Godfather Of Champions

The next day, Greenwood was slightly surprised to see Chen Jian run up to him with a ball at his feet at North Wilford.

“Chen, what are you doing?”

“I’m practising my first touch, Manager Greenwood.” Chen Jian kicked the ball upwards using his heel and began to juggle it with his feet as he stopped to talk with Greenwood.

Greenwood smiled at the sight of Chen Jian practising. “Still, you didn’t need to practise while you make your way here, right?”

Chen Jian shook his head. “I can’t think of what else I can do besides this. I don’t have much time left, Manager Greenwood. I have barely five months left. I must…” he paused for a moment, “The training time is limited. So I am making use of the time when I come here and when I go home to practise my first touch.”

Greenwood looked at the boy from China. In truth, he did not understand why Twain got so angry at Chen Jian yesterday. However, it was not a question that he needed answers for. The incident only made him increasingly interested in Chen Jian.

“All right. You might have added extra practice items for yourself, but don’t expect your training regime later to become lesser as a result.”

Chen Jian nodded. “That’d be for the best, Manager Greenwood.” He wanted to bid farewell to Greenwood as he finished his words, but was stopped.

“Chen, tell me. What are your aspirations? To be more exact, why did you come here to go through a year of practice?”

“To become a professional footballer.” Chen Jian replied without hesitation.

“Where do you want to play in?”

Chen Jian hesitated this time round. “If… I can play in Britain or Europe, that’d be for the best. Even if I can’t, I’d still like to be able to play in other countries.”

“What about your home country?”

Chen Jian froze.

“I…” He did not know how to answer the question. He was a Chinese and was undoubtedly patriotic. Nonetheless, he was well aware of the state of football in China and the standard of play in their so-called ‘professional leagues’, namely the Chinese Super League and the China League One.

In the end, he responded with apparent conviction, “I will not return to China to play professional football.”

Greenwood nodded his head to signal that he understood. He knows a little about the standard of football in China due to the presence of Dunn, Sun Jihai and the ‘China Hand’ [1] Tony Twain in the team. The environment in China was certainly not ideal for someone who desires to play professional football.

Greenwood patted Chen Jian on the shoulder. “Continue working hard. You still have five more months.”

Chen Jian was working hard to push down the wall that was in his way.

※※※

After he had given Chen Jian a dressing-down in the rain, Twain woke up to a headache the following morning. However, he did not pay much attention to it. He ate his breakfast and rested for a bit before heading out to Wilford to work.

Twain had only stood by the side of the training grounds for a short while when he felt like he could not hold on any longer. He did not sneeze, did not have a runny nose, and was not coughing either. All he had was a headache and it felt as though something wanted to rush out from his temple. It felt swollen and painful and it affected his thought process. He also felt debilitated. The muscles on his back were sore, and he felt chilly.

He turned around, walked to the back and leaned against the pillar that propped up the sunshade, wanting to rest for a bit.

Kerslake had a whistle to his mouth as he directed the players’ training on the pitch, while Dunn was making preparations for the next training item off the pitch.

Dunn realized that Twain was not standing at the spot he last saw him at. Finding it odd, he turned his head and looked behind.

He saw Twain leaning weakly against the pillar with his head shaking left and right gently.

Seeing that, Dunn immediately tossed aside everything that he was doing and scurried over to Twain’s side.

“What’s wrong?”

Twain saw that it was Dunn and continued to shake his head. “My head just hurts a little.”

“Go and see the doctor.”

“It’s a waste of time.” Twain continued to shake his head.

“Then I’d get Fleming to check on you.”

“He’s a physiotherapist, not a doctor who can treat everything.” Twain found the suggestion to be ridiculous.

Dunn ignored his remark. He turned around and walked towards Fleming who was examining Beckham’s ankle.

“Gary, Tony’s not feeling too good. Can you take a look at him?”

Both Fleming and Beckham raised their heads in unison and looked into the distance at Twain. They saw Twain shaking his head with all his might.

Fleming pressed hard on Beckham’s left ankle. Beckham gasped and grimaced in pain.

“Apply ice over it after you are done with your training. This part here needs rest. Don’t treat it too roughly, David.”

“What’s wrong?” Fleming’s very first question was the same as Dunn’s.

“Headache.” Twain’s response was the same as well.

Fleming reached his hand out and felt Twain’s forehead.

Twain drew back his neck at his cold touch, and the back of his head collided against the pillar. He winced in pain from the impact.

“Your hand is really cold.”

Fleming ignored his comment. He continued to press his hand against Twain’s forehead and asked, “What other symptoms do you have besides the headache?”

Twain thought about it for a moment and said, “Muscle pain. Feeling weak all over. And I feel a little chilly…”

“You have caught a cold, you idiot.” Fleming shook his head. “I heard you coolly tossed aside your umbrella yesterday, scolded a Chinese boy for several minutes in the rain and got drenched from top to toe. Did you take a bath after going home?”

