Godfather Of Champions

The first thing Twain did when he started his work was turn down the other clubs’ bids for George Wood, Gareth Bale, Pepe, Kompany and the others. Real Madrid’s offer for van der Vaart had also been rejected. But unlike the rejections for the few other players, the reason for this time was not that Rafael was not for sale, but that Real Madrid’s offer was not high enough.

Twain decided to sell van der Vaart after considering it over and over again, based on the following points: Firstly, van der Vaart himself did not necessarily have the desire to stay at Nottingham Forest; Secondly, he could fetched a good price; Thirdly, Twain had already prepared an alternative course of action.

There was still Şahin with van der Vaart gone. Even if Şahin was too young, there was still Tiago. Moreover, George Wood was no longer the midfielder who only knew how to defend.

Although the global economic crisis had affected the financial situation of the football clubs, the Spanish teams were different from the English Premier League teams. They were membership clubs and never had to worry about how to make money—they could not make money as they were non-profit organizations—they only needed to think about how to spend money. For the rich and imposing Real Madrid, that was hardly a problem.

Since Real Madrid saw Nottingham Forest as a supermarket for players, Twain did not mind jacking up the price.

His reply was that they need not bother to talk to him with less than thirty million euros.

He was not afraid to scare off Real Madrid. Anyway, he would not lose out if van der Vaart did not leave. He might be glad to see it happen in his mind.

Real Madrid had yet to react to the new quoted price for a short time. They just knew that Twain would not block van der Vaart’s departure. Then in that case, the next thing was about the money, which was easy to handle.

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The seventeen-year-old John Bostock and seventeen-year-old Nicolás Millán separately received a call from the First Team assistant manager, David Kerslake. He informed them that they did not have to return to the youth team once the team started training in the new season and, but to report directly to the First Team.

The news made the two young guys wild with joy. They had trained in the youth team for a year and finally got the chance to play for the First Team. It might not be good news for the club during the current crisis of not having the money for the team to buy new players, but for the young players, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As long as they grabbed hold of the opportunity, they could rise rapidly all the way. Success and recognition would be a cinch.

Although Millán was Chilean, he did not have the problem of not being able to play because he could not obtain a work permit. In the past year, Nicolás Millán acquired Italian citizenship and now had dual citizenship for Chile and Italy. He did not need a work permit to be able to play.

In Twain’s new plan, Bostock would team up with Şahin to take on the heavy responsibility of establishing the links in the midfield, while Millán would become the team’s striker to attack and score for the Forest team.

Bostock was already selected for England’s under-18 squad. He had represented the Forest team to play in the FA Youth Cup on several occasions last year. He performed outstandingly and was named one of England’s top ten most promising and hopeful under-eighteen star players by the English media. Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere was number one and John Bostock was in the seventh spot. Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United once battered each other in the contest for him, but in the end it was Tony Twain who profited from the fight. After Twain put him in the youth team for a season, the future member of the England national team finally had the opportunity to prove himself in a higher level of competition.

With Nuri Şahin, who was about to turn twenty-one, the twenty-two-year-old George Wood, the nineteen-year-old Aaron Lennon, as well as the seventeen-year-old John Bostock, the Forest team’s midfield lineup for the new season was arguably the youngest in England.

This could somehow demonstrate Twain’s determination to set off a storm of youthfulness.

Nicolás Millán had already made a splash in Chilean football in Chile. He set the record for being the youngest player to make an appearance for Chile’s Colo-Colo when he played for the Colo-Colo’s First Team at fourteen years and nine months old. His subsequent performance attracted the attention of many teams in Europe. But in the end, Tony Twain struck first and brought Millán to England.

Millán’s technical features had a lot of similarities with Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo. He liked to use the wing to attack the opponent’s defensive line and made use of speed and skill to bypass the defenders. Then he directly threatened the goal. At the same time, he liked to scissor like Robinho.

For more than a year at the Forest youth team, Greenwood successfully made Millán aware of one thing—that being on the wings did not imply that he should limit himself to the sides. He needed to be more comprehensive or he would not survive in the brutal European professional leagues.

