While Nottingham Forest were training hard for their first Carabao Cup title in 12 years, there was news from the league committee that was definitely not good for them.

The League Committee has announced the distribution of dressing rooms between the teams in the Carabao Cup final.

According to the convention of "the southern team uses the south dressing room, and the northern team uses the north dressing room", Middlesbrough, which is further north than Nottingham, has obtained the right to use the north dressing room, while Nottingham Forest can only reluctantly accept the arrangement of fate - to use the "cursed" south dressing room of the Millennium Stadium.

As soon as this result came out, the local media in Nottingham blew up. Those who lament the injustice of fate and emphasize fatalism are in the majority. There are also a few people who believe that the practice of "the South team uses the South Locker Room and the North Team uses the North Locker Room" is unreasonable, and that it should be abolished and replaced with the "bad custom" of drawing lots.

Middlesbrough, for their part, are happy to blossom, and the Middlesbrough media not only preach that fate is good for their team, but also continue to undermine the confidence of their opponents. They are opposed to abolishing or changing this practice, as Middlesbrough itself is a city far north of England, further north than they are, and there are only two teams with the quality to reach such a cup final, Newcastle and Sunderland.

The evidence they used to refute the Nottingham media looks very convincing – Chelsea and Arsenal were in the final before the 2002 FA Cup final, and although they were both teams from the southern city of London, Arsenal were in north London and Chelsea were in west London, further south than Arsenal, so they had to use that south dressing room. In the 18 months before the Millennium Stadium replaced the rebuilt Wembley Stadium to host the finals of all competitions in England (including the FA Cup, Community Shield, League Cup, and play-off knockout rounds of League Two), all the teams that used the South Dressing Room lost in the final. The South Locker Room at the Millennium Stadium is also considered to be the Cursed Locker Room. Naturally, Chelsea were not willing to lose this important game because of the "fate of the North and the South", so they protested to the FA, and the FA was forced to decide that the two sides should choose the dressing room by flipping a coin, and in the end Chelsea still drew the South dressing room. In order to compete with the 'South Dressing Room Curse', Chelsea wore the 'Lucky White Sox' in that game, and what was the result? They lost 2-0 to Arsenal in the final, with Palole and Ljungberg scoring goals.

The Middlesbrough media used the example of Chelsea to tell the Nottingham media: in the face of a strong fate, you don't want to die and struggle! Even if you draw lots by guessing the coin, you'll still be drawn to the South Dressing Room and you'll still lose to our Middlesbrough!

This is the result of a long time ago!

As soon as the locker room came out, Don felt like there was a drama - 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 Locker Room at the Millennium Stadium when he was a fan. Strangely enough, 14 of the 17 finals played there were won in the North dressing room, while only three in the South dressing room, two of which were won by Arsenal, and the other was a modest Second Division promotion play-off, won by Stoke City, who used the South dressing room. But three wins still can't change the perception that the South Locker Room at Millennium Stadium is ominous, and there is a reason to prove it.

Before the victory between Stoke City and Arsenal, the Millennium Stadium invited a feng shui master from China to advise them, and finally changed the arrangement of several facilities, and asked local Welsh artist Vicari to paint a seven-foot mural of the phoenix, galloping horse and sun for the south dressing room to hide the curse, and sure enough, Stoke City and Arsenal won one after another.

Just when people thought the spell would be broken by Arsenal, they lost to Manchester United in the Community Shield, and the curse of the South Dressing Room at the Millennium Stadium continued...... The impact of this spell on the team cannot be ignored. Most of the people who play football are superstitious, and there are many rules that seem strange, such as that women can't ride in the same car as the team. There are also some personal superstitions that are even more subtle, such as having to step into the court with your right foot before going on the field, and some coaches must wear their lucky ties...... Wait a minute.

Don is not a superstitious person, but from the perspective of the overall team, he also has to be superstitious.

That's when you say to the players, "Spells are all lies!" That's superstition, it's unscientific! Strength is the basis for winning", absolutely no one pays attention to you.

There was one factor that was very favourable for Donn – his love of Chinese culture was known to Nottingham, let alone the team. And the person who temporarily broke the curse of the South Locker Room of the Millennium Stadium happened to be a Chinese feng shui master, and the whole of Britain knew about it.

