Godfather Of Champions

Everyone at the stadium was cheering when the referee blew on the whistle to signal the end of the match.

Twain stealthily left the stands behind once the whistle went off.

UEFA might have barred him access to the locker room and the pitch prior to the start of the match, but they did not ban him from getting into contact with his players after the match has ended.

He was finally able to bask in the joy of their victory over Barcelona after being banished to the stands for more than 90 minutes.

If possible, Twain hoped that he would be able to do a handshake with Guardiola. He wanted to enjoy the treatment that a victor deserves.

Mitchell, who had been sitting at the bench after being taken off the pitch, tossed the towel that was draped around his neck onto the floor. He then bolted onto the pitch to give his team mates a hug.

As he made his way about the pitch to hug his team mates, he realized that a crowd of reporters was constantly on his trail, and they would surround him no matter where he went.

“Heh. Aaron, you are famous now.” Akinfeev patted Mitchell on the head before leaving him behind.

Mitchell was left to deal with the horde of reporters coming in for him alone. He did not know what he should do.

“Mitchell, can you answer a few questions for me?”

“Can you share what was on your mind when you scored that last goal?”

“Is it a challenge for you to play as a forward now when you have been playing as a center back previously?”

“This is the very first time that you are representing Forest in the Champions League, and you were able to score two goals in the match. Is there anything you’d like to say?”

“Ah… Uh…” Mitchell was at a loss of words. It took him a while to gather his thoughts and answer the reporters’ question one by one.

As a ‘newcomer’ who just made his debut as a professional footballer for Forest, Mitchell was still inexperienced when it comes to dealing with reporters. He did not know how to reject others and answered all the questions that were thrown at him.

If this goes on, he would be stuck here answering questions all day long…

Right then, a voice rang out by the side of the crowd, “How long do you plan on asking him questions? My player can’t even return to the locker room to bathe and change his clothes. If he were to catch a cold because of this, then don’t even think about interviewing any of my players again in the future.”

Mitchell and the reporters turned their heads towards the source of the voice. They saw Tony Twain standing by the side with a dark face.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the interview time is over.”

The moment the reporters saw the fiendish Twain appear before them, they knew that their interview time was over. They would not be able to get any ‘ground-breaking’ scoop from Mitchell now that Twain was here…

The crowd of reporters dispersed at once.

Soon, only Twain and Mitchell were left at the scene.

At the sight of Twain’s dark face, Mitchell instantly remembered the warning that the Boss gave him at the start of the match.

“If you dare flaunt your techniques during the game, I’d take you off the pitch right away, even if it’s only the start of the match.”

He might not have flaunted his techniques at the start of the match, but he still flaunted them towards the end. He knew that he had went against the boss’s wishes.

He did not know what kind of chastisement would be thrown against him. The happiness that he felt from scoring the two goals had already been tossed somewhere far away…

“B-Boss…”

“You forgot everything that I told you, right?” Instead of praising Mitchell for scoring a brilliant goal in the match, Twain seemed to be intent on reproaching him instead.

“I… I did it instinctively…”

Twain watched as Mitchell said nothing for a while. He then patted Mitchell on the shoulder before walking away.

Dunn noticed Twain’s figure on the pitch from the corner of his eye as he was giving an interview to the reporters. He saw him discuss something with Mitchell.

Dunn immediately recalled the words that Twain had told Mitchell prior to the start of the match. He was worried that Twain would go over and reprimand Mitchell for his actions. Thus, he shoved the reporters out of the way and approached the duo with the intention of saying a word for Mitchell. He was going to pin all the blame on himself by saying something like, ‘I was the one who asked him to do that’.

Before he could reach them however, Twain had already turned around and was walking towards him.

“Tony.”

“Hey, Dunn. Congratulations. You did very well in the match.” Twain’s originally dark face brightened up. He smiled exuberantly at Dunn and looked like a completely different person than the one who stood before Mitchell earlier.

“Ah… Thanks. Well, Tony… I saw you and Mitchell…” Dunn’s focus was still on Mitchell. He found Mitchell to be a very gifted player, and he was worried that Twain would destroy his confidence by giving him a dressing-down.

