Chapter 85: Nan Changing Room Curse

When Nottingham Forest was training hard for their first League Cup title in twelve years, news came from the league committee that was definitely not good for them.

The league committee announced the distribution results of the locker rooms of the teams of both sides in the League Cup final.

According to the practice of "the southern team uses the southern locker room, and the northern team uses the northern locker room", Middlesbrough, which is more north than Nottingham, has obtained the right to use the northern locker room, while Nottingham Forest can only accept the arrangement of fate - using the "cursed" Millennium Stadium South locker room.

As soon as this result came out, the local media in Nottingham was in a turmoil.   The majority of people lamented the unfair fate and emphasized fatalism.    There are a few people who believed that the practice of "the southern team uses the southern locker room, and the northern team uses the northern locker room" was unreasonable and should be cancelled from now on and used to decide on lottery draws.

Middlesbrough was full of joy. In addition to advocating that fate is beneficial to their team, the Middlesbrough media also did not forget to continue to attack their opponents' confidence. They opposed the cancellation or change of this convention, because the city of Middlesbrough itself is located in England very north, even northerly than them. There are only two teams with the strength that are likely to reach the finals of this kind of cup, Newcastle and Sunderland.

The evidence they used to refute Nottingham media seems very convincing - before the 2002 FA Cup final, Chelsea and Arsenal entered the finals. Although they are both teams in the southern city of London, Arsenal is in North London, while Chelsea is in West London, which is further south than Arsenal, so they have to use that South locker room. Before that, the Millennium Stadium replaced the rebuilt Wembley Stadium to hold the finals of various England events (including the FA Cup, Community Shield Cup, League Cup, and League Cup. Play-off knockout matches in the English League Two) in the first eighteen months, all the balls used in the South locker room were used in the first eighteen months of the first round of the FA Cup, Community Shield Cup, and League Cup.

The team lost in the final without exception. The South locker room in the Millennium Stadium is also considered a cursed locker room. Chelsea naturally was unwilling to lose this important game because of "North and South Destiny", so they protested to the FA. The FA was forced to decide whether both sides would choose the locker room by throwing coins. In the end, Chelsea still drew to the South locker room. In order to compete with the "North and South Dressing Room Curse", Chelsea wore "Lucky White Socks" in that game. What was the result? They lost 0:2 to Arsenal in the final, and Palor and Lungberg scored for Arsenal.

Middlesbrough media used Chelsea’s example to tell Nottingham media: In the face of a strong fate, you should not struggle to death! Even if you draw lots by guessing the coin, you will still draw in the South locker room, and you will still lose to Middlesbrough!

This is the result that has been arranged long ago!

As soon as the locker room incident came out, Tang En felt that there was a chance - he could make good use of it. As for how to use it, it depends on the specific situation.

He had heard about the South Dressing Room of the Millennium Stadium when he was a fan. It was indeed quite evil. In the 17 finals held there, the team that won the finals fourteen times used the North Dressing Room. There were only three times in the South Dressing Room, two of which were Arsenal's land. The other victory was the second division upgrade play-offs with no weight. The one who won was Stoke City, which used the South Dressing Room. However, three wins still could not change the idea that "the South Dressing Room of the Millennium Stadium is ominous" in most people's minds. There is a reason to prove it.

Before Stoke City and Arsenal won the victory. The Millennium Stadium specially invited a Feng Shui master from China to give them advice. Finally, after changing the placement of several facilities, local Welsh artist Vikari asked a seven-foot-long mural of the phoenix, galloping horse and sun to block the curse for the South locker room. Sure enough, Stoke City and Arsenal won one after another.

Just when people thought the spell would be completely broken by Arsenal, they lost to Manchester United in the Community Shield, so the South locker room curse at Millennium Stadium continued...

The impact of this spell on the team cannot be ignored. Most people who play football are superstitious, and there are many rules that seem strange, such as women cannot ride in the same car as the team. There are also some personal little superstitious things, such as having to step into the court with the team before going on the court, and some coaches will definitely wear their own lucky tie... and so on.

Tang En was not a superstitious person, but considering the overall situation of the team, he also had to be superstitious.

At this time, you say to those players, "The curse is a deception! That is superstition and unscientific! Strength is the basis for winning", and no one pays attention to you.

