Hart's arrival changed Tony's life trajectory. The newly arrived Hart lacked a trusted assistant, and at this time, he took a liking to the studious and ambitious Tony Dunn. He then suggested to the club to offer Dunn a new contract, and from then on, Tony became Hart's assistant coach, one of the four assistant coaches of the Forest youth team. It was also at this point that he embarked on his coaching career.

Hart greatly valued the diligent and eager-to-learn Tony, who never wasted words or rambled on. No matter the occasion, he would bring Tony along, and Tony learned a lot from this successful youth team coach.

The Forest team's youth training level had always been among the best in England, and the arrival of Paul Hart took the Forest youth training to an even higher level. He brought an outstanding youth squad to the Forest team, and among them, the most exceptional was a young man named Jermaine Jenas (Jermaine Jenas).

The team performed excellently in the first half of the season, and Pierce demonstrated his talent as a coach. However, the club's board made another foolish mistake: instead of officially appointing Pierce, they brought in Bassett to co-manage the team with him. The division of power weakened the team's fighting strength, and inevitably, the team was relegated to the First Division that season.

After relegation, the Forest team was taken over by the current club chairman Nigel Doherty, who chose to trust Bassett. Bassett lived up to expectations, and after just one year in the lower division, the Forest team was promoted again. But the dream lasted only a year; in the 1999–2000 season, the Forest team was relegated once more, and Bassett was dismissed. Doherty then appointed David Platt as the team's head coach. However, from that point on, the team never recovered, unable to return to the Premier League, and instead, year after year in the First Division, they gradually lost their former passion and sharpness.

In the summer of 2001, the English FA appointed Platt as the head coach of the England youth team, and Platt handed his position as Forest head coach to Paul Hart. Paul Hart then left his position as youth team head coach to Tony Dunn—it was Hart who recommended him to Doherty, believing that Tony Dunn had the talent to become a successful coach.

The highly valued Jenas also followed Hart up to the first team, fighting for the Forest team in the First Division.

Tony Dunn truly had some ability, even though his later achievements with the youth team were built on the foundation left by Paul Hart. While he was the youth team head coach, several players began to stand out in the youth team, quickly becoming the focus of attention. For example, left midfielder Andy Reid (Andy Reid), and the youth team captain and central defender Michael Dawson (Michael Dawson).

Tony Dunn hoped to become as successful a youth team coach as Paul Hart. He enjoyed the thrill of discovering one or two gems among a large group of kids, and the sense of accomplishment in seeing tender young players grow into towering trees under his guidance was no less than leading a team to win the European Champions Cup.

However, his peaceful life was changed three days ago.

Paul Hart was not an unskilled coach. In the summer of 2001, the team made him head coach in hopes of achieving promotion to the Premier League. For this, Doherty invested heavily, even borrowing from the bank for team development. From the media to the fans, everyone was full of confidence in the team's future. As the Nottingham Evening Post put it, "This is a Premier League team that shouldn't be in the First Division." They were exceptionally strong, their ambitions were high... but all of this was fundamentally changed by a disaster off the football pitch.

Previously, in order to compete with Sky TV's Premier League broadcasts, England's Independent Television Digital (ITV Digital) spent a huge sum to acquire the broadcasting rights for all English leagues outside the Premier League. However, the First Division couldn't match the Premier League's appeal, and the TV station spent big but didn't get the expected returns. The company's financial burden increased, and eventually, unable to bear it, they declared bankruptcy.

When the city gate catches fire, the fish in the moat suffer. Countless lower-league club owners and coaches found themselves penniless overnight, deep in debt. The star players they had signed for high fees now became the team's biggest burden. The Forest team had invested the most at the start of the season, so they were naturally hit hardest by this economic crisis. After a failed season, in order to ease the financial crisis, they had no choice but to sell off their high-salary players. Among them was Jermaine Jenas, known as the representative of England's youth training level, who transferred to Newcastle for five million pounds, setting a record for the most expensive young player in English football history.

Jenas's transfer was not out of his or the coach's wishes, but a forced move to alleviate the club's financial crisis. So even though clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal, and Manchester United made offers for him, he ultimately chose Newcastle, who offered the highest price. The forced sale of his favorite player was a huge blow to Paul Hart, and his original ambitions vanished with Jenas's departure.