Godfather Of Champions

The team had returned to the normal training. In the four days before going to Russia, the team only did physical fitness training to reduce the small bellies that a lot of players developed over the holidays and to restore their physical skills so that their bodies could keep up with the intense training and pace of games.

The team was currently incomplete, so there was no need for a joint practice.

There was one matter that had to be done before the departure for Russia and that was the transfer issue of Anelka.

Juventus had made a 12 million pound offer to Nottingham Forest. After consulting with Allan, Twain decided to agree to this price. Although it was three million pounds lower than AC Milan’s offer last season, it suited Twain’s whims. Twain just treated it as if he had bought Anelka for three million pounds for a victory in the season. Obviously, when this transfer offer was made public, AC Milan would make some veiled criticisms, but Twain did not care. He had already snatched the Champions League title from them, why would he be afraid of them chewing him out?

Anelka’s agent-brothers received a phone call from Twain, telling them they could go ahead with their negotiations with Juventus. The two men immediately flew to Italy. They and their younger brother could not wait to escape Nottingham.

As long as there was no hindrance from the club, individual contract negotiations would go smoothly.

Two days later, both sides had hammered out all the details. On the third day, the day before the Forest team’s trip to Russia, Anelka was no longer seen inside the Wilford training base, and the label with his name on his locker was torn off in the locker room.

Anelka had already flown to Turin, Italy, with his brothers for a medical examination.

The Forest players did not have much reaction to his departure. Some thoughtless people even discussed the places to go have fun in Moscow.

Due to his eccentric and aloof character, Anelka was not very popular in the Forest team. No one would reminisce after his departure.

The next morning, as the Forest team prepared to board the plane at London Heathrow, a press conference was being held in Turin, the northern Italian city. It was Juventus’ first successful transfer deal of the season. Juventus’ new manager, Ranieri smiled as he promoted Anelka to the Italian media at the press conference.

“He is a world-class striker, but he was underrated. I think he will be able to play to his real strength here.”

Anelka also gave a speech along the lines of “I’m here to prove to you that this deal is right,” which made the local reporters and fans happy.

In front of the large number of reporters, the two held up a black and white striped Juventus jersey with Anelka’s name and number on the back — 39.

His relationship with Nottingham Forest for the last two years ended there, and the feud between him and Twain was over, too.

If they had a chance to meet in the Champions League later, who knew what the mood would be like for either party?

※※※

When the Forest team arrived in Moscow, they met up with their two new teammates and had a mutual introduction.

In the days that followed, the team trained in a quiet country sports club on the outskirts of Moscow while they struck in the transfer market everywhere.

For the left-back position, Twain took a fancy to Grosso, the Italy national team’s main defender, who did not do well at Inter Milan. His injuries caused him to lose the main position. If there was a bid, Inter Milan would be happy to trade him.

So far, Lyon had expressed their intention to buy to Inter Milan, but Twain did not know the exact bidding amount.

Nottingham Forest’s offer to Inter Milan was 5.5 million pounds, or roughly 7 million euros. Inter Milan agreed to the offer, and Twain knew that Inter Milan had also agreed to Lyon’s offer.

The next thing was simple. It would depend on the conditions of Nottingham Forest and Lyon and which was more tempting. Lyon’s advantage laid in the pay package, and Nottingham Forest’s advantage laid in the accolades they had just achieved and the bright prospects of more championship titles in the future. The salary was not much lower.

Lyon offered an annual salary of 2 million euros for Grosso. The Forest team offered 1.9 million euros, only 100,000 less. However, it was completely different to join a team that was the UEFA Champions League winner as opposed to the France Ligue 1 champion, and a team that played in the English Premier League rather than the France Ligue 1.

Grosso hesitated over whether or not an Italian player could succeed in the English Premier league, so Twain used Albertini as an example to ease his hesitation.

Finally, Grosso signed the contract with Nottingham Forest because he felt that it was possible to achieve higher accolades in this team. While Lyon dominated in France Ligue 1, it performed feebly in the European arena. Twain hoped with the arrival of Grosso, a member in the World Cup champion team, he would increase the capabilities of the Forest team’s defense on the left flank. This was good news for the Forest team, who would be competing in multiple tournaments the next season.

Once Grosso signed the contract, he went straight to Moscow. After he underwent a full physical examination, he entered training with the new team.

※※※

The Forest team’s signings were not over. Twain had been wanting to add another player in the right-back position. Even though the utility player, Sun Jihai, could also play as a right-back, he could not play as well as before due to Twain’s prolonged usage of him as a utility player, so it was not very safe.

With this in mind, Twain competed with the Arsenal’s Professor Wenger in the transfer market over Bacary Sagna from AJ Auxerre, a team in France Ligue 1. With a good performance in the France Ligue 1 and chosen for the best lineup for the season, there were plenty of teams going after the black right-back, though it looked like he was closer to Arsenal.

