Godfather Of Champions

The rays of the morning sun seeped into the room through a small gap between the curtains.

Twain got off bed gently, before turning around to glance at his sleeping wife. He then donned on his pajamas and left the room quietly.

He turned on the tap and squeezed a lot of toothpaste over his toothbrush. He then put his neatly folded bath towel next to the sink. He was all prepared to wash his face and brush his teeth so as to get refreshed for the new day.

The moment he raised his head however, he became dumbstruck.

The man he was seeing in the mirror was foreign to him.

He looked like someone who had not slept in ages. The crisscross wrinkles on his face seemed as though they had been engraved onto his face with a knife, and his eyes were bloodshot as well.

However, what he found most unsightly was not his wrinkles or his bloodshot eyes, but rather the clump of dishevelled white hair on top of his head.

Twain tilted his head and stared at his reflection in the mirror for a long while. He did not care about how the tap was still running and how his toothpaste had already slipped down onto the basin.

He welcomed his 45th birthday a month ago, on 9th September 2013.

Time passed by really quickly. Before he even knew it, it has been more than 10 years since he transmigrated.

If not for the fact that he transmigrated, he should only be 32 years old right now and should still be considered young. He would have been at an age where he could still afford to mess around in life and pretend to be someone young on the internet. He also would not have to care about any complex philosophical issues such as where life comes from and where it leads to.

However, as a result of his transmigration, he was already 45 years old this year.

It is said that you have lived half your life when you reach 50 years old. But, how many people in this world can live till they are 100 years old? One is considered to have lived a long life if he or she is able to live till they are 90 years old. Hence, being 45 years old signified that he had already lived half of his life.

A thought surfaced in Twain’s mind for the very first time as he stared at his aged self in the mirror:

It does not matter if I never suffer a second heart attack. I am not far away from death either way. The time I have left will not be longer than the time I have lived.

Melancholy gushed up within him at the thought.

When would he too, turn into an old man who is gibberish, confused, unable to speak loudly, perpetually wheelchair-bound and who required assistance wherever he went?

He had always thought that he still had a long way to go before he would end up in that state. But, why does he feel like those things would happen very soon now?

The sounds of the running water caught the attention of Shania, who had been lazing around on bed.

In truth, she had woken up when Twain got off the bed. She lied on the bed and tried her hardest to suppress her smile as she watched her husband get off the bed gently so as to not wake her.

The sounds of running water emerged shortly after Twain made his way into the bathroom. However, it has been almost 10 minutes since he went in, and the sounds have not ceased.

The smile on Shania’s face disappeared. She sat up on the bed and called out, “Uncle Tony?”

There was no response.

Shania’s heart began to beat wildly. An unpleasant thought surfaced in her mind.

Did Tony’s heart attack relapse?

At the thought of that, Shania jumped off the bed in a panic. She did not care that she was only wearing an underwear then, and she did not bother trying to put on her slippers either. She ran into the bathroom next door without anything on her upper body and her feet.

The first thing she saw was not Uncle Tony lying unconscious on the floor. She heaved a sigh of relief and broke into a smile when all she saw was Twain holding onto a toothbrush and staring at his reflection in the mirror with his head tilted to the side.

“You scared me to death, Uncle Tony.”

No one responded to her.

“Uncle Tony!” Shania had to raise her voice and shout.

“Huh? What? Oh…” Twain saw the way that Shania was dressed, and he immediately understood what had happened.

“You must have let your imagination run wild again, right?”

Shania rolled her eyes. “You look like a corpse and you didn’t answer when I called you. Of course I’d be worried.” She walked over behind Twain and hugged him from behind.

“What were you looking at? You were so engrossed earlier.” She whispered by Twain’s ear.

“I was just looking at my white hair.” Twain forced a smile.

“You can just dye it.” Shania kissed the back of Twain’s neck. “Besides, it’s not like all your hair has turned white. It’s just your sideburns.”

The pair were being intimate with each other, but somehow, the sight of it seemed a little jarring when viewed from the mirror. The man looked old while the woman’s naked body emanated youth and passion.

If the two of them had not been doing such intimate acts, one would have thought that they shared a father-daughter relationship.

“Dye my hair?” Twain contemplated about it for a moment, then nodded his head. “That’s a good idea. But I’ve never thought that there’d come a day where I need to dye my hair.”