Now he was beginning to consciously move to the middle. After all, Twain needed a striker, not a mere winger. But it would take time for this change to happen slowly. It also took five seasons for Cristiano Ronaldo to go from being a winger who could only delight the spectators with fancy techniques in the wing to a killer who scored more than forty goals in a single season.

Twain also did not expect Millán to burst into a dazzling brilliance this season and make a name for himself immediately. Since he had determined to mainly use more young people, he had to be ready to bear the side effects brought on by the young people. Rebuilding the team required time.

In addition, the right midfielder Adriano Moke, who had been on loan for two seasons, was also included in the plan for the First Team this time as Lennon’s substitute. Greenwood was not bothered by it. Originally in the group of players, Moke’s standard was outstanding. Greenwood believed that if he was utilized properly, Moke would surprise Twain. The only problem was Moke’s injury-prone form. He was injured for two months after being loaned out last season.

Along with Moke, the left midfielder, Chris Cohen was also called to the First Team during the pre-season warm-up training camp. Cohen was already twenty-two years old. He did not have any outstanding performance since he moved from the youth team to the reserves. He was loaned out to Sheffield Wednesday last season and suddenly broke out instead. He often played well with thirty-one appearances in the EFL Championship. So much so that when he returned to Nottingham Forest after his loan expired at the end of the season, Sheffield Wednesday’s fax came hot on the heels of Cohen’s ass, asking if Nottingham Forest could sell him. Such a move attracted Twain’s interest. He intended to put Cohen by his side to observe carefully what had happened to the previously unobtrusive player and what were his advantages that he could use.

Compared to the more talented Moke who was more prominent in terms of speed, Cohen was even across the board for the skills indicators and was less prone to injury.

In previous seasons, Twain had rarely drawn so many players from the youth team to the First Team in one go. He was still more confident in those players who had proven their abilities. Even Lennon and Bale were chosen because they had proven themselves in the world before Twain’s transmigration.

This time, Twain completely put aside the so-called super-consciousness—in fact, he did not have foresight. Ignorance of the future actually made him excited. How many of these people would eventually succeed to become the future star players of the football world? Twain looked forward to it when he thought about the possibilities of the future. He felt a greater sense of accomplishment about it than signing Lennon and Bale through cheating.

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The transfer of four players from the youth team to the First Team at a time did not mean that Twain would not make any moves in the transfer market.

Real Madrid’s second bid to purchase van der Vaart was thirty million euros. This time Twain gave a big wave—agreed! Real Madrid’s people then went to discuss individual terms with van der Vaart’s agent. As for whether it could be successfully negotiated, Twain did not care. He only cared about how many players he could buy with the twenty-five million euros.

Arshavin was also tempted by Italy. Juventus hoped to bring in the new Russian tsar for eighteen million euros. In an interview with the Italian media, Arshavin also revealed his desire to leave and seek success in a new league tournament. Even though Nottingham Forest had won two UEFA Champions League titles, it was still considered a small player for him. A traditional powerhouse club such as Juventus was more attractive.

After Twain learnt of Arshavin’s stance, he turned down Juventus’s offer—it was not that he was not for sale, but he thought that the money was too little—and quoted a price which he could accept: twenty-six million euros. It was up to them to accept or not.

Juventus backed down…

Although Juventus refused to engage at the key moment, Bayern Munich stepped up. They made an offer of twenty-five million euros to the Forest team and hoped to bring in Arshavin. Twain stuck to his guns and insisted on a minimum of twenty-six million. Either we seal the deal, or the deal is off.

Bayern Munich hesitated for a while and finally agreed to the price.

Although he did not manage to go the long-established Serie A powerhouse team, Juventus, to be able to go to the Bundesliga traditional powerhouse, Bayern Munich, was also good for Arshavin.

On the same day that van der Vaart signed a personal contract with Real Madrid, Arshavin also struck a deal with Bayern Munich.

The three clubs made the announcements at the same time. Van der Vaart had joined the La Liga powerhouse, Real Madrid for a fee of thirty million euros and signed for four years. He would wear the number 23 jersey. Arshavin had signed a four-year deal with the Bundesliga giant, Bayern Munich for a transfer fee of twenty-six million euros.