Twain held the honor of “the newly minted European champion” and strong-armed into the deal. He was keen to get the right-back who was hailed as “the second Thuram” to strengthen their right flank. It was definitely insufficient to depend on Chimbonda alone, not to mention Chimbonda’s slowing progress over the past two years made Twain worry.

Arsenal offered 7 million pounds, while Nottingham Forest offered 7.5 million pounds. Both sides had to have him.

In the end, the will of the player played a key role.

Sagna thanked the Forest team for their generosity and expressed thanks to Twain for his compliments, but — the “but” cooled Twain’s heart at once — Sagna himself would prefer to play under Wenger because they were both French. He had always loved Manager Wenger, and it was his dream to play under him.

This was considered the end of this matter. In the contest for Sagna, the Forest team lost to Arsenal just because their manager was not as attractive as Wenger.

Twain was a highly competitive man. This reality frustrated him. It looked like he was not popular everywhere.

Soon after, Arsenal announced that Sagna had officially joined the Gunners and the Forest team had to search for another right-back.

Fortunately, Twain and Dunn had several candidates for every position, and they could replace if a player did not work out.

He initially had several candidates in mind, of which Sagna was the most suitable. His price was not high, and he had outstanding abilities. He was also not too famous yet. Now that the plan for Sagna had gone down the drain, he had to look to a few other players.

After repeated screening, only two players on the list were workable.

FC Schalke 04’s right-back, Rafinha from Brazil, as well as the Croatia national footballer and the FC Shakhtar Donetsk’s right-back, Darijo Srna. The two players were wonderkids, famous for playing well in the FM video game series. Twain had used them when he played the game. They were indeed effective.

He could use every means possible to purchase the players in the game, but it was not so easy in reality.

Rafinha was the absolute mainstay in FC Schalke 04 and his price was high due to his status in Schalke and Bundesliga, which was the only reason Twain gave up on Rafinha in the first place.

As for Srna, the price was not a problem. According to the reports sent back by the scout tracking him and Twain’s own observations, Srna’s performance was not particularly stable. Sometimes his standards would decline as a result of his agitated emotions stemming from his own errors during the games, which was not very reassuring to Twain.

Since things hadn’t worked out with Sagna, these players were the most likely.

Twain believed that as long as he issued a summon, it would be impossible for FC Shakhtar Donetsk to compete with the European champion, and Srna would come. But he wanted to try to work on Rafinha first.

The Forest team began to reach out to FC Schalke 04 and received a “not for sale” answer.

FC Schalke 04 thought this would send a tactful message to the Forest team, but they did not realise that the thick-skinned Twain did not know how to be “discreet.” A day later, FC Schalke 04 received an official offer of five million pounds from Nottingham Forest. Based on the exchange rate, it was equivalent to seven and a half million euros.

Twain was determined to enhance the strength of the right flank and decided to spend more money.

Fortunately, after they lured the wealthy Thai and sold Young, the sale brought 25 million pounds of transfer money to the team. Otherwise the Forest team, which had plans to build a new stadium and was financially stretched, was unlikely to provide any financial support to Twain.

The sale of Young earned 25 million pounds, and there were 12 million pounds from the sale of Anelka, as well as 10 million pounds from Arteta’s sale. When Twain looked at the money he had spent when he brought in these players, he definitely made a steady profit. With 47 million pounds on hand, minus the 11 million pounds spent on the purchase of Arshavin and 5.5 million pounds it took to buy Grosso, 35.5 million pounds were left. Even if the club’s finances could not provide any support, Twain was confident in building a team with a powerful fighting force.

In the face of an offer of five million pounds, FC Schalke 04 remained unmoved. Their answer remained as “not for sale.”

The Forest team’s second offer came the same afternoon — seven million pounds.

This figure might have been commonplace in terms of sterling pounds, but it was not low when converted to euros. It was approximately 10.5 million.

FC Schalke 04’s answer was still a cold “not for sale,” and Twain did not intend to increase the price any more. One had to know that in the summer of 2005 when Schalke 04 brought Rafinha from Sport Club Corinthians Paulista in Brazil to VELTINS-Arena, it only cost them 4.5 million euros. Now, in just two short years, they could change hands for six million euros. Twain did not know what the Germans were dissatisfied with. Anyway, Srna was another option. At most, he would approach FC Shakhtar Donetsk to discuss. He believed that it would not cost much money.

Just as he decided to give up, someone called his cell phone. The person who made the call could be considered a “friend”— the Portuguese agent, Jorge Mendes who put in a lot of effort in signing Pepe.