Twain shook his head. “I had already bathed the night before…”

“Poor bachelor,” muttered Fleming, “Go back home and rest. Eat some medicine for your fever. If they don’t work you’d have to go get an injection at the hospital.”

“Don’t make things sound so serious. Saying things like go to the hospital…” Twain did not want to leave. There were lots of things going on with the team right now. How could he leave?

“If you don’t leave, I can’t guarantee that you won’t spread your cold to others here.” Fleming knew what was on Twain’s mind, so he brought up the reason that would force Twain into compliance.

Twain watched as both Dunn and Fleming started to retreat away from him and threw up both his hands. “All right, all right. I’m going back. I’ll leave things here to you, Dunn. Help me tell Kerslake and the rest. I won’t be going over, or Gary’s going to call me a contagion…”

Fleming was skilled at chasing Twain away. “Hurry up and go. The earlier you leave, the safer we feel!”

Twain glared at him, then turned around and walked out of the premises.

Everyone on the pitch had already taken notice of what was happening by the side of the pitch when Fleming and Dunn both walked towards Twain, and they were quite surprised to see Twain turn to leave.

Dunn walked over and whispered a few words into Kerslake’s ear. The assistant manager smiled, then clapped his hands and announced to the players, “There’s nothing for you to see. Your boss got drenched in the rain yesterday and is suffering from a headache and a fever today. To prevent him from spreading his cold to us, Fleming has already chased him back home.”

One of the players laughed softly.

“Don’t laugh. The temperature has been dropping very quickly recently, and the rain that goes on all day long can make people feel as though their bodies have gone moldy. So all of you have to be extra careful these few days. Make sure to take a hot bath every day after training and change into a set of clean clothes daily. I don’t wish to see our results being affected due to these tiny cold viruses! All right, get back to practice, don’t let your bodies cool down!”

※※※

Twain returned home, ate a bunch of cold and fever medicine, added two layers of blankets on his bed, took a hot bath, wrapped himself up in three layers of blankets, laid on the bed and left everything else to fate.

His body kept on shivering as he laid in bed. Looks like his cold this time round is pretty bad…

All I did was to get drenched in a bit of rain… Do I really deserve this?

He felt like he was down on luck. He thought to himself, when have I ever taken medicine for my colds, and when have I ever felt this terrible for being down with a cold? When have I not gotten better just by toughing it out?

Looks like this body of mine is really getting old with every day, every minute and every second of my life.

That reminds me, others who transmigrate get to be reborn, but I get 10 years of life taken away from me instead. Twain felt upset at this.

However, there was no point getting angry over it. You gain some and you lose some. What he has gained so far is unimaginable fame, honor and wealth, and he even has a chance to gain a peculiar love relationship.

It was necessary for him to use 10 years of his life in exchange for all the things he has and is about to gain. After all, how can one wish to have their dreams come true but give nothing in return in this world?

His biggest worry right now was whether he would be fit to direct the team in the EFL Cup’s game a day later.

Because their opponent for that match is Arsenal…

What’s more…

He found himself unable to lay in bed and rest in peace the moment he thought about the situation that the team is facing currently.

The team had just won narrowly against the weak Stoke City by 1-0 in the last league game. The players’ conditions were still unstable. The team may be ranked third in the league currently, but the gap in points between them and the first and second-ranked teams was slowly widening.

Chelsea and Liverpool have both racked up 29 points.

Arsenal won their last match and has 23 points. They are very close behind Nottingham Forest who has 24 points.

Manchester United might have lost to Arsenal and are ranked fifth in the league with 21 points, but they are one game behind the other teams at the top of the league.

He cannot let the two teams ahead of him widen the gap too much before the winter transfer window commences, and he also cannot allow Arsenal and Manchester United the opportunity to overtake them.

He would have to see if there are any free agents whom they can obtain without paying a cent, and if there are any really, really cheap players that they can buy in January to strengthen the team and help them get through the winter.

His painfully swollen brain kept on mulling over all sorts of problems.

The medicinal effects started to kick in after a while, which made Twain feel drowsy, and he slowly drifted off to sleep.

※※※

Twain managed to triumph over his cold virus before the EFL Cup game. His body still felt a little lethargic, and he would cough intermittently when he spoke with too much force, but other than those, he was fine, which is why he did not care about the persisting issues that he was still suffering from.

Based on his past experiences, many of his cold symptoms lasted for quite a while before he was able to make a complete recovery. He was going to stop taking medicine and let his body recuperate by itself slowly.

He is so busy on a daily basis. If not for the fact that his symptoms were so glaring this time round, he would definitely not have remembered to eat his medicine on time.