Shania smiled. “Every human being ages with time. I might look young to you now, but 10 years from now, I would be just like you as well. My dear philosopher, you will age faster if you keep having such deep thoughts about life every morning.”

Twain’s nether region slowly started reacting to the sensation of two lumps of plump flesh against his back. However, now was not the time to be doing those things.

He turned around and grasped Shania by the shoulders before trying to push her out of the room. “Put on your clothes. Don’t catch a cold.”

The eagle-eyed Shania noticed the abnormality with his nether region. She smiled proudly and said, “Look at that, Uncle Tony. We already did it yesterday, but you are still lustful in the morning! It’s proof that you haven’t aged at all!”

She then giggled as she finished her words and ran away right as Twain raised a hand and pretended that he wanted to hit her.

Twain saw Pierce Brosnan when he drove over to the training grounds at Wilford. The way in which he stood with a cigarette in his mouth and his brows furrowed made him look much older than he was.

Twain realized that he now has a tendency to observe the changes in the outward appearances of every person he interacted with. It might be due to what happened in the morning.

Time changes many people. He wanted to see what those changes are exactly.

“Hey, Mr. Bond. Why do you look so depressed in the morning?” Twain poked out his head from within the car and greeted Brosnan.

“Ah, Tony… The interview that you promised me…”

“I will arrange for it to happen some other day.”

“Not another day, Tony. My boss told me to get the exclusive interview with you today or else… Help me out please…”

“All right, all right. Let’s do it this afternoon then. At the restaurant in Wilford. We’d chat while we eat.”

More reporters rushed up to Twain when he finished dealing with Brosnan. They were all fighting for the chance to ask him questions.

“Mr. Twain! Can you discuss about Lennon’s transfer…”

The reporter’s question touched a nerve with Twain. He glared at him fiercely. “That is something that happened almost two months ago. What else do you want me to say? If you really can’t find a question to ask me, I’d suggest that you ask me about what I had for breakfast this morning, or what I intend to eat for lunch or dinner!”

Indeed. That was something that happened two months ago…

Aaron Lennon’s outstanding performance in Forest has allowed him to cement his position as a starting left winger for England’s national football team.

Currently, both the right and left winger positions on the national team are taken up by players from Forest, namely Bentley on the right and Lennon on the left. Walcott, who was nicknamed ‘The Little Tiger’, was forced to sit on the bench whenever the two could play.

Of course, Fabio Capello would not be displeased with such a situation. He was very fortunate to be able to choose from a number of high quality players for the same position.

Lennon’s ability to play on both the left and right wing has benefited his career significantly, because he was able to obtain more chances to play in a game as compared to others. The numerous chances to play in games allowed him to improve his skills and become more mature as a player, and his good performances eventually led to interest from other football clubs.

There were numerous football clubs that had put in a bid for Lennon this summer. They all wanted to buy a player like Lennon who could play on both the left and right wing.

However, Twain insisted that Lennon was not for sale. Lennon was a player whom he personally groomed. He was a player who climbed through the ranks from the youth team all the way to the first team, and he was also a player who was well-liked in the team.

Why would Twain think about selling a player like that, especially now that he was in his prime?

Despite Twain’s refusal however, Lennon still left Forest in the end. The reason was simple.

Inter Milan had put in a bid that Forest could not reject: 30 million pounds!

Allan Adams did not care about Twain’s refusal to sell Lennon and insisted on involving himself with the transfer. He forcibly sold Lennon to Inter Milan, and his actions led to a huge rift between the two. Things got very bad between them, and the two nearly engaged in a physical fight before Evan Doughty.

When the press started publishing articles about how the two did not see eye to eye, Twain did not offer any clarifications to the issue.

I’m not clarifying anything because I obviously don’t get along with that money grubber!

Sometime later, Kerslake consoled Twain by telling him about how Lennon was also intent on leaving the club because Inter Milan had offered him a higher salary as well as other bonuses.

Twain was well aware that Inter Milan’s offer was an attractive one. However, he felt that he would have managed to keep Lennon at the club for another two seasons by making use of his personal charisma. If Lennon wanted to leave the club after those two seasons, Twain would definitely not stop him then, because Adriano Moke would have developed into a good player by then.

But, Allan’s interference had completely foiled his plan.

He was not upset about Lennon’s sale. He was upset that Allan Adams had gone against his word, because they had come to an agreement previously that Allan would not interfere with his job.