There is a very favorable factor for Don En - he loves and is obsessed with Chinese culture and knows everything, let alone the team. The person who temporarily broke the curse of the South locker room in the Millennium Stadium happens to be a Chinese Feng Shui master, and the whole UK knows this.

So, if the team does not lose the psychological battle before the game, Tang En will pretend to be a fool this time!

So when he was interviewed by reporters, Tang En seemed to be full of confidence in the game. He was not worried about the "curse" in the South locker room. Not only that, he also seemed to be unintentionally talking about asking a Feng Shui master to break the curse. Pierce Bruce was very clever to guess the subtext of Tang Endi. So the next day in the Nottingham Evening Post, Bruce wrote:

"...Coach Tang En mentioned asking Feng Shui masters to break the spell, and we all know that he likes Chinese culture very much. It is said that after his Chinese teacher came back from China, he brought him a mysterious gift, which he had never mentioned to others. So what is a 'mysterious gift'?"

What is the "mysterious gift"? In fact, there is nothing mysterious, it's just a set of Hanfu, because Tang En told Yang Yan that she likes Chinese traditional culture very much. Yang Yan went back and thought for a long time that buying Hanfu gave Tang En was considered a representative thing, and she also wanted to see a foreigner with a high nose and white skin wearing Hanfu. But because of Tang En's work nature, he has to wear a suit and shirt almost all year round, so the Hanfu is hung in the closet.

Fortunately, the Hanfu that Yang Yan bought for Tang En is not those fancy and colorful clothes. Otherwise, Tang En would be really hard to use as a Taoist robe... Although foreigners don't understand it anyway, the actor's props should be a little more professional.

As for another very important tool, he could only ask Yang Yan to help. He asked her to help search for Chinatown in Manchester to find out if there is any compass sold. He thought that some traditional things like Chinatown were better preserved than mainland China, and compass should be easy to find.

Yang Yan asked him what he wanted to do for that thing, and Tang En told her his plan. Yang Yan on the other end of the phone smiled happily: "Mr. Tang En, I'll wait to watch your dance master perform on TV then!"

They can now communicate directly in Chinese. Yang Yan is not afraid that Tang En won’t understand what “Drink God” means.

"Can you help win even if you pretend to be a ghost?" Yang Yan asked then.

"Well, this question is hard to answer. But you can regard this as a team's psychological adjustment job..."

"Since you said that, football coaches seem to be very interesting!"

"Haha, the team's locker room is more interesting. But I'm so sorry, I can't tell you these stories." Tang En's words are good. The locker room is a very mysterious place for outsiders. There are many interesting and fun stories happening every day. Players and coaches regard this as their own private place and do not allow anyone to explore. There are many unspoken rules in the football world. "No one in the team is allowed to reveal everything that happens in the locker room" is one of them. Tang En is the head coach, and he cannot violate this rule, otherwise he will soon lose the trust of the players and the respect of his colleagues. He cannot control the team's head coach and waste.

Two days after the phone call with Yang Yan, just before Tang En was about to lead the team to Cardiff, he received the express package from Manchester, which was exactly what he needed for the compass.

It is a compass that is engraved with Chinese characters and gossip symbols, which seems very mysterious in the eyes of foreigners.

With this thing, Tang En is confident that he can scare everyone. It is estimated that the English media will have another sensation. When he thinks of this, he will be happy that the prank is about to succeed.

Cardiff, the capital of Wales, is the location of the Millennium Stadium in the League Cup final.   It is not too far from Nottingham. Middlesbrough is going to play here and they have to take a plane, while Forests just need to take the team bus all the way.

On the bus, the players were not in high spirits. Obviously they were frightened by the "Nan locker room curse". Many people thought it was an unlucky sign, indicating that the team would lose. The team is a whole. If one person thinks this way, it may affect two people, two people affect four people, four people affect eight people, eight people affect sixteen people... and so on. In the end, even if you say "those are nonsense without foundation". In fact, you will also ask yourself in your heart, "Is the curse true? Will we really lose because of using the Nan locker room?"

The so-called "three people become tigers" means this. This is the same as the "HK fear" in Chinese football. It turned out that they only had wins and losses, and it was nothing to lose continuously. Later, the media proposed the concept of "HK fear" and tried hard to hype it. In the end, even the Chinese team itself felt that they were born to fear South Korea, even if they were a team composed of players of all ages in 1989 years, and they were not born at the beginning of "HK fear" and were also "HK fear".

