760 Change (1/2)

Nottingham Forest had been in closed-door training again since they finished the game with Sunderland. The English media complained that there had never been a manager like Tony Twain who used closed-door training so often to prepare for the competition.

Carl Spicer said it was proof of how terrified Tony Twain was. He dared not let the media and his opponent know what he was doing. This implied that he had no confidence.

Twain obviously did this to keep things confidential because he wanted to give Juventus a ”big surprise.” He did not feel that he had no confidence. Self-confidence and blind arrogance were two different things. Anyhow, he was up against the group's most powerful opponent. Superficial arrogance and true arrogance were two different matters.

In fact, Twain's remarks to the media before he came to Italy were not entirely intended to create some trouble to Ranieri's mind. He truly had to be careful. That was what he said to the team.

When the team arrived in Turin, they trained at Stadio delle Alpi to adapt to the pitch. For the first 15 minutes, the media could come in and film. It was what the rules required, or else Twain would not have even given them a second. The media could not really shoot anything meaningful within these 15 minutes because the team had been doing simple physical training. After the 15 minutes were up, the team began its tactical practice after they saw all the media pack up and leave. It was just drills for set pieces.

Twain knew there would be people from Juventus in some corner of the pitch observing them. He would not reveal the real stuff on the enemy's turf.

Once the training was over, it was the pre-match press conference. Twain saw Ranieri again. Both parties acted low-key. It was normal for Ranieri to maintain a low profile, but it was irregular for Twain to keep a low profile. Twain repeated the words he spoke in England, but he deliberately acted as if he was teasing and not serious about his speech. He just wanted others to not be able to guess what he was going to do.

”Juventus is a very strong opponent. Did I say before that the teams to advance were Nottingham Forest and any other team? Well, yes, but isn't Juventus among them? Do you really want me to state an exact name? In that case, if I say Team A advances, how would Team B and C take it? I'm not stupid enough to make enemies everywhere.” Twain grinned and completely overturned his previously arrogant image.

Many media muttered, ”He just said those words not long ago and now he refuted everything. He's so shameless!”

”If he still had a sense of shame, he wouldn't be Tony Twain.”

Twain seemed to want to express goodwill toward Juventus, but the Turin media would not give him the chance. Over and over again, they mentioned the two group matches two seasons ago and asked Twain what he thought.

”What do I think? It's normal to win or lose on the football field. Besides, what's the point of talking about what happened two seasons ago now? Winning or losing before holds no meaning for tomorrow's game. I only care about tomorrow. I don't care about the past.”

”Have you ever thought about how to successfully take revenge at the Stadio delle Alpi, Mr. Twain?”

”I have a lot of respect for Juventus. It's a great team. Since it was founded in 1897, it has gained a total of...” Twain began to recite a brief summary of Juventus, which took about two minutes. After the summary, he said to the reporter who asked the question, ”Do you understand what I mean?”

The Italian reporter's mind had temporarily lost its ability to think, but it was impossible for the media to let him go so easily.

Another reporter took over and piped up, ”You know Juventus very well, Mr. Twain, but you still did not say whether tomorrow's game will be a revenge battle for Nottingham Forest.”

Twain stared at the reporter, who stood up for a while. His eyes slowly became cold. The reporters anticipated Twain to suddenly slam on the table, become hostile, and yell. There would be a good show. That kind of expression only appeared for a second.

He suddenly smiled and said, ”If revenge breeds revenge, will there ever be an end to it? I'm not interested in revenge. I'm only interested in winning.”

The answer greatly disappointed the reporters. They had to throw the question to Ranieri and ask if he was worried about Nottingham Forest's revenge at Stadio delle Alpi.

Ranieri was not tricked by the media either. His answer was precisely the same as that of Twain. ”I'm not interested in that kind of question.”

Due to Twain's sudden anomaly, the press conference, which should have a lot of attention-grabbing news, ended in an awkward silence.

As they left the press conference, Twain stopped Ranieri and offered to shake his hand;. ”Hopefully tomorrow is a great game,” he smiled and said in Italian.

Ranieri was a little surprised. ”I didn't know you spoke Italian, Mr. Twain.”

”A little.” In actual fact, he did not know any at all. Twain made a concentrated effort to quickly memorize the sentence at the last minute before coming.

Ranieri smiled. ”I hope so too, Mr. Twain.”

After Twain's farewell, the smile on Ranieri's face gradually vanished. He felt that he was unable to make sense of the man. Ever since he had to play against him, his performance had become more and more unusual. In the face of the reporter's numerous provocations, he did not get angry on the spot. Did his temper improve because of the heart attack? Did his unusual behavior have anything to do with the game?

Ranieri shook his head and did not think about such meaningless things. Juventus would only play their own football. No matter what tricks Twain pulled, they would be pointless in the face of Juventus. It was a team that was so stable beyond hope.

※※※

”No one asked me how I was going to play against Juventus. Their attention was diverted to other places.” In the hotel room, Twain was talking to Dunn about the press conference that took place in the afternoon. ”We'll surprise them tomorrow!”

Meanwhile, at the hotel Juventus stayed in, Ranieri gathered all the players and coaches for a final tactical meeting. At the meeting, he would make clear the tactics to be used by the team tomorrow and the countermeasures to the tactics that the opponent might use.

It was a meeting directly related to the outcome of the next day's game. Everyone had to take it seriously.