“That lad… Did well. He has what it takes to become a football star in the future.” Twain turned his head around to look at Mitchell, who continued to stand rooted at the spot where they just had their conversation.

“Huh?” Dunn was surprised to hear Twain say the words that he did.

“What’s with that response?”

“I thought you would admonish him for going against your wishes…”

Twain laughed. “A player who is able to break free of the restrictions imposed on him at the start of the match and perform to the best of his abilities in a way that no other player can, is a player who will turn out to be a superstar in the future. If not for that ‘eureka moment’ of his towards the end of the match, I think I would still be sitting at the stands now and the match would have gone into extra time. So, why would I scold him?”

“But I saw you with a dark face earlier…”

“I just don’t want him to get ahead of himself.” Twain smiled slyly. “You can be the one to heap compliments on him. I’d be in charge of playing the devil.”

“Oh, you…!” Dunn did not know what to say to Twain.

Twain left with a grin on his face. He still needed to find Guardiola for a handshake after all.

Dunn clearly saw through Twain’s ‘scheme’, because he told him, “Don’t bother. He left the moment the match ended. I was the one who shook his hand.”

“Huh?” Dunn’s words burst Twain’s bubble.

“But… If you really want to get your handshake… You can go to the press conference.”

Twain thought about it for a moment. UEFA probably wouldn’t care about what he does now that the match has ended.

He nodded his head. “All right. I’d go to the press conference. I reckon there’d be many questions for me from the press.”

“Are you ready to handle all those questions?”

Twain waved his hands dismissively. “One has to act based on the situation! Plus, I’m not scared of those reporters. In fact, you should pray for them instead.”

Dunn smiled as he shook his head. He then left Twain behind and walked straight to Mitchell before patting him on the back.

“Ah, Assistant Manager Dunn!” Mitchell instantly felt better once he saw Dunn.

“Well done, Aaron. But these are not words from me.” Dunn secretly pointed at the person behind him.

Mitchell looked in the direction that Dunn pointed at and saw Twain.

“Boss?”

“He doesn’t want you to get ahead of yourself. You still have a long way to go.”

Twain and Dunn have certainly allocated their roles very well. Twain is responsible for being imposing before the players, whereas Dunn is responsible for helping him come off as being much more friendly and approachable than what he might appear to be in front of the players. Doing so allows Tony Twain to maintain a ‘perfect’ image before the players. He is imposing like a father should be, and also kind like a mother would be…

Mitchell finally understood that his boss had his best intentions at heart. In truth, he had actually felt a little upset with the way Twain looked at him earlier. He is, after all, the person who helped the team win the match! He did not deserve to be treated that way by Twain.

He nodded his head forcefully. “I understand now, Assistant Manager Dunn. Thank you.”

“If you really want to thank someone, thank him.” Dunn smiled at him, before turning around and walking away.

When Twain made his way past the mixed zone, numerous reporters chanted his name. However, he did not stop in his tracks. He only pointed at the front and said, “I’d see all of you at the press conference later. Ask your questions then.”

After hearing his words, there were a few reporters who decided to give up on their interviews with the players. They left the mixed zone and headed over to the venue for the post-match conference.

Twain had only sat inside the conference room for a short while before the reporters began to stream in and take their seats one after another.

Everyone was waiting for the arrival of Guardiola, but he did not show up for quite some time.

Twain was not angry that Guardiola was late. There was not a twinge of anger on his face. Rather, he carried a smile the whole time as he waited at his seat. He would even make eye-contact and gestures whenever he spotted a reporter whom he knew.

The reporters soon got annoyed with how long they had to wait for Guardiola. Just as they began to whisper amongst themselves, Guardiola finally showed up in the conference room. He clearly looked displeased, especially after seeing Tony Twain at the stage instead of Dunn or Kerslake.

What made him even more enraged was the fact that the man before him was smiling!

Does he not know what he did to my team? He actually has the audacity to smile?

Guardiola felt like turning around and walking straight out the door after seeing the smile on Twain’s face. However, he decided against it when he thought about how he had to display poise before the reporters. Additionally, he could not become a person like Tony Twain, who has no manners.

