Godfather Of Champions

It could be said that the shooting schedule Clarice Gloria gave was very detailed; but in fact, it was very simple. It was not possible for so many people on the production crew to stay with the Forest team for long. Twain would not give them too much time. The shooting time was only five days.

Gloria’s plan was to shoot a few days of training and then shoot a game with the Forest team so that the training and game were all captured on film.

The filming of the training portion was routine. Gloria looked forward more to the game. Her only concern was…

“All the newspapers reported that your team is currently in trouble, Mr. Twain.” Gloria took a copy of The Sun and flipped to the sports section. Nottingham Forest had not won in the last two rounds of the league tournament. They had lost to Everton in the 28th round away game and tied with Manchester City in the 29th round away game. As a result, the media voiced that the Forest team’s situation was not good.

Twain sniffed. “I don’t think so, Miss Gloria. I think looking at it from a different perspective proves that the Forest team is very strong.”

“Oh?” Gloria’s interest was piqued by his remark.

“We didn’t win for two rounds in the league tournament, and the media started saying that the Forest team was a goner. Don’t you think that just means that they’re used to seeing the Forest team win?”

Gloria smiled until her eyes curved into crescent moons.

Today’s training was already over. The players came out of the locker room in succession and headed for the parking lot. Their work had ended. The crew members were also busily packing up their equipment as their day’s work was over.

Gloria followed Twain to his office to discuss the filming of the game the next day, as it involved the question of shooting in the locker room.

“Well, let’s get down to business, Miss Gloria. Generally, the team’s locker room is definitely off-limits to the media, let along the camera-toting media.”

Gloria nodded to indicate that she knew of that practice.

“But… I had allowed a big group of fans in the locker room to help me teach the players a lesson during the halftime interval, so it’s no big deal to put a bunch of cameras in there. It’s just that you can’t shoot the entire process. I can only give you a few minutes.”

Upon hearing Twain say that, Gloria tilted her head to the side. “A few minutes? Mr. Twain, that’s too short for us to even set up the equipment.”

“You set up the equipment inside ahead of time. In fact, the preparation time before a match and the halftime interval are not very long. Even if you shoot the entire process, you won’t be able to shoot much. Besides, there are some things I can’t say in front of TV cameras.”

In the course of filming the training, even though Twain had said that the club would always cooperate with the entire process, in actual fact, the production crew were only allowed to film the physical recovery training, stamina training, technical training, and so on. Once it involved tactical drills, it was necessary to politely ask the production crew to leave the training ground.

Therefore, Gloria also knew.

“Well, I understand, Mr. Twain.” She pretended to sigh with regret. “It’s a pity we can’t get the most remarkable stuff on footage.”

“The most remarkable?”

“I’ve heard a lot of stories about you raining abuses on your opponents in the locker room to stir up your players’ morale.”

Twain scratched his head, “All the more you can’t film that. That’s a private story in the locker room.”

Gloria raised her hands. “Yes, chief!”

She had also learned the players’ name for Twain during these few days of filming the team’s training.

Twain was momentarily taken aback when he heard Gloria suddenly address him like that.

Gloria laughed playfully when she saw Twain’s astonishment.

Still laughing, Gloria stood up, walked over to Twain, and extended her hand, “We’re leaving Nottingham the day after the filming ends. I think we’ll be busy packing all kinds of equipment and luggage at that point. And Mr. Twain, you must want to be with the team. We will not have much time. So, I’d like to invite you to have dinner together this evening. Will you have the time?”

Twain looked up at Gloria standing in front of him. She truly was a beautiful woman.

Then he looked down at the delicate pale hand.

“An invitation from a beautiful lady; the honor is mine.” Twain reached out and gently grasped Gloria’s petite hand.

Let Dunn settle his own dinner alone.

※※※

Although Gloria said it was her treat, as a host, how could he let a guest treat him to dinner? Consequently, the meal was still Twain’s treat.

