289 The English Premier League’s Footsteps Part 1 (1/2)

Chapter 289: The English Premier League’s Footsteps Part 1

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

The madness of celebrating Nottingham Forest's return to England's top league persisted for a full three days on the old streets of Nottingham City. The Town Hall Square in the middle of the city was overcrowded. In most of the media articles published, it was said that this once again made people recall the first time when Nottingham Forest had obtained the UEFA Europa League championship title in 1979. At that time, many people from Nottingham City had gone to receive the team, and the crowd extended all the way from Birmingham Airport to Nottingham. During the journey back to Nottingham City, the streets on both sides of the coach bus had been filled with Nottingham Forest fans.

Of course, Nottingham Forest, which had only obtained second place in League One, did not need such a parade. Doing so would be mere arrogance.

Despite this, Nottingham Forest still held a small celebratory dinner party on the night of the match. Evan Doughty fulfilled the promise that he had made, and treated all the players and staff to the most famous Chinese restaurant in Nottingham. At the dinner party, all rules disappeared and alcohol could be drank freely. Even if they got very drunk, nobody would blame them.

Evan Doughty was thrilled too, but he was the chairman of the club; with him around, nobody could enjoy themselves to the fullest. After realizing this, he simply congratulated the players and gave out the prize money that he had promised, before finding an excuse to leave. Of course, he had his own celebratory activity, but it was just that the people who were attending that event were completely different from these noisy players—it was a very small-scale dinner party, but everyone that should have gone, went. The guests were very well-dressed, and they carried themselves in a graceful manner. These people were perhaps not football fans, and their motive for attending was not to celebrate Nottingham Forest's return to the Premier League. Instead, there was something else much more attractive waiting for them.

After Evan and Allan left, Tang En took the lead, and they all acted crazily. He was forced to drink by at least fifteen people, and by the end of it, Tang En completely lost track of how many bottles of beer he had drank. In any case, the beer can in his hand never seemed to be empty. So when he woke up in bed the next day, his temple was throbbing with pain.

The rest of the day was filled with all kinds of congratulatory phone calls. There was a phone call from Yang Yan, and also from Kenny Burns. On the night of the match, he had dedicated his stomach to the team. Tonight, he would go to Forest Bar instead, to participate at the free event hosted by Burns, in order to celebrate Nottingham Forest's return to the English Premier League. At the same time, he had to thank the fans who had supported him and his team all that time.

In any case, it was yet another day of being hungover until late at night. Two consecutive days of drinking had caused his complexion to become pale, and as a result, his spirits were affected as well. He did not feel particularly excited, and felt slightly exhausted.

He was thinking about the team's last meeting of the season that would be held later in the morning, where he had to make a speech. He specifically spent half an hour showering in order to make himself look as unlike a drunkard as possible.

May 11 was a beautiful morning that had bright sunlight and a cosy breeze. With that weather, Tang En's spirits finally recovered.

This was probably the first time that Tang En had arrived later than the players. By the time he rushed over to the training field, there were already groups of players on the field, gathered together and chatting casually. This was not a training day, so naturally, no one had gone to the changing room to change into their training jerseys. They were wearing casual T-shirts and shorts, and not a single tinge of nervousness could be seen on their faces. Crouch was the most extreme; he brought a large leather suitcase to the training grounds, and wore a fanciful gridded top and shorts.

Tang En sized him up for a while, causing him to feel embarrassed. Only then did Tang En furrow his brow and mutter, ”The heck, Peter. You must be in the wrong place. This is Wilford, not Hawaii.”