As someone who liked to have control and authority over everything, Twain saw Allan’s actions as a humiliation.

The only reason why he did not resign and walk away from the club was out of consideration for Evan Doughty and the team. It would be very easy for Twain to leave the club and find a higher-paying job elsewhere based on his achievements. However, it would be very difficult for him to groom another team like Forest in a short period of time. Forest was a club that he had spent 10 years to groom. It was his everything.

Twain still has yet to bear a child of his own with Shania, but Nottingham Forest was just like his son. He had developed a deep bond with the team, and he just could not toss this 10 year old son of his aside.

Brosnan, who was well aware of Twain’s temper, did not dare to bring up Lennon’s name before him for the past two months.

The reporter who just asked him the question clearly looks like a newbie…

Twain was left in a bad mood due to the reporter’s question. He decided to take out his anger on all the other reporters at the scene by refusing to answer any of their questions. He pulled a long face and drew up his car window before driving into the training grounds.

Some of the reporters began ranting about the situation.

Of course, their rants were not directed at Twain, since they were well aware of his fiery temper after years of interviewing him.

Their rants were directed at the young reporter instead.

“Are you new to the job? How could you not know the rules?” A middle-aged man questioned the young reporter with a voice brimming with hostility.

“Who was it that got you to ask such a stupid question? Which news agency do you work for?” Another bespectacled man who looked like he was a gentle and well-mannered person also questioned the young reporter through gritted teeth.

“That’s a piece of news that had been widely reported two months ago. Why are you still asking about it now?” This reporter was the only one who asked his question in a nicer tone.

“Do you know who exactly you are interviewing? It’s not the ‘Mr. Nice Guy’ Kevin Keegan! It’s Tony Twain! Tony Twain! You must be an intern reporter… I really hate newbies who do not know anything…”

The crowd of reporters left after reprimanding the young reporter. Brosnan looked at the young reporter who looked helpless after being chided. He walked up to him, gently patted him on the shoulder, and left without saying anything.

The incident made Brosnan recall his experiences as an intern reporter. He did not need to tell the young reporter anything. The young man would definitely come to understand how it is normal to make mistakes as a newbie.

The reporters who congregate around Wilford are perhaps the most unique group of people in the whole of England. The various news agencies would only send their most talented or most experienced reporters to carry out interviews here at Wilford. It was very rare for any agency to send a newbie here because they would just end up humiliating themselves.

The job of interviewing Tony Twain, who was known as the hardest man to deal with in the whole of England’s footballing scene, was not something that any newbie reporter could handle. Additionally, a newbie reporter would also find it hard to fight for a piece of news amongst a group of veteran reporters.

Every single reporter who frequently appeared here at Wilford was a veteran reporter who has wrote articles about Nottingham Forest for more than three years. They have all picked up numerous strategies about how to deal with the moody ‘King of the Forest’ through their long-standing ‘battles’ with him. They were all more familiar with Twain than they were with their own wives and children.

Many of these veteran reporters are known as the ‘wily old foxes’. They are called such because they know how to observe and analyse a situation. They know when they should ask a particular question, and they know what are the questions that they must never ask him. They also know what questions would potentially elicit a fierce reaction from Twain that they could then report about in their articles. Last but not least, they also know what is the best way to ask their questions so as to elicit the best results.

They learned everything through experience. It was no different from how a professional footballer develops himself. A footballer would never be able to grow if he is not able to play in games…

New football players would become seasoned players one day, just like how newbie reporters would also become capable, veteran reporters through time.

A certain inept manager was also only able to lift two Champions League trophies, two Premier League trophies, one EFL Cup trophy, one FIFA Club World Cup trophy, two Community Shield trophies, two UEFA Super Cup trophies and become known as the ‘Manager of Champions’ after suffering a concussion by the side of the pitch.

The City Ground Stadium was usually silent when there were no matches being played. However, there were times where the silence would be broken by visitors who had travelled all the way over from thousands of miles away.

A big luxurious bus was parked at the parking lot outside the City Ground Stadium. A group of yellow-skinned Asians wearing red caps over their raven black hair followed a slender white-skinned beauty into the trophy room within the City Ground Stadium.

