Godfather Of Champions

The photograph of the forty-year-old groom holding his eighteen-year-old bride in his arms and deeply kissing her, made the news on the BBC television the next day. The news soon spread all over the world. No matter how sad Shania’s male fans were, it did not change the fait accompli—their idol, coolly elegant and haughty on the runway, but lively and lovely in life, Judy Shania Jordana only belonged to Tony Twain, the old man alone henceforth.

The BBC’s newscaster concluded, “Yesterday Tony Twain became the happiest man on the planet. Although the season that had just ended was a failure for both him and Nottingham Forest, he personally won on another competition arena. We wish them all the best.”

But it was not known how many fanboys cried on the inside as they cursed him…

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The morning sun came through the window and shone on two naked bodies lying in bed.

Twain and Shania had just finished their “morning workout.” Shania laid beside him and curled up like a sleepy kitten. The perspiration had not yet dried on the two of them, but no one got up to go shower in the bathroom.

Twain had not stopped “procreation” since he became one with Shania that night. He knew he was not getting younger and afraid that if he did not procreate, he might be willing in mind, but his body would not be able to in the future. Shania also did not show any antipathy in this aspect. After all, being pregnant would impact a model’s career. But she also wanted a baby.

On the wedding night, the two people made frenzied love the entire night and started another sweat-dripping session when they woke up early in the morning. This somewhat surprised Shania.

“Uncle Tony…” She was still snuggled up in Twain’s arms, softly calling.

“Hmmm?” Although he had moved uninhibited on top of Shania’s body just now, Twain’s hand still misbehaved and gently caressed across her smooth skin, bit by bit as if to titillate his loveable wife.

“You’re simply not like a forty-year-old… Hee hee!” Twain tickled her sensitive area, and she laughed and twisted her body.

Twain did not know why he was like this. But every time he saw Shania’s young and full of vitality body, her slightly young and tender beautiful face, bright and lively eyes, he felt that his body had an irrepressible fervor flow surging forth. He would not be able to sleep if he did not vent it out.

The young girl has an irresistible force temptation on me. Why did I not realize it in the first five years? Lisa Aria was right. I don’t know the people around me, I don’t know myself too.

Twain patted Shania’s smooth and pert buttocks and said, “Go take a shower. With such good weather, don’t tell we’re going to lie in bed for all day?”

Shania sat up and turned her head toward Twain to make a very tempting request to Twain, “Want to shower together, Uncle Tony?”

Twain gave her a look and said, “I don’t want to.”

Shania shrugged and jumped out of bed. She sashayed past the bed with the model’s strut as she twisted her buttocks to walk toward the bathroom. After entering, she did not forget to poke her head out to ask, “You really don’t want to?”

“No.” Twain looked at the television ahead and said without turning his glance.

“I left the door unlock, Uncle Tony.”

“Are you inviting me in a sense?”

“No, maybe I just forget to lock the door.” Shania giggled as she went in. Then there was the sound of flowing water.

The sound seemed to flow into Twain’s heart, scratching at his heart and making it hard for him to resist.

He looked left and right and muttered, “Take a shower together? Well, that does sound like a good idea…” And he jumped out of bed.

※※※

This morning’s story was just one of many little stories about Twain and Shania’s honeymoon.

The day after the wedding, the reporters captured shots of Shania in a bikini, frolicking by the sea with Twain at Copacabana Beach. The following week, the happy figures of the two of them could be found in practically every corner of Rio de Janeiro.

Twain had never experienced such days the past twenty-six years of his life. He felt infinitely happy. In the streets, when the mood struck him, he would embrace Shania and French kissed her as if they were alone. He did not care even if he knew that there were reporters hiding in secrets places to secretly shoot.

“It looks like their relationship is really good…” In the beginning, the media could promote the two people kissing in the streets. Later, they discovered that Twain treated this kind of thing as a common thing, so they could only say so.

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Good times were always brief. As an English Premier League manager, he did not have a whole month to be intimate with his new wife, make love every day, sometimes three times, sometimes twice.

To say it was a honeymoon, it was really just “a honey week.”

During this week, Twain reintroduced Shania to his parents. He had hoped that Shania would regard the pair of elders as her parents. Shania’s behavior made Twain very satisfied. She used her recently learnt Mandarin to address them as “Papa” and “Mama” when they met, which made the two old people laughed in delight and as happy as can be—they just gained a beautiful Brazilian daughter.