So, if you want the team not to lose the psychological battle before the game, Don has to pretend to be a ghost this time!

So when interviewed by reporters, Don En seemed to be full of confidence in the game, and he was not worried about the "curse" in the south locker room at all, not only that, but he also seemed to inadvertently talk about the Millennium Stadium inviting a feng shui master to break the curse. Pierce. Bruce was clever enough to guess Donn's subtext, so the next day in the Nottingham Evening Post Bruce wrote:

“…… Coach Donn mentioned asking a feng shui master to break the spell, and as we all know, he himself is very fond of Chinese culture, and it is said that his Chinese teacher brought him a mysterious gift after returning from China, which he never mentioned to others. So what kind of 'mystery gift' is it? ”

What exactly is a "mystery gift"? In fact, there is nothing mysterious about it, just a set of Hanfu, because Tang En told Yang Yan that he likes traditional Chinese culture very much, Yang Yan went back and thought about it for a long time, and felt that buying Hanfu and giving Tang En was a more representative thing, not to mention that she also wanted to see a foreigner with a high nose and white skin wearing Hanfu. But because of Tang En's work surname, 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 was not one of those bells and whistles that looked brightly colored, otherwise Tang En would really not be able to use it as a Taoist robe...... Although foreigners don't understand it anyway, how can this actor prop be a little more professional.

As for another very important tool, he could only ask Yang Yan for help. Ask her to help find out if there is a compass for sale in Manchester's Chinatown. He thought that some traditional things in Chinatown were better preserved than in Chinese mainland, and the compass should be easy to find.

Yang Yan asked him what he wanted that thing for, Tang En told her his plan, and Yang Yan on the other end of the phone smiled happily: "Mr. Tang En, I'm waiting to watch your dancing god performance on TV when the time comes!" ”

They can now communicate directly in Chinese, and Yang Yan is not afraid that Tang En will not understand what "dancing god" means.

"Can pretending to be a fool help win?" Yang Yan then asked.

"Well, that's not a good question to answer. But you can see it as a mental adjustment for the team......"

"Soccer coaches seem to be funny to hear you say!"

"Hehe, the team dressing room is more interesting. But I'm sorry, I can't tell you these stories. Don is right, the locker room is a very mysterious place for outsiders, and there are many interesting and interesting stories happening in it every day. The players and coaches treat it as their own private place and no one is allowed to explore it. There are a lot of unspoken rules in football, and one of them is that no one in the team is allowed to divulge everything that happens in the dressing room. Donn is the head coach and he can't break this rule, otherwise he will quickly lose the trust of his players and the respect of his colleagues, and the manager who can't control the team is no different from a waste.

Two days after the phone call with Yang Yan, just before Don was about to lead the team to Cardiff, he received a courier package from Manchester, which was exactly the compass he needed.

Engraved with Chinese characters and gossip symbols, the compass looks very mysterious in the eyes of foreigners.

With this thing, Don is confident that he can bluff everyone. It is estimated that the media in England will have to make a sensation again, and when he thinks of this, he has the joy that the prank is about to succeed.

Cardiff, the capital of Wales, is home to the Millennium Stadium, the final of the League Cup. It's not too far from Nottingham, Middlesbrough have to fly to play here, while Forest just have to take the team bus all the way through.

On the bus, the mood of the players was not high. Apparently they were frightened by the "South Locker Room Curse", which many people thought was an unlucky sign that the team would lose. The team is a whole, and if one person thinks like this, it can affect two people, two people affect four people, four people affect eight people, and eight people affect sixteen people...... And so on, even if you say "that's all unfounded nonsense" in the end, you will actually ask yourself, "Is the curse real?" Are we really going to lose because we used the South Locker Room? ”

The so-called "three people become tigers" is what it means. This is the same as the "Koreanophobia" of Chinese football, it turned out that it was just a mutual victory and defeat, and it was nothing to lose in a row, and then let the media put forward the concept of "Koreanophobia", and then desperately hyped it, and finally even the Chinese team itself felt that they were born with a fear of Korea, even if they were a team composed of players of all ages after the first year, they were not born when "Koreanophobia" first started, and they were also "Koreanphobic".

Don knows that human words are terrifying, look at these players who are silent in the carriage, when did everyone talk and laugh when they went to an away game before?