“This is Nottingham Forest’s trophy room. This room holds all the trophies and honours that Forest has earned ever since it was formed.” The beautiful tour guide was British. Her Chinese pronunciation was not very accurate, but she could still use it to communicate with others as a tour guide and translator.

“The team has obtained one EFL Cup trophy after its current manager Tony Twain took over.” The tour guide said as she pointed at a small but exquisite trophy in the cabinet.

“They were also crowned as the champions of the Community Shield twice.” She then pointed at two silver trophies that were shaped like a shield.

“They were also able to obtain two UEFA Super Cup trophies, one FIFA Club World Cup trophy…” The beautiful tour guide introduced the trophies of varying sizes to the visitors behind her. The trophies were all exquisite, and they shimmered under the light.

“And two Premier League trophies. The one on the right is a trophy that they obtained during the 2007 to 2008 season. That very season was also the season where Nottingham Forest was able to achieve the Double. The trophy on the left is very new. It’s the one that Manager Tony Twain was able to achieve in the previous season.”

She walked towards a big glass cabinet in the center of the room before stopping in her tracks. She then pointed at the four trophies within the cabinet, and then introduced them with pride,

“These four trophies that are shaped like big human ears are the trophies that signify the greatest honor possible amongst the European football clubs… The Champions League trophies!”

Some of the visitors who understood football led out gasps of astonishment, while the others remained emotionless. They simply stared at the trophies and wondered if those silverware were truly made of silver…

The visitors crowded around the glass cabinet. There was a rule that stated that they were not allowed to take photos, but there were still football fans amongst the crowds who secretly fished out their digital cameras or handphones to take a photo.

After all, it is not every day that one is able to see four Champions League trophies all in one place.

The tour guide did not notice the visitors’ actions. She continued to introduce the significance behind the trophies to everyone excitedly.

“The number of European football teams who have managed to win four or more Champions League trophies can be counted with two hands. They are the nine-time champions Real Madrid, the six-time champions AC Milan, the five-time champion Liverpool, the four-time champions Ajax, Bayern Munich and Nottingham Forest! It is possible that Nottingham Forest would clinch a fifth trophy under the guidance of Manager Tony Twain soon!”

A visitor amongst the crowd raised his hand to ask a question. “Miss Tracy. Are you a die-hard fan of Tony Twain?”

The beautiful tour guide smiled after hearing the question. “Half of the people in Nottingham are his die-hard fans.”

The four Champions League trophies sat quietly within the glass cabinet and accepted the looks of wonder and admiration from the people beyond the glass.

There was an extraordinary story behind every single one of the trophies.

In Munich, Twain’s ‘swordsmen’ unsheathed their long swords from their shafts and shocked the whole of Europe during their very first appearance in the Champions League.

In Madrid, Forest was able to retain their champions title by defeating a tough team that had the then European Footballer of the Year as its player.

In Athens, Forest, who made its return to the top-flight European football competition, was able to put in a performance that made the King, AC Milan, pale in comparison. At that time, Tony Twain even shouted arrogantly that he would ‘jump into the sea’ if he could not win, but sadly, no one was able to get him to fulfil his promise.

In Moscow, Eastwood was able to clinch the winning goal against Chelsea amidst a heavy rain and help Forest defend its champions title for the second time. They were also able to achieve the double in that season as well.

If one were to quiet down and listen carefully, one could almost hear the sounds of muffled cheers that had been transmitted over from a distant time and space reverberate within each and every trophy.

“… The match is over! 1:0! Nottingham Forest, the club from England that made its maiden appearance in the Champions League has been crowned champions!”

“… Robson’s goal! The match is over…! Brian Clough has successfully led his team to retain the Champions League title at the Bernabéu! This is the highest ever honor for any football club! They are the Kings of Europe…”

“Freddy Eastwood! He has scored the goal needed to seal the victory for Forest! Tony Twain has finally led his team to clinch the Champions League trophy! They have defeated the mighty AC Milan!”

“It is pouring in Moscow right now, but the rain does not dampen the passion within the Nottingham Forest fans! It’s Freddy Eastwood once again! He has scored the goal needed to seal the victory for Forest again! The ones to topple under Robin Hood’s arrow this time round are the Blues! This is Nottingham Forest’s fourth Champions League trophy! All hail Forest! They have achieved the double!”

The visitors from China have left. Most of the lights in the trophy room were switched off and the room went dark, but the trophies continued to shimmer faintly within the darkness.