Twain wondered why Mendes was looking for him this time. They had not been in touch for a while. Consequently, Twain was astonished by what Mendes had to say. He was Rafinha’s agent.

“He just changed agents, and the new agent is me. Haha, you didn’t expect that, did you, Tony?”

Twain did not expect it, but he soon figured it out. Rafinha was the main player in Brazil’s under-20 team. After he played for two seasons in the Bundesliga and became famous, how could a man with Mendes’ bloodhound-like sense of smell not know his future? Therefore, he looked for ways to make the promising player his “product,” which was also normal. Mendes’ reputation as a big shot European football agent was not arbitrary.

“I know you’re having a bit of difficulty with the right-back position, so I’m here to help you solve your problem. Rafinha is happy to go to a team that won the UEFA Champions League title. To be honest, he has told me more than once that Bundesliga is just his springboard, and he hopes to play in a higher-level league and team one day. FC Schalke 04 has been aiming for the league title and the UEFA Champions League every year, but they have not achieved it once at all. They can’t compare with your team at all, Tony. I’m bullish on you and your Forest team, so I agreed to sell Pepe to you cheap. I’m delighted to see his performance on your team.” Of course he was happy. Pepe was still his player. Obviously the better Pepe performed and the more honors he received, the higher his price would rise. His original small investment would generate extremely generous returns in the future. But for now, he made it sound dignified and flattering so that he could make the listener feel nice. “Now I’m going to help you again.”

These words made Twain rekindle his desire to pursue Rafinha.

“But… this time things are not the same as Pepe. It’s a bit tricky. I thought you might need to raise your offer to impress Schalke 04, and then I’ll put some more pressure on them on my side to try to secure a price that is satisfactory to both sides. What do you think, Tony?”

Twain knew Mendes’s thinking. An agent could draw a 10% commission on a transfer. If the transfer fizzled out, Mendes’ fee would also come to nothing. Why would he help Twain? It was clearly to make money for himself. Why would he raise the price? It was just to increase the amount of that ten percent.

Twain very much wanted to refuse, but at the thought of Rafinha’s ability, he felt as if he had an itch in his heart. He could not bear to let him go. All managers had the idea to have good players performe for themselves. Rafinha was indeed capable and young. Due to his youth, he had more room for development and infinite potential.

To put it bluntly, Chimbonda and Rafinha were right-backs on two different levels. If Rafinha were to join, it would be the best but…

Twain went through the transfer list in his mind and calculated how much of the transfer fund were left. “How much more do we have to raise?” he asked.

On the other end of the line, Mendes smiled as he held a wine glass. “Ten million in sterling pounds. Ten million pounds will be enough. Believe me, my friend, I still have some influence.”

The total price of ten million pounds was not outrageous, only fifteen million euros. The Forest team could afford it.

Twain thought for a moment and agreed with Mendes’ suggestion. If it was successful, it would not be considered a win-win but a triple win, or even a quadruple win — the Forest team, FC Schalke 04, Mendes, and Rafinha.

All players wanted to go to teams that could bring more honor and money to them. The clubs would always consider the overall interest before the players’ personal interests, and the agent would always pursue the interests.

The key word here was interests.

※※※

After Twain and Allan discussed it, the Forest team once again made an offer of 10 million pounds, which was equivalent to about 15 million euros.

When Real Madrid spent 27 million euros to buy Sergio Ramos from Sevilla Football Club, it was the world’s top price for a right-back position. The current offer would not be considered low for a young man who was only twenty-one years old in any case.

England’s The Sun had a vivid metaphor with regards to this offer:

“We all know that in the contest for Bacary Sagna, Twain lost to Wenger. He was said to be very disappointed with the result because Sagna’s reason for rejecting him was not that the pay was low or that the team lacked honor and fame. It was just that he preferred Wenger as a manager and not him. Consequently, Manager Twain was angry. How did he vent after his anger? As we all know, the best way women vent their anger is to go shopping and go crazy with their credit cards. Our dear Mr. Twain has wonderfully inherited this fine tradition. He launched a massive campaign in the transfer market, waving bills in his hands as if they’re a sharp sword and defeated the Schalke Dragon who hijacked Princess Rafinha.”

To be honest, the metaphor was quite apt, but Twain did not like it because it made him feel like a shrew throwing a tantrum.

His ill-will toward The Sun went up a notch.

Truth be told, when Twain used to play the video games, he had once been someone else’s rich fool because of Rafinha. He had the prestigious Real Madrid spend forty million euros in order to buy Rafinha.

There was an element of Twain acting in a fit of annoyance: he had offered five times and each were rejected by Schalke 04. They were not even willing to discuss. Therefore, in a fit of anger, he made an offer of 40 million euros. That time, Schalke finally agreed, and he managed to close it.

The Forest team’s finances would not allow 40 million to be offered for a player. Twain was also not playing a video game and could not throw around money like it was paper.