Since it was Twain’s treat, Twain decided on where to have dinner. Tang En was not very interested in Western cuisine. Even if he was into it in the beginning, his interest had waned after eating it for so many years. Lots of Indian restaurants had sprung up in Britain, but Tang En could not stand Indian food and the taste of curry. There was nothing tasty about English food in Tang En’s view. As for the French cuisine? It was better in France.

Most importantly, of course, was that Tang En was a Chinese man who had transmigrated here and preferred Chinese cuisine. Therefore, he naturally chose a Chinese restaurant for his treat. Although the Chinese restaurant in Nottingham was expensive and not authentic, it was better than eating Indian food.

Besides, Clarice Gloria had not had authentic Chinese food before, so she could not distinguish between the good, the bad and the authentic.

As a result, Gloria ate happily and thought that she had finally tasted the legendary cuisine. Watching this beautiful television host show her satisfied expression like a young girl, Twain snickered. Such “gourmet” is common in China. Almost every restaurant is able to make it… The foreigners are really ignorant!

“I’ve read some of your bio. It is said that you’re very fond of Chinese culture. I did not expect you to know so much about Chinese cuisine.”

“I can also speak fluent Mandarin. But there’s little opportunity for me to use it here.”

“Don’t you have a Chinese player on your team….Sun?”

“Yes, but I never speak Mandarin to him.” Twain spoke the truth. Since Sun Jihai’s arrival in the team, he only spoke English to the Chinese player, whether it was during the team tactical layout meetings or private chats, even though they both could speak Mandarin. They just did not use it. Twain now only spoke in Mandarin and not English in one situation; that was when he spoke with Dunn at home. When Dunn first came to England, he wanted to speak in English. In the end, Twain had told him they would communicate in Mandarin when it was just the two of them at home.

Twain felt that he was somewhat unaccustomed to seeing a Chinese face speak to him with a fluent non-native language. Twain certainly had not considered whether Dunn would be accustomed to seeing his previous Caucasian face speak in the non-native language too.

“Why is that? If you can speak fluent Mandarin and so can Sun, isn’t it more convenient to communicate that way?”

“Of course, it would be very convenient. But Sun does speak and understand English. That way, I don’t have to translate in the locker room. Everyone speaks English, whether they are Spanish, French or Italian. When they joined Nottingham Forest, the first thing was to learn the language. If I and Sun speak Mandarin, it would give people an impression that he’s not a member of this team. That’s not good. Different languages are one of the main causes of miscommunication problems. I don’t want to make people think that Sun Jihai is special, or that he doesn’t fit in with the team.” Twain shrugged his shoulders. “He is a Nottingham Forest player, and that has nothing to do with his nationality or language.”

Gloria was silent for a moment after she listened to those words.

Twain could sense the awkward silence and decided to tell a joke to enliven the atmosphere, “Speaking of the players’ languages and nationalities, I thought of a joke. Would you like to hear it?”

Gloria’s contemplative gaze brightened, and she nodded with a smile.

“We all know that after Abramovich took ownership of Chelsea, he brought a lot of money to the club so that they could buy the best players in the world, as long as they wanted to. But in fact, before that Russian billionaire, Chelsea was well-known in the English Premier League for their multinational team. At that time, the team, coached by Gullit, once created a record: there was not one English player among the eleven players in the team’s starting lineup.” Twain deadpanned as he recounted. From the sound of it, this joke was not funny at all. He appeared to be telling Gloria the history of football. “Then, Chelsea had a new coach: the Italian, Ranieri. He was a successful coach in both Spain and Italy, and an Italian. The first problem he faced when he took over the team was not the team’s tactics, formation, or transfers, but the language. Chelsea had too many foreign players. At that time, the media laughed at Ranieri’s bad English: when he wanted to explain the tactics to the main players, he usually told the assistant manager Gwyn Williams first, and then Williams would relay it to the English players in English. Then Ranieri himself would speak to Zola in Italian, and after that he would use Spanish to speak to the Spanish, Argentine and Uruguayan players again. For the French players, Ranieri would use Italian to inform Desailly who had played in Italy first, and then the French player would repeat it to his countrymen. Everyone had to repeat the same words many times. No one knew the final meaning in the end. Have you ever played that game, Miss Gloria?”