He swallowed the animosity that he held towards Tony Twain and took a seat.

“Since both managers are here, we shall commence the press conference right now…” The press officer said with a forced smile on his face. He could tell that there was tension between the two managers.

Guardiola, who was the manager of the away team for the match, spoke first. “There’s nothing I want to say. We lost. However, everyone saw the reason why we lost. I’m proud of the performance that my team put in.”

It was Twain’s turn next.

All the reporters were keen to hear what sort of ‘brilliant’ comments he would say this time round. They were certain he would not have anything good to say.

“I’m happy that we won.” Twain said with a grin. “It proves that we are stronger than Barcelona, and that we are more qualified to progress into the semi-finals. I am very pleased with my team’s performance today. They were able to dominate every aspect of the game without my guidance. It was the kind of match that I hoped to see.”

The reporters were upset with the comments that the two managers made so far. There was no element of hostility in their words.

Nobody’s here to watch the two of you get along with each other!

When it was time for the reporters to ask questions, one reporter instantly threw a sharp question at Twain, “Mr. Tony Twain. The Barcelona players mentioned numerous times about how the terrible pitch has affected their performance for the match during our interviews with them. What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you think that it is inappropriate for you to suddenly announce that you are going to change the turf just a few days before the match?”

The reporter who asked the question was from Catalonia. He looked hell-bent on getting a comment from Twain regarding the state of the pitch.

Twain replied slowly, “There’s nothing inappropriate about what we did. We provided a report to UEFA prior to the match, and they permitted our actions. Thus, there are no problems whatsoever. Are you questioning UEFA’s decision?”

“No. I just find it odd as to why you would only change the turf a few days before this match is due to kick off.”

“That’s because this is the time when we usually change our turf. We played in an away game before this match, and that delayed our plans to change the turf. If not, we would have finished changing the turf by now.”

Twain pushed all the blame to the Premier League’s match schedule. He had no intentions of shouldering any blame for the poor state of the turf.

“You said you changed the turf. But your stadium looks as though you did not even lay out a turf over it.” The reporter was still relentless in questioning Twain about the turf.

“We are a small club and we have been having tight finances recently. We cannot afford to buy a better turf, so we can only settle for something that isn’t as good.” Twain threw out his hands before him and looked helpless, as though he was the victim in this situation. “We can’t possibly let Barcelona play on mud. So, we still put the turf over it even if it’s low in quality. But, we do know that others would make fun of us for our poor pitch, which is why the club is considering to purchase two sets of high quality turfs. I promise that such a situation would not happen again in the future!”

Twain was serious about his words. After all, such a situation could never happen a second time. It was a scheme that he could only use once…

He would not have thought about altering the pitch if their team was not in such a dire situation after the first leg of competition.

His words rendered any other reporter who still wanted to question him about the turf speechless.

Guardiola was upset with how things had turned out, but he knew that there wasn’t much that he could say or do. “I believe that UEFA should look into establishing a standard that all pitches have to follow in the future to ensure the quality of the pitches that we play on…”

Twain concurred with Guardiola’s proposition shamelessly. “I completely agree with Mr. Guardiola’s opinion. UEFA should indeed come up with measures to standardize the quality of the pitches that we play on. We should never have to let players play on rotten pitches in the Champions League ever again.”

The Catalan reporters all wished they could run up to the stage and slap Twain on the face. They have seen many shameless people in their lives, but they have never seen anyone as shameless as Twain!

Guardiola was so enraged by Twain’s words that he shuddered all over his body.

He was not good with verbal confrontations. He did not know what to say to Twain, and he also found him to be someone he could never reason with.

There were a few reporters who felt that they were not going to be able to get any interesting scoop from the managers if they continued to probe them about the turf. Therefore, they decided to shift the focus onto the players who got injured in the match.

“Messi has sprained his knee. I do not know the extent of his injury right now. As for how he picked up the injury? Isn’t that very obvious? It’s impossible to not pick up an injury while playing on such a terrible pitch!” Guardiola became agitated as he said those words.