Tang En knew very well that people's words were terrifying. Look at these silent players in the carriage. When did they go to away games before, they didn't talk or laugh?

This mental state cannot win the ball. Before the game was played, my team had already lost in terms of morale and desire to win. How should I play in the next game?

This is not possible, but he was prepared for it.

The bus driver was driving attentively, and suddenly he found that there was someone else around him. He turned his head to see. It turned out that it was Mr. Tony Tangen, the team's head coach, holding a CD in his hand and was putting it into the on-board DVD machine. After a quick glance, he only saw that the words "85'live_aid" seemed to be written on the cover of the CD.

After putting the CD into the player, Tang En operated it again. Then he stood at the front door of the car with the remote control, looking at the people who lowered their heads and were silent, or turned their heads to look out the window. The players in the world were worried and pressed the play button.

A huge buzzing sound suddenly came from the car audio, like a stadium stand, cheers, applause, boo... It suddenly sounded without warning, and everyone in the car was startled.

Then the noise gradually faded, and a drum beat sounded familiarly. The team members in the car raised their heads in surprise.

This is a piece of the Queen's singing in a charity concert held in London Hyde Park in 1985 to aid Africa and attract the public's attention to the areas in need. It was the greatest rock live performance ever selected by music critics. The song with the drums was the famous "we_will_rock_you". This is a classic rhythm that makes people excited. Don En noticed that there were already players in the carriage playing slap.

The voice of "www.piaotian.comercury" is even more explosive.

Then, in this singing, Tang En spoke.

"I plan to add a new rule to the team - before we go to Millennium Stadium and Wembley Stadium, we will play this song on the team bus. Look at your surprised expression... Do you think we can only go this time in our life?" He smiled, "It's just a start after the League Cup final. There are more and more finals waiting for us, and more and more championship trophys waiting for us to get. So I think it's necessary to set such a tradition. Okay, guys, don't always frown. I know what you are worried about, but I don't think you need to worry about it at all."

"Cardiff Millennium Stadium. Teams using the South locker room cannot win. This kind of spell has existed for a while. But this spell is not impeccable. I said you all should know Arsenal and Stoke City? They won the game and they used the South locker room."

"But, boss." Hut raised his hand honestly. "That's because he invited that... that... that... what..."

He was "that" for a long time, but he couldn't speak the following words. As a result, everyone was grinned by his "that".

Tang En turned his head and listened, but when he saw that the Germans couldn't put the word in, he had to say for him: "Fengshui master. They invited a Chinese Fengshui master to temporarily break the curse of the southern locker room."

Hu Te nodded vigorously, indicating that he was the one who meant. The others in the car also agreed.

Tang En spread his hands and took something out from behind like a magic trick: "Does anyone know what this is?"

The compass he was holding was the compass.

No one knew what this was, everyone looked at the compass in Tang En's hand and shook their heads.

"I think I found a Chinese teacher. You should all know about learning with her and doing good grades, right?"

Everyone nodded.

"Very good, Feng Shui is also part of Chinese traditional culture, so I can do it." Tang En shamelessly put the hat of "proficient in Feng Shui" on his head. In fact, not to mention now, even when he was in China, he knew very little about Feng Shui. "This is a compass. In China. It is used to survey Feng Shui and drive away those curses inauspicious places."

After hearing Tang En say this, the expressions in the players' eyes changed. Many people looked at their head coach in surprise, as if they were still a little confused.

Tang En smiled confidently on his face: "What? Will I lie to you?" He found that he was so suitable to "pretend"... Why didn't he find this talent before? "When I said we would win, have we ever failed?"

"No!" the players replied in unison, which was what they were most proud of. Nottingham Forest has not yet suffered a loss in the league since Tony Donn accepted the team midway through the season.

"Isn't that all? Don't worry, by the day of the game, I will definitely be able to resolve the curse of the South locker room of the Thousand Year Stadium! So, you don't have to worry about any curse. And I think... Maybe, when the finals are over, the media will start hyping the 'North locker room curse' again!"

Everyone, including the bus driver who was originally focused on driving, burst into laughter.

"This is right, this is right! This is Nottingham Forest!"

The music on the sound continues, and the voice of the greatest band singer in British rock history is still full of passion.
Chapter completed!