. Seeing this, Tang En pressed the play button.

Suddenly, the audio system on the bus started blasting loud noises, without any warning. They sounded like the loud buzzing, cheering, clapping and jeering noises heard at the stadium's stands, all mixed together. As a result of this sudden wave of loud noises, everyone in the bus jumped in shock.

After the loud noises gradually died down, what soon followed was a series of drumbeats with a very familiar rhythm. All the players on the bus raised their heads, somewhat shocked.

This was part of the song performed by Queen in 1985 at Hyde Park, during a charity concert aimed at helping Africa and raising public awareness for the African regions, which were the ones that needed assistance the most. That concert had been voted by music critics as being the most noble live rock concert in history.

The song tune which followed closely behind the drumbeats was indeed that famous song, . This was a classic rhythm, one that could make people become excited. By then, Tang En had noticed that there were already some players moving to the beat.

was very short, and the song that came on after that was something that everyone was even more familiar with, . This version of the song was different from the one produced in the recording studio. It was a live version, and was even more passionate, as Freddie Mercury's (Queen's lead singer) delivery was much more explosive.

Afterwards, Tang En spoke with this music playing in the background.

”I intend to add a new rule to the team — in the future, whenever we go to Cardiff Millennium Stadium and Wembley Stadium for matches, we will play this song on the coach bus. Look at all of your shocked expressions…. Do you think that this is the only time in our whole lives that we're going there?” Tang En smiled, then continued, ”The EFL Cup is merely the beginning. There will be many, many more matches waiting for us. And there are many, many more championship trophies waiting for us to clinch. Hence, I feel that there is a need to set such a tradition. Alright, lads, stop looking so gloomy. I know what you guys are worried about, but I think that there's completely no need for you guys to worry about that.”

He continued, ”You think that at Cardiff Millennium Stadium, the teams that used its south changing room cannot win. This kind of curse has already been around for quite a long time. But this curse is not completely infallible. You guys should have heard of Arsenal and Stoke City, right? When they emerged victorious from their matches, the changing room assigned to them was precisely the south changing room.”

”But, Boss,” the honest Huth raised his hand and said, ”that is because they hired that… that…. that….”

He continued saying ”that” for quite some time, but was still unable to say the term which came after. In the end, everyone started smiling as a result.

Tang En had originally turned his head around to hear what he had to say, but seeing that the German really could not come up with that term, Tang En could only say it on behalf of him. ”Fengshui master. They hired a fengshui master from China to temporarily dispel the curse of the south changing room,” he defined.

Huth nodded his head vigorously, expressing that that was indeed what he had wanted to say. The rest of the people on the bus also played along. Tang En unfolded his arms, then whipped out an item from behind his back, as though he was performing a magic trick. ”Does anyone know what this is?” he asked.

The item in his hand was indeed the Fengshui compass. There wouldn't be anyone, who would know what that was, so everyone was shaking their heads while looking at it in Tang En's hand.

”I reckon that everyone should know about my finding a Chinese teacher to learn mandarin, and that my results were quite good, right?”

Everyone nodded their heads.

”Very well, as Fengshui is also part of traditional Chinese culture, I happen to know about it as well,” Tang En said unashamedly, as he put on his ”Fengshui master” hat. In reality, even when Tang En was still in China, he had little knowledge on Fengshui, and much less now. ”This is a Fengshui compass. In china, it is used to assess Fengshui, and to dispel ominous curses.”

Upon hearing Tang En's words, the look in the players' eyes also changed. Quite a few people looked at their manager with a shocked look, as though they still had some doubts about it.

Tang En's face displayed an extremely confident smile. ”Why? Have I ever lied to you guys?” Tang En discovered that he was really very well-suited to ”act”….and wondered why hadn't he discovered this talent of his in the past? ”Whenever I say that we will win, have we ever lost?” he continued to probe.

”No!” The players replied at the same time. This was something they were extremely proud of. Ever since Tony Twain took over this team in the middle of the season, Nottingham Forest had yet to experience defeat in their matches.

”Isn't that right? Rest assured, I will definitely be able to dispel the curse of the south changing room by the match day! Therefore, there's no need for you guys to worry about some curse. Moreover, I think that.. perhaps after the finals, the press might even start reporting about a ”north changing room curse”!”

Everyone — including that coach bus driver, who had been attentively driving, started laughing out loud.

”That's the way, that's the way! This is the true Nottingham Forest!” they guffawed.

The music was still playing from the audio system, and the passionate voice of the lead singer from the most noble band in English rock history continued to envelop the entire bus.

”We are the champions! My friends! We are the champions! And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end! We are the champions! We are the — champions of the world!”