Having the time of his life, he did not think about anything else and just spent a wonderful week alone with Shania, which soon passed very quickly.

Although there was still time, Twain did not stay on in Brazil to play. He took Shania on a “tour of Latin America.” Even though they were on a holiday, Twain was in fact inspecting the excellent young successors around, to see if there was any chance of spending very little money to unearth a talented teenager who could become a big star player. But the biggest problem with selecting talents in South America was that these young players might not be able to obtain work permits from the English Football Association and the Department of Labor.

They traveled through Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay… and all the way up to Mexico which was Twain’s last stop.

He wanted to go take a look at the development of Martín Galván, who was bought by the Forest team two seasons ago.

He was overjoyed with the result.

Although he was not yet seventeen years old, Martín had made several appearances in the Mexican league tournament on behalf of Cruz Azul. Furthermore, he scored five goals and had seven assists. He was also the midfield core of the Mexican under-17 team, wearing the number 10 jersey.

Over time, the kid would surely grow up to be the talent Tony Twain needed. The worry now was not to let him suffer injuries during the most crucial stage of his development. Therefore, Twain did not want the Cruz Azul to let Martín compete too much.

He was afraid that to spoil him through excessive enthusiasm and cause Martín to become like the fable of <Decline of Zhongyong>. Out of concern, Twain and Martín talked alone once. Twain had a amiability and affinity with the young players—of course, it was before the youngster became his First Team player—even though this was Martín Galván’s first face-to-face chat with Twain, he did not feel the force from the manager, who had won the UEFA Champions League title for two years in a row. They talked about everything, and Twain asked Martín what was fun to do in Mexico City so that he could bring his model wife to go sightseeing.

From the conversation, Twain knew what Martín’s attitude to the Forest team was—the boy was keen to leave his home country and play in the higher level of football league in England. He also had a sense of belonging to Nottingham Forest.

Twain told Martín not to worry, and that he would have a chance when he was at the age of eighteen—provided he maintained a high level and continued his progress over time. He would not give a mediocre eighteen-year-old a chance to play. He was extremely tough on this point.

Twain did not make an empty promise to Martín. Considering the increasingly severe economic environment, and the stadium’s botched project, Twain anticipated that in the next two to three years, he would not have much transfer market funds to chase the world-class and already famous star players. Giving a lot of opportunities to young people was not a new idea. Leeds United and Arsenal had been setting off a rage of invincible youths in England and European football. So why could Nottingham Forest not do the same?

Before the start of the new season, he had already heard a lot of doubts about him and Nottingham Forest. He did not want to argue with the other party in the media because he believed that facts spoke louder than words. After he really set off the rage, then he could settle the scores.

In addition, there was another purpose in his trip to Cruz Azul. That was to promise Cruz Azul on behalf of the Nottingham Forest Football Club that, even though the current financial situation for the Forest Club was not good, the money to be given to Cruz Azul would still be fully transferred into their accounts.

It must be said that selling Ribéry solved a big problem for Twain and the Forest team. Fifty-five million euros could be used in a lot of areas with meticulous planning. When Wenger used half of the thirty million euros he got for the sale of Anelka to build the modernized London Colney training base, it benefited Arsenal’s countless of players.

Nottingham Forest did not need to build a new training base for the time being. The fifty-five million euros in revenue was divided into two parts. One portion was to maintain the day-to-day operations of the club, including the expenses for various purposes. The balance was to be used as Twain’s funds for the new season’s transfer market to buy the players he wanted.

As for the new stadium, the construction plan would continue to be put on hold until Allan could pull in the money again for the stadium. He heard that he had gone to the Arabian Peninsula this time to raise enough money for the new stadium for the price of selling the stadium’s naming rights, copying what Arsenal did for the construction of the Emirates Stadium at that time.

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After ending the visit to Mexico, Twain made a brief stop in Los Angeles with his young wife and met up with Clarice Gloria and Tom Cruise—the two people “hooked up” due to their connections with Twain and Shania—Not to get the wrong idea, it was a work relationship. Now they had a partnership. Introduced by these two people, Twain also met some of the big stars he had heard and knew of in Hollywood. They spent three happy days and nights there.

Then he flew back to England with Shania.

The honeymoon had officially ended. They did not come from a wealthy family clan, and Shania’s parents were just considered an up-and-coming middle class in Brazil. Therefore, both husband and wife must