Twain felt 15 million euros was a fair price that would make FC Schalke 04 loosen its tight grip and was also within the range that the Forest team could bear.

FC Schalke 04 had been in a financial crisis a season ago. If an offer had been made then, Rafinha absolutely would not have cost that much money. Other factors included that Rafinha had only played in the league for a year and was too young. It was different now. Gazprom had had a large injection of funds into FC Schalke 04. At least they did not have to rely on selling players to pay off their debts.

Twain thought that a 15 million euro offer for a young right-back was a price that would make both sides sit down and have a discussion. Besides, there was also Mendes’ promise. He believed that FC Schalke 04’s answer would not be a cold “not for sale” again.

As expected, the Forest club received Schalke 04’s reply to talk about the offer in more detail.

“Not for sale” really did not exist in this world. “Not for sale” just meant the other party’s price was not high enough. It was like George Wood. If there was a club that offered 200 million pounds to buy him, even if Twain did not want to, Evan would rather fire this stubborn manager and agree to the deal — even if the offer amount was not 200 million but 90 million euros, he could still be sold.

Schalke thought this was a good price for the young right-back, Rafinha. They could sell Rafinha and then buy other good, young players. Even if they did not buy young players, they could buy a few more currently strong players, which could greatly enhance the strength of the team. FC Schalke 04’s goal for the new season was to fight for the league title. Every penny was important.

FC Schalke 04 no longer held the pointless idea of “not for sale” and sat at the negotiating table with the Forest club. They started off the “intense but friendly” negotiations with the issue of Rafinha’s price.

Allan was in charge of the negotiations. When he left, Twain told him to find a way to bring in the Brazilian within the total price of 20 million euros.

He knew that Mendes would help things go a little more smoothly, but it would be too risky to put their hope and chips in someone else’s hands. Now that he was resolved to buy Rafinha, he did not mind paying a little more. After much thought, Twain told Allan that he could accept a bid of up to 20 million euros and to walk away if it was any higher. He did not wish to be someone else’s rich fool.

With the order given to Allan, Twain secretly went to Germany to meet Rafinha in private under Mendes’ arrangement. During the talks, the two sides increased their understanding and concluded a collaborative give and take and mutually beneficial pact. Twain wanted Rafinha to continue to pressure FC Schalke 04 to accept the Forest team’s offer. Twain was worried that there would be other clubs sniffing around and competing for the same player.

Mendes patted his chest to ensure that Rafinha belonged only to Nottingham Forest, and that they could also initialize an informal agreement if they did not believe it. At the same time, Rafinha also expressed his admiration for Twain as a manager and his yearning for Nottingham Forest. This greatly gratified Twain, who had lost in the “contest for Sagna.” He promised Rafinha that when he joined the team, he would be able to take the position of the main right-back — he never had the plans to buy a substitute for Chimbonda, so this favor was done deftly and at little cost.

Everyone was happy. Later in the day, Twain flew back to Moscow to continue the team training. It was only at a regular press conference that he expressed his appreciation of Rafinha, which was a response to the media on news about the transfer.

On the other side, Rafinha announced publicly in an interview that he would like to play in England and his sincere manner was just shy of stating that his biggest dream since he started playing from young was to join Nottingham Forest…

For his part, Allan managed to obtain the best interest he could get for the Forest team at the negotiating table — 18 million euros to be paid in installments with a down payment of ten million and the balance of eight million to be paid monthly within a twelve-month period.

Once FC Schalke 04 agreed, Mendes and Allan flew to Moscow together. The two men launched a new round of negotiations on the plane regarding the pay package for Rafinha. Both of them were businessmen, so they were straightforward enough. On top of the relationship between Twain and Mendes, as well as Mendes’ contribution to the deal, the negotiations went well.

When the plane landed at the Moscow airport, all the details of Rafinha’s contract had been settled. All Rafinha had to do was to deal with trivial matters such as his property in Germany, then fly to Moscow for a medical examination, and sign the contract. Since Rafinha was a main player for Brazil’s U20 national team, his work permit was not an issue.

Three days later, on July 11th, the club officials from Nottingham Forest and FC Schalke 04 also issued an announcement at the same time, announcing that the Brazilian defender Rafinha officially transferred from FC Schalke 04 to Nottingham Forest, with a transfer fee of 18 million euros and a contract of twelve million pounds.

This was the new season and the Forest team’s most expensive transfer deal. The Forest team continued to strengthen their fearsome flanks that made their opponents terror-stricken.

Rafinha soon went to Moscow to report to the team. The scene of Twain’s cordial handshake with Rafinha at the sidelines of the training ground was captured by the media. What was lost with Sagna had been claimed back with Rafinha, which put him in a good mood.