Godfather Of Champions

The layers of dense fog that loomed over Dunn were parted, at least on the face of things. After answering a number of the reporters’ questions at the press conference, everyone learned what Dunn was like, the story behind his arrival at Nottingham Forest, and so on. This material was enough for the Chinese media to report continuously for one week without repeating the same details.

However, there were fewer reporters outside the Wilford training base than before. The British media and other foreign media were gone, leaving only the Chinese media to hold down the fort.

Sun Jihai did not have a main position at Nottingham Forest, so there was no story to write about him. It was the assistant manager, Dunn, who had become the favorite in the eyes of the Chinese media.

The publicity of Chinese players who went abroad was dull. The current popularity of the Chinese players abroad on major websites was also very low, because most of the players didn’t do well overseas. Sun Jihai was probably the most well-off player now, simply because he was in Nottingham Forest, the most impressive team at the moment. But he was not an indispensable force. If they published every little thing about Sun Jihai, they would be suspected of deception.

A Chinese coach abroad was a new point of publicity. No one had ever done this before. A sense of novelty filled the hearts of the Chinese readers and they followed this coach’s words and actions with interest.

Dunn didn’t want to be exposed to the media, in the spotlight. He just wanted to be a coach and study soccer. He didn’t care about anything else, but it was no longer up to him.

For example, three days after the press conference, the Nottingham Forest Football Club received a fax from Beijing, China.

“CCTV5 would like to come to the United Kingdom to shoot a feature on Dunn.’

Looking at Dunn’s miserable face, Twain gleefully agreed to the other party’s request.

He certainly wasn’t trying to embarrass Dunn on purpose. Twain just thought that this was a good opportunity to make Dunn open up more.

Dunn’s character was a little like a tube of toothpaste. He required squeezing to open up. Without pressure from the outside world, he might just go on living the way he did and never change. Just like if they hadn’t transmigrated, Dunn would probably continue living in a hard shell and become a loser at Nottingham Forest. He would be sacked as acting manager and returned to the youth team… and then be one for the rest of his life, until he retired.

If he hadn’t met Twain and hadn’t had the man nag at him and think of ways to make him talk all the time, he would not have become what he was now.

Twain was an external force that changed Dunn. Dunn still required more external forces. This time, the media exposure for Dunn might be a good thing, even if it made him uncomfortable.

Unwilling to? Don’t like it? This is no excuse, you have to face these problems and try to solve them with a mindset you’d never think of. This is not the time to negatively withdraw into your shell and think that the rest of the world doesn’t exist.

Therefore, Twain pushed Dunn to this point, and he accepted CCTV5’s request for an interview.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, Dunn. They’re just reporters; they’re not going to swallow you up,” Twain sniggered and comforted Dunn as he looked at him. Dunn had been frowning all day long since he heard this news.

“I know that… I just don’t know what to do…”

“What to do? What do you need to do? It’s written clearly right here, isn’t it?” Twain pointed to a stack of documents in his hand. It was the same as the shoot with Gloria. Tony Twain required CCTV5 to also provide a more detailed and specific shooting plan. He had to agree to this matter before it was considered done. “They’re just going to follow you in your daily life and training work. If it’s possible, they will also film a game.”

With creased brows, Dunn said, “I’m not used to putting my life on display publicly…”

Twain patted him on the shoulder. “Sooner or later, you have to get used to it. Just follow me and you’ll get used to it.”

Dunn looked up at him. “You’re a famous figure…”

“Ah, haha!” Twain finally stopped his sniggering. This time he had a good laugh.

“I’m not used to exposing my life to other people and then letting others judge. I’m not used to it…”

“Dunn. You have to get to the level where you forge your own path and don’t let someone else dictate it. No matter what others say about you, their assessment will not influence your life, nor will it affect you one bit. You’re still you, and you’re not going to change based on what other people think of you. If you’re someone who cares so much about other people’s opinions, would you have lived such an isolated life for more than thirty years?” Twain was referring to the Dunn before his move.

After listening to Twain’s words, Dunn was silent for a moment before he added, “But their intention in coming here is to report on a real Chinese coach. Am I one?”