The media had mixed reviews about the two transfers. Arshavin’s departure was understandable and acceptable. After all, he was not the core of Nottingham Forest’s offense. But van der Vaart’s departure was thought to be Tony Twain’s muddled move. How would Nottingham Forest play next season now that it had lost the playmaker in the midfield? Was he going to use Žigić and play long balls? Or would he completely just attack from the sides?

Nuri Şahin was not a player on the same level as van der Vaart at all in the eyes of the people. It was a pipe dream if he wanted to replace van der Vaart and play the role of the Dutchman. As for Bostock? He was too young…

In that case, what did Twain had in mind for selling van der Vaart so easily for thirty million?

In fact, Twain did not think much. He did intend to put Şahin in place, with Bostock to assist. But if it turned out that Şahin was too young to take on such an important role, Twain had a back-up. The back-up plan would require him to take a greater risk, and certainly invite the media’s harsh rebuke. But for Twain, the sense of accomplishment would also be the greatest.

The back-up plan was simple and nothing new. It was also not necessarily clever—he would let George Wood be in charge of organizing the attacks.

It was exciting, wasn’t it? To let a blue-collar worker become a white-collar worker and a gold collar worker. This was Albertini’s highest expectation of George Wood when he was still in the team. Twain believed that after so many years of training, it was time to give Wood a chance.

If Wood succeeded, then he would have a defensive midfielder who was an all-rounder in the midfielder, good in defense and offense, could run endlessly and be able to counter-press in the front field to launch an attack. If he practice his goal scoring well … he felt like this was fantastical just thinking about it.

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Arshavin’s departure compelled Twain to continue adding players to the forward line.

Nicolás Millán had talent, but he was too young and lacked experience to play in the European football arena. Therefore, he must not expect too much from him. Van Nistelrooy was still in recovery and was not expected to return to the pitch until the end of the year. It was not clear how much of a role he would play even when he returned. He naturally had to focus on training Žigić. But having only Žigić alone was clearly not enough. Eastwood was the most stable force in the team’s forward line at the moment. Although he suffered from minor injuries, it did not affect his goalscoring rate. He was the type of striker who always saved the team with goals at key moments.

He was Twain’s most reassuring striker.

In addition, he needed a fast and impactful striker.

Twain set his sights on Aston Villa. He was interested in Gabriel Agbonlahor who performed outstandingly last season and made thirty appearances for Aston Villa. He scored ten goals and made six assists.

Agbonlahor was very fast in speed, especially with his lauching speed. He could easily shake off the defenders marking him in parallel positions, and play both center forward and winger, which was very much in line with Twain’s desire for the players to be versatile.

For such a player, Aston Villa certainly would not let go easily. Twain decided to throw money at them.

Anyway, Evan said that since the stadium’s new construction was temporarily suspended, the club would naturally fully support Twain’s moves in the transfer market.

No matter how much money, as long as the club could afford, they would try their best to support.

Twain was grateful to Evan for this. He knew that Evan was counting on the club to make money, and he was thankful that Evan was a smart businessman with a long-term vision. Otherwise he might have sold the club during the economic crisis—although no one could know for certain if there would be still many people who were interested in buying a football club at this time.

Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa were at an impasse over Agbonlahor.

Aston Villa was determined not to sell. Their attitude was as tough as when they turned down Liverpool’s bid to buy the team captain, Barry last summer. However, Tony Twain tirelessly praised Agbonlahor’s outstanding performance during last season in the media and was generous in expressing his appreciation for the player. He was actually waiting for his own men to settle Agbonlahor’s agent. As long as Agbonlahor came forward to state his desire to leave, then Aston Villa would have to seriously consider whether to let go of the speedy player.

Just as the Forest team was engaged in a covert battle with Aston Villa, the future of Sun Jihai was also place on the desk for Twain.

The player’s fate was not as easy as what Twain had previously thought.

Imperceptibly, there was a line linking him to the future and fortunes of the club.