Godfather Of Champions

Nottingham Forest left Istanbul. However, the war of words between the English and Turkish media had just begun. Twain leaked the incident of the Beşiktaş fans’ all-night party outside the hotel the Forest team had stayed in to the English media after the game. The off-field antics had always been very popular with the media.

The English media accused the Turkish fans of being uncouth and that disturbing the opposing players’ rest was despicable. Some English press said Beşiktaş’ discipline on home ground was so poor that there was always clutter being thrown from the stands during the game, but no substantive action was taken by the police force to stop the lack of sportsmanship.

They were well-documented matters, captured by photographs provided by the Forest team, which showed the Beşiktaş fans under the hotel and creating noise to disturb the Forest team.

It looked like the Turkish media could only shoulder the blackened name.

But they soon found a weapon to fight back.

There were photographs that captured Twain pick up a red cell phone from the ground as he walked out of the technical area to command the game. Furthermore, it showed that he tossed the phone back into the technical area, which suggested that he was going to take what should have rightfully belonged to others.

It paralleled the controversial red card that banished Sağlam to the stands, and the Turkish media accused Tony Twain of being a thief. It was a double entendre that pointed out that Twain not only stole a cell phone, but he also stole the victory that was supposed to belong to Beşiktaş.

As the media hyped up the matter, the cell phone Twain picked up became a focus of public attention.

After the media magnified the photographs and discovered that it was a red Apple iPhone, Apple took the opportunity to get free advertising out of it.

A reporter went to interview Twain and asked if he had actually “stolen” the cell phone. Twain shook his head. “No, I’m just taking care of it for the time being. I’ve been on the phone with the owner and promised to give it back to her when she comes to the away game in England.”

The reporter noticed that Twain had used “she” and not “he.” He followed up with a question. “A beautiful woman?”

Twain was flummoxed by the question. He immediately looked at the reporter like he was an alien. “Mr. Reporter, you may be able to know what another person looks like by their voice, but I can’t.”

The reporter also realized his idiotic question, but Twain did not say that it did not matter if it was a beautiful woman or not. He sensed that it was a gimmick that could be hyped.

The story behind the cell phone was a little more interesting than a football game.

The night of the match, Nottingham Forest did not spend the night at the hotel. Instead, they opted to fly back to the United Kingdom on an evening flight. As Twain turned the cell phone off in the stadium and then could not turn the cell phone on when he boarded the plane, he only remembered to turn it on when he arrived in London.

As a result, he received a call the moment he turned on the cell phone.

Twain hesitated on whether or not to answer the call, as it was not his cell phone, after all. He was busy celebrating their victory after the game and forgot. He did not expect to bring it to England.

While Twain hesitated, the phone ringing stopped. It seemed that the caller got impatient and hung up on their own. However, Twain did not have time to catch his breath before the ringing started again.

This time, the somewhat annoyed Twain picked up the phone, “Hello…”

“Quickly give me back my phone!” A female voice rang out in broken English from the other end of the line.

Struck by the rush of words, Twain was delighted. “Dear madam, shouldn’t you be more polite and speak respectfully when you have something to ask of people?”

“You see anyone speak nicely to a thief, sir!” the female voice fiercely retorted. Although her English was not fluent, she expressed her anger clearly.

“Hello, dear lady, if this was your cell phone, then you threw it to me yourself. How can you say that I stole it?”

“I…” The female voice was momentarily tongue-tied.

She did hurl it. She had wanted to strike Twain but did not expect to miss him. Furthermore, she did not expect that Twain would lean over to pick up her cell phone and throw it into to the technical area for himself!

When she threw her cell phone, she was caught up with the atmosphere of the stadium and wanted to teach the opposing manager a little lesson. The people around her threw coins and lighters. But she was not a smoker, so she had no lighter on her. She also did not carry any coins with her. The only thing she had that she could throw was the iPhone that she had just bought not long ago. Consequently, in a moment of excitement…

When she calmed down, she regretted her actions. She would not have regretted throwing other things, but she had managed to buy the cell phone after much difficulty. The iPhone had not been officially launched in Turkey. Trying to buy one and be one of the first users took a lot of effort.

She had thought to call her own phone and negotiate to get her cell phone back. She did not expect to call countless times only to find that the phone was turned off. The more she called the angrier she got. When Twain finally managed to pick up the phone, she naturally would not talk nicely.