Nottingham Forest, who played a team of players from the reserve and the youth team, lost 1-3 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, who also similarly played a team comprising of their youth players.

It was the third consecutive year that Nottingham Forest have failed to make it past the third round of the EFL Cup.

The final score for the match demonstrated the difference in abilities between the youth players for both teams.

Arsenal’s youth players looked monstrous and dazzling. Carlos Vela scored two goals by himself, and Jack Wilshere slotted another one in before full-time, thoroughly securing a victory for Arsenal with his goal.

The only goal for Nottingham Forest came from Şahin, and his goal helped to rescue Forest from total humiliation as the away team.

He felt that the time was right for Şahin to play in the first team matches. The team lacks players currently, and Şahin’s arrival will help to lessen the burden on van der Vaart. The Dutch is certainly trusted and valued in the team, but the pressure placed on him has also multiplied as a result.

Van der Vaart does not have players who can replace him, when even George Wood gets to have players who can replace him. Twain cannot keep getting Ribéry to run down the middle so as to share the burden that is placed on van der Vaart.

Twain was full of praise for Wenger’s young geniuses when he shook hands with Wenger after the match. He could not conceal his urge to salivate at the talent that was displayed by Arsenal’s youth players.

Wenger pretended not to notice Twain’s urges. “No one would have believed half a year ago that he would be able to perform as he had just now. Tony, you are great at turning junk into gold.”

Twain forced a smile. “I was forced to do that.”

Indeed, he had been forced to do whatever he did. Why would he only rely on Şahin if Forest had a youth system that was as developed as Arsenal’s, or came close to how Arsenal have produced numerous talented youths ceaselessly over the years, and how it is known throughout the world as a football club that valued talented youths?

Wenger spent 10 years to get Arsenal to where they are today. He had only spent six. He still has a long way to go as a manager…

“Hey, Professor. Is Wilshere available for loan?”

Twain had set his eyes on Arsenal’s talented youth players. Since the club did not have money to purchase players, then it should be acceptable for him to get some of these young players on loan to help the team through this difficult time.

Wenger shook his head. “He’s a part of my first team’s plans, Tony.”

Twain muttered the word ‘scrooge’ in his heart. How is Wilshere a part of his first team’s plans? All Wenger plans to do is to let Wilshere play a few games in the EFL Cup, and then let him play during ‘garbage time’ in the league games.

At the end of the day, Wenger just did not want to let a talented player be on loan at a rival’s team, and did not want to bolster the strength of their rivals.

He decided to stop talking about a potential loan.

“May you progress far in the EFL Cup.”

“Thank you.”

※※※

Twain became the focus of the British media once again after losing the EFL Cup.

This time however, it was not because of something that happened during the match. Twain had not provoked any of the Arsenal fans by the pitch, had not gotten in the face of the fourth official, and had not questioned the fairness of the referee in the post-match press conference.

He had peacefully accepted the loss, since winning the EFL Cup was never in his plans.

The reason he became the focus was not because of the match, but rather the publication of a new book…

The book written by Carl Spicer from The Daily Telegraph had finally been published after six months of preparations.

Due to how Spicer would actively speak about the book in his interviews prior to the publication of the book, everyone already knew about the frighteningly long title of the book before it was even released.

“What Kind Of Man Is He: Uncovering The Mysterious Halo Around Tony Twain”

A blurry back view of a person was printed over the red book cover. The white letters of the title took up all of the space on the cover and was printed over both the red background and the black, blurry image of a person’s back view.

During a television talk show, Spicer held up the book and told the audience with a solemn face,

“He is a ‘phenomenon’.”

It was a quote from the title page of his book.

Twain had observed the author for a while after he found out that he was the one who conducted that utterly foolish survey. He realized that many of the views that were against him were all written by this man.

He was actually a resolute ‘Anti-Twain’.

If that is the case, is his reason for writing the book so that he can earn money while writing about his anti-Twain comments?

The book was sold out the moment it was released. The publisher had not anticipated that a book analysing Twain would be so highly sought-after. Even people who were not fans of Nottingham Forest or football bought the book. The book had to be hastily sent for reprint due to the overwhelming popularity.

Carl Spicer proudly announced in his own column that the book delved into a very serious ‘social issue’, and that it was not one of those boring biographies that discussed the private lives of celebrities. He also denied that he wrote the book to satirize Twain, calling it a form of performance art instead.

There was not a single good thing that was written about Twain in the book. The book was full of comments that derided him, questioned him, and scolded him in a roundabout way.

However, such a book still became a bestseller in Britain. It had barely been published for a week and was already ranked third on Britain’s Bestseller List for the month of November, and it looked like it could continue to climb higher up the list.

A book with the name ‘Tony Twain’ printed on it became overwhelmingly popular, but Twain earned nothing from it.

He felt like he was ripped off.