Twain was also quiet for a moment. Sometimes, they would feel uncomfortable talking about both of their messy identities.

“Uh, this… In fact, this problem is very simple. You’re Chinese through and through. An authentic Chinese man.”

Dunn looked up and asked Twain, “What about you?”

Inside the dim room, Twain’s eyes twinkled, “Me?” He pointed to the sky where the sun was setting outside the window. “Have you ever noticed the clouds that drift in the sky? I’m those.”

Dunn’s gaze followed to where Twain pointed and looked out of the window at the red clouds in the sky.

He understood the idea in Twain’s heart.

He clearly had a home which he could not return to, and his biological parents were still alive, but he could only pretend to be Dunn’s friend and acknowledge them as godparents so he couldn’t openly address them as “Dad” and “Mom.”

A cloud was rootless…

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After Twain agreed to CCTV5’s shooting plan, the other party moved quickly. The crew arrived in Nottingham three days later.

For this kind of topic that society was currently concerned with, they were not willing to let it out so that other media outlets would get all the glory. They had an advantage over those print media in that the other people’s articles were in words or images, but they could produce video coverage. Motion coverage was obviously more appealing to the audience than static images.

After the production crew came, Twain went over to say hello as the team’s manager and give the appearance of being a leader, then he left them alone after. He handed the task of receiving the visitors over to Dunn.

Dunn would introduce the situation to the team and tell them what to watch out for during filming, and so on. On top of that, Dunn’s work remained the same, and he was still in charge of the team’s training.

As for the shoot during his daily life, due to the fact that Twain and Dunn lived together, the two of them felt that it wouldn’t be good for them to be filmed together. They didn’t want to be on the covers of gay magazines in the United Kingdom.

Therefore, taking advantage of this opportunity, Dunn took the initiative to move out, but he did not move too far away. He moved right next door. It would not prevent the two of them from coming together often to study the game videos and tactics. It was only to let the media see that there was no inexplicable relationship between the two of them.

The CCTV5 production crew would certainly follow Dunn to Twain’s house in the evening to film. They would film the two men watching a game video together to discuss the tactical scenes. This was no problem. If Dunn hadn’t moved out, they might have been filmed going upstairs together.

The production crew was excited when they found out that they could go to Tony Twain’s house to shoot, because when they had conducted an investigation, they had discovered that no media outlets had ever been allowed to enter this individualistic manager’s house so far. CCTV5 in China would be the first media outlet to enter Twain’s home.

Twain didn’t mind a Chinese media outlet filming in his own home. Anyway, there was nothing much to shoot. With Dunn moved out, his private life was so impeccable that it was unassailable. Apart from his heavy drinking, he had nothing else that the press could criticize. And heavy drinking was a social phenomenon in Britain, since it was normal for an Englishman to drink heavily, so the media would not make a fuss about it.

Seeing the Chinese journalists’ excited expressions, he felt that the CCTV5 crew would soon be tired of filming Dunn’s life, because this person’s life was so hopelessly simple and dry. Even when he had lived with him, he would study the videotapes on the television screen all day long. The Chinese viewers wouldn’t want to see their hero, who could save Chinese soccer in their minds, with his back to the camera and motionlessly facing the television screen for two hours, would they?

※※※

After settling all these issues, Twain single-mindedly led the team in training to prepare for the next round of the league tournament. While Dunn was having a hard time with his shoot, the second round of the league tournament was completed. Nottingham Forest, named “powerful” by the media, defeated Tottenham Hotspur with a score of 2:0 in the away game.

Nottingham Forest had scored victories in both rounds of the league tournament.

Along with Ferguson’s Manchester United, they were currently the two teams that won all their games, and the Forest team were in second place with fewer goals.

Chelsea, led by Mourinho, another madman manager who claimed that he wanted to defend his league title before the season, had encountered some trouble—the league had already had two rounds, and Chelsea’s results were just one win and one loss. They had won against Manchester City in the first round of the league and unexpectedly lost to Middlesbrough in the away match in the second round.

It was worth mentioning that the player who had reversed the score for Middlesbrough and scored the final deciding goal, was Mark Viduka, who had transferred from Nottingham Forest.