You can't win a game in this mental state. Before the game, my team has already lost in morale and winning, how will I play the next game?

It wasn't going to work, but he was prepared.

The driver of the bus was concentrating on driving, and suddenly noticed that there was an extra person next to him, and he turned his head to look. It turned out to be the team's head coach, Tony. Mr. Donn, holding a CD in his hand, is putting it in the car DVD player. At a hurried glance, he only saw what appeared to be the words "85'live_aid" on the cover of the disc.

Putting the disc into the player, Donn did it again. Then he stood at the front door of the car with the remote control, looked at the players who were silent, or turned their heads to look out the window, preoccupied, and pressed the play button.

Suddenly, there was a loud buzz from the car stereo like a stadium stand, cheers, applause, boos...... The sudden sound of mixing together without warning startled everyone in the car.

Then the noise died down, and a familiar drum beat sounded. The team members in the car all raised their heads in surprise.

This is a clip of the Queen's performance at a 1985 charity concert in London's Hyde Park to draw attention to the most needy areas in Africa, and was voted the greatest rock live performance of all time. The song that sounded with the drums was the famous "we_will_rock_you". It's a classic rhythm, one that makes people can't help but get excited, and Donn notices that there are already players in the carriage beating along.

"www.xstxt.orgercury, lead singer of Queen Queen" has a more explosive surname.

And then, in the midst of such singing, Donn spoke.

"I'm going to add a new rule to the squad – to play the song on the team buses before we go to Millennium Stadium and Wembley Stadium in the future. Look at your surprised expressions...... Do you think we're only going to go once in this life? He smiled, "It's just a start after the League Cup final, and there are more and more finals waiting for us, and there are more trophies waiting for us to win." So I think it's necessary to set such a tradition. Alright, guys, don't frown all the time. I know what you're worried about, but I don't think you need to worry about it at all. ”

"At the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, it is impossible for a team using the South Locker Room to win. Such spells have been around for some time. But the spell isn't invulnerable, and I say you all know about Arsenal and Stoke City, right? They won the game and they used the South Dressing Room. ”

"But, boss." The honest Hute raised his hand and said, "That's because I invited that ...... before the game That one...... What's that......"

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

Don originally turned his head sideways to listen, but seeing that the Germans couldn't hold back the word, he had to say it for him: "Feng Shui Master." They hired a Chinese feng shui master to temporarily break the spell in the South Locker Room. ”

Hutt nodded vigorously, indicating that he meant that. The rest of the car chimed in.

Donn stretched out his hand and pulled out something from his back like a trick: "Does anyone know what this is?" ”

It was the compass in his hand that he was holding.

No one would know what it was, and everyone looked at the compass in Donn's hand and shook their heads.

"I think, I found a Chinese teacher, studied with her, and then got good grades, you should all know about it, right?"

Everyone nodded.

"Very good, Feng Shui is also part of traditional Chinese culture, so it just so happens that I will too." Tang En was ashamed to put the hat of "proficient in feng shui" on his head. Actually, not to mention now, even when he was in China, he didn't know much about feng shui. "This is the compass, and in China, it is used to survey Feng Shui and drive away those unlucky curses."

Hearing Donn say this, the looks in the players' eyes changed. Many people looked at their head coach in surprise and seemed to have some doubts.

Don had a confident smile on his face: "What? Am I going to lie to you? He found himself so fit to "pretend" ...... Why hadn't you discovered this talent before? "Did you ever fail when I said we would win?"

"Nope!" The players replied in unison that it was the proudest thing for them. Since Tony. Since Donn took on the team midway through the season, Nottingham Forest have yet to taste a defeat in the league.

"Isn't that it? Rest assured, by the day of the game, I will be able to break the spell in the south dressing room of the Millennium Stadium! So, you don't have to worry about any spells at all. And I want to...... Perhaps, when the final is over, the media should start hyping up the 'North Locker Room Curse' again! ”

Everyone, including the bus driver, who had been concentrating on driving, burst out laughing.

"That's right, that's right! This is Nottingham Forest! ”

The music on the stereo continues, and the voice of the lead singer of the greatest band in the history of British rock is still full of passion.

"We are champions! My friend! We are the champions! Because we win every battle! We are the champions! We are the kings of the world! ”

(To be continued)