“Even if I threw it down, I did not want to abandon it! It’s just that… I was caught up in a moment of excitement… So, since you took it without my consent, that’s stealing!” The female voice paused for a moment before she finally came up with an argument.

However, Twain laughed happily. He found that the person on the other end of the line was not combative at all. If he were to be serious about this, the one to lose would not be him. Therefore, he said in a joking tone, “hey, madam, you tried to smash me in the head with this thing. Do you know what happens when you get hit in the head by such a big object?”

There was silence on the other end. The silence went on a little longer this time, so long that it made Twain think the cell phone signal was faulty.

“Well…” the female voice said with some reluctance, “I apologize for my impulsive and reckless behavior Mr. Twain… Now you can give back my phone!”

“Ah, even though your apology is not very sincere, I can accept it. It’s just that, madam, I don’t think I can return the phone to you right now,” Twain said with a grin.

“Why? I’ve already apologized. What else do you want?!” The deferential voice from her apology was driven away by a scream.

Twain moved the cell phone a little further away from his ear. The boos and roars of the 20,000 crazy Turkish fans at İnönü Stadium did not shock his ears, but the voice was lethal.

“Well… Because I’m in England, madam.”

Once he said it, there was another silence. After a while, the woman said, “you can mail it back to me.”

Twain shook his head like a rattle-drum. “No way. Your apology lacked sincerity. I could return your cell phone, but I do not like to be fooled. I appreciate sincerity, and your apology was not sincere enough.”

“You just said you could accept it…” The woman protested.

“I’ve changed my mind.” Twain behaved like a rascal. “I need an apology that is sincere enough for me to consider returning your cell phone back.”

Seeing that it was silence on the other end, Twain said, “well, doesn’t Beşiktaş have an away game on November 6th? Since you’re a Beşiktaş fan, you’re coming to watch the away game, right?”

Twain paused. There was still no sound. It was unclear if the other person was still on the call.

“Come to Nottingham, call this cell phone, we meet before the game, you apologize in person, and I’ll give you the cell phone. I promise there won’t be any media. What do you think?” Twain did not choose after the game because of any variables there could be after Beşiktaş lost that would make it inappropriate for the two of them to meet. So he arranged to meet before the game. Even if the Forest team beat Beşiktaş by eight goals, he only needed to care about cheering and celebrating his team’s victory and not worry about the issue if it would be awkward for him and a Beşiktaş fan to meet.

“Well… all right.” At last, the voice came from the other end of the line, albeit with some reluctance. “I’m definitely going to come and cheer for the team anyway… But I hope you can keep your word, Mr. Twain.”

Twain nodded. “I’m a man of my word. If I don’t keep my promise, then I’m not a man.”

The woman was so weak that Twain could force himself to continue to fight with her. If it were a different person who insisted that Twain mail it to Turkey, he would also be at his wit’s end. He would have been illegally holding other people’s belongings if he did not return it.

After he settled the matter of the cell phone, Twain put it aside. Once she called, he would go return the phone. With two more weeks to go before the second cycle of the Champions League group stage, Twain was worried that the phone would run out of power, so he turned off the phone and left it at home.

※※※

Due to the unexpected appearance of the cell phone, everyone’s attention shifted from the game itself to the gossip outside the field. Few people cared about the outcome of the game except for the Forest fans.

Only Pierce Brosnan from Nottingham Evening Post wrote a review and hailed Twain’s team smoothly getting through the crisis of their lack of victory, the players’ fighting, and how they responded to the irksome people who had waited to see the Forest team with an away victory. Taking into account the feverish state of the opponent’s home atmosphere, the three points were a challenge to obtain, which proved another aspect of the Forest team’s strength.

However, Twain’s team did not help Brosnan and lost again in the league tournament.

Back in England, the Forest team undertook a full player rotation for the league tournament. The continuous playing had left many people tired and in unstable form. In the end, the Forest team lost 0:1 to the unbeatable Liverpool in a clash of the titans. Liverpool finally vented the rancor in their hearts. Twain was a little upset, too, but he had no other option. The team had competed continuously, and the opponent was a strong team. Without any respite at all, he had to use rotation to sacrifice immediate interests to secure the long-term benefits. He was mentally prepared for the result before he went to Liverpool.