Messi was a player that he really liked and relied on. How could he not be indignant now that he was injured, and badly, from the looks of it?

“He had sprained his ankle without any physical contact from any other player on the pitch!”

When it was Twain’s turn to respond, the very first thing that he said was, “My players have not gotten injured while playing on the pitch. Lennon was only injured because of Yaya Touré’s foul on him. I think that foul by Touré was truly very malicious. I don’t know why he actually wanted to protest against the referee’s decision. If I were him, I’d most likely have run off the pitch before the referee showed the red card. Every experienced footballer knows how dangerous a tackle from behind is!”

Twain was equally enraged when speaking about Lennon’s injury.

“As for my opinion on Wood’s red card incident, I have to say that I fully support the actions that he took then!” Twain might have been upset with Wood’s impetuousness when he was at the stands earlier, but he has to show support for his player before the press right now. “He had only acted out of concern for his team mate. I understand him completely.”

Guardiola could not hold his emotions in any longer. He scoffed, “So it’s reasonable to hit another player to you?”

“And you are saying that it’s reasonable to tackle another player’s ankle from behind?” Twain did not even turn his head to look at Guardiola when he spoke. “Would Wood have been that rash if not for Touré’s tackle?”

“If the referee had not failed to penalize Wood’s foul on Krkić, would my players have acted the way that they did?”

Twain laughed coldly. “That’s the job of the referee. I’m not able to make a comment on that. If your players felt so upset about that, why don’t they tackle the referee from behind? Do they think they are so great after venting their anger on Lennon? Who doesn’t know how to do a tackle? Touré’s action is completely devoid of sportsmanship!”

Twain was just like a thief, and he was calling another thief ‘thief’.

Guardiola realized that he could not triumph over Twain when it came to arguing. Nottingham Forest was the team that did not display sportsmanship first, but Tony Twain made it sound as though Forest was the victim, and that Barcelona was the team without sportsmanship…

There were many reporters who were also upset with Twain’s comments. The Catalan reporters started booing to show their displeasure and to protest against Twain.

Twain definitely did not give up on the chance to make things difficult for the Catalan reporters now that he was the victor of the match. The Catalan press has constantly criticized Twain for these two matches. It was payback.

He pointed at the Catalan reporters who were booing him. “I wonder who was it who said that their style of football is a kind of art, and that the football that Nottingham Forest played was ‘ugly’, because it was ‘defensive’ and ‘conservative’ football? Look at the score and look at how the match progressed. We dominated the game and drubbed Barcelona throughout. Our possession was at 68% at one point in the match. Be it shots or passes made, Nottingham Forest was the team with the better stats for the match. Let’s not forget Aaron Mitchell’s last goal. He went past four players! He went past every single player on Barcelona’s defense! Do any of you dare to call his goal ‘ugly’?”

Twain’s words were powerful and they resonated in the conference room. Forest’s performance for the match could certainly be regarded as ‘perfect’. It not only added weight to his words, it also gave him the confidence to confront the Catalan reporters.

As Twain had expected, none of the Catalan reporters stood up to rebuke his words. The team that they supported had lost completely in the match earlier. The Barcelona player who got the highest score in the post-match ratings was Piqué. He received a score of 7 for his performance in the match. However, his performance was definitely not one that could be seen as a form of art.

Additionally, what humiliated the Catalan media even more was the fact that Piqué, who was the man of the match for the Barcelona team, was groomed in Nottingham Forest. The style of football that he plays bears the mark of ‘Nottingham Forest’, and he was also a player who still maintained a good relationship with many of the current Forest players. It was not wrong to call him a Nottingham Forest player, even.

Twain threw the criticisms and mockeries that he had received from the Catalan media back at them. When he was done throwing a temper, he stood up and left the room with a dark face.

Twain’s departure made things awkward for Guardiola. He should have been the one to walk away from the press conference and make things difficult for Tony Twain, but now Twain was the one who had made things difficult for him…

Guardiola sat unmoving at his seat for a moment. Eventually, he stood to his feet with a displeased look on his face and left the room without saying a word.

A grudge between two managers was born.