BBC’s comment on this was that “Tony Twain continued his record of victory over José Mourinho on another battleground with a former Forest player.”

This comment certainly displeased Chelsea supporters, and Mourinho also thought that this was nonsense, so he said, “This world will be stupid if the performance of a player playing for a new team can still be counted as the former team’s record.”

Tony Twain also gave his opinion on these comments. He was on Mourinho’s side this time.

“Viduka is a fantastic player, and I was well aware of that when he played at Nottingham Forest. I’m glad to see the success he has accomplished in Middlesbrough. Still, the feud between Manager Mourinho and I needs to be addressed by us in person… What? Did I say the word ‘feud’? Haha, how can it be! You must have misheard me! What I mean is that Manager Mourinho and I are respectively the managers of Chelsea and Nottingham Forest, so the competition between us must be between Nottingham Forest and Chelsea. Is this clearer for you to understand?”

Twain said this at a regular press conference after being asked about it.

The media certainly understood. Did it not mean that the matters between him and Mourinho were just between the two of them? Others weren’t allowed to meddle. It was just more tactful to say so.

The CCTV5 reporters were also at the scene and had a close look at the special character of Tony Twain, the individualistic manager. Those people, who had previously commented on the actions and words of this man, had said the truth—it was hard to form a simple conclusion about him.

Everyone had heard him say “feud” just now, but he had denied it in less than ten seconds, and he did it with a calm expression and even breath, as if he had spoken casually.

To put it bluntly, how could a person’s skin be so thick?

To say it nicely, uh, was there a nicer way to put it?

This group of confused Chinese journalists decided to ask Dunn this. Who was Tony Twain, the manager with two extreme sides? After all, Dunn was the one who interacted with him the most.

As a result, Dunn’s answer was a great disappointment to them.

“I don’t know exactly what kind of person he is.”

Under the reporter’s patient and systematic guidance for a long time, he blurted out, “You can’t simply use ‘good’ or ‘bad’ to describe him. Or more precisely, you can’t use a simple ‘good’ or ‘bad’ to judge him.”

※※※

Nottingham Forest wasn’t surprised that the media was shadowing and filming them. When Gloria had first come, everyone had shown some interest because it was a beautiful woman. Now that this production crew consisted mainly of men in suits, who would still care?

Furthermore, the Forest players were no longer ordinary players these days. They could be called star players. They had long been used to training under the spotlight and surrounded by the media——after the start of the new season, more and more reporters came there every day in hopes of an interview. It all boiled down to their last season’s success.

A lot of media would follow, even if they went to an away game. They were like sharks following behind a whaling ship. Some people would enjoy the fame, and some people wouldn’t, like Dunn. Now, wherever he went, a four-person crew would follow behind him. When other people paid attention to the reporters with East Asian faces, they would also check him out. This was not the life he wanted.

However, he was also not someone who complained about things when he encountered difficulties. Therefore, no matter how much he didn’t like it, he still worked very hard to cooperate with the other party’s work. It was part of his job, too. His attitude towards work was based on his personal emotions, and work was work. This was the difference between him and Twain. Twain often put his personal emotions into his work, and it had become his unique style…

Fortunately for Dunn, “The Truman Show” kind of life was coming to an end. Two days before the start of the third match of the league tournament, the CCTV5 crew told Dunn that they were going to leave Nottingham and return home after filming this game. The third round of Nottingham Forest’s game against Fulham would be the last shot.

Dunn heaved a sigh of relief. There was an inexplicable pressure of being stared at, leaving him a little breathless. Although Twain had said to him “It’s nothing much. Just work and live as you usually do,” how could he actually treat these people like the air around him? Of course it was going to affect his work…

Subsequently, the third match of the league tournament was getting closer under such circumstances.

The third round of the league tournament was an away game for Nottingham Forest. This time, the opponent was not strong—Fulham, the eighteenth placed team who had one defeat and one draw. The CCTV5 crew had chosen this game for their filming. This was a carefully selected result. Although it was a bit of a shame not to be able to capture the atmosphere at their home ground, the opponent for this match was not strong, and Twain’s team would easily secure a win. For this shot, it would also be counted as a happy ending.