The English media did not hit him while he was down. It was not that they had suddenly become merciful, but that there were far more important matters than Twain’s misfortune. Most of England’s mainstream media outlets were hyping up the annoying matter of England team’s UEFA European Championship qualifier.

The English football world was very lively, with the exception of Nottingham Forest’s “scandal” of fighting among the players. In the qualifier for the UEFA European Championship on October 17th, England lost 1:2 to Russia in an away game. McClaren’s team was pushed to the brink. Their fate was no longer in their own hands, but at the mercy of others. Before the game, a scandal also broke out about Ashley Young’s explicit messages, which caused an uproar that added to the away loss. His team was facing a life-and-death war and he was chatting with naked women before the game. People found it unacceptable.

Luckily, Ashley Young was no longer on the Forest team. Otherwise, the Wilford training base would be overcrowded again.

But compared to a scuffle between teammates and an online chat, the England team’s predicament of not being to advance was the biggest scandal.

McClaren came under fire, and perhaps Ashley Young bore a little of the anger from the English people, but tracing back to the cause, it was McClaren’s incompetence as a manager.

When the team was in critical condition during the first half of the year, he finally remembered Beckham, who had done well in Real Madrid, and called him back to the team. Beckham was abandoned again after he helped the England team through three assists in two games.

In the game against Russia, even though McClaren recalled Beckham and took him to Moscow with him, he was not given enough time. He only played in the last eight minutes, when England was behind and the team was a mess. Beckham could not serve any function when he went. He was not a god. He could only watch the team lose the battle of life and death. And when he returned to the club, he was injured during training, and could only be reduced to a guest of honor for a couple of games.

That was what made Twain angry. I had no problem when you used my player to play for the country because my player also wanted to play for the country. But you f**king took my player to Moscow, thousands of miles away, only to give him eight minutes to save the entire team. I won’t mention how that was overly demanding, but my player had to fly for more than ten hours back and forth between the two locations for eight minutes of play. The journey exhausted him. When he was back at training, he was injured, which was obviously caused by fatigue. Who can I look to when I encounter a situation like this? If you don’t trust my people and don’t want to use them, then don’t take them. You could have given Beckham a break. Instead, you squandered the few days, just to let him on for eight minutes. What do you take my player for?

Twain criticized McClaren in the press at the time, but McClaren was smart enough to remain silent. He had just lost a crucial game, so it was inappropriate to say anything. He could only allow time to deal with everything. He just stated that he was focused on preparing for the last real fight and did not want to be disturbed by the media.

Twain replied: Get ready, my ass! It’s more important for the Football Association to start preparing to choose a successor.

In fact, Twain’s fierce words could not be taken at face value. The emotional outburst was about how McClaren buried England. Truthfully, he was secretly delighted because McClaren’s poor performance proved that his previous tireless crusade was correct, prophetic, and definitely not just a personal feud. No one was going to say that Twain was an annoying man, relentlessly going after a man. The entire country was denouncing McClaren by words and writing.

Twain was not interested in if England had really been buried. He had no feelings for the country at all, and his feelings for football in this country were no better. If England was ruined, let her be ruined. Anyway, if McClaren had led the team into the finals though pure luck, they would only have had a bigger loss.

Twain was not able to care about the fate of the England team, but the English players in his team were bound to be affected.

George Wood was also taken to Moscow, but he was more pitiful than Beckham. The midfield meat grinder, who was always taciturn and unpopular in the national team, did not even get a second of playing. Gerrard and Lampard were packed in the middle of England’s midfield, leaving no opportunities for George Wood to play at all.

The reason why George Wood had no chance on the England team was because he was seen as being not as well-rounded as Lampard and Gerrard. Other than defense, Wood had no skills and was not as competitive.

Twain was dismissive of that view, but since he was not the England team’s manager, he could not do anything except to scold McClaren in the press.

If England could not even get past the qualifying round, Twain was only sorry that Beckham was unable to play in the last international competition of his career, and George Wood would not be known to more people in the world.

He had little to do with the national team. His abuse of McClaren was only a pastime in the end. The club’s results were his lifeblood. If England could not advance, the English players on his team would be able to have a nice relaxing vacation the next summer.

The two-game losing streak in the league tournament and the subsequent “devil’s competition schedule” was what gave Twain the real headache and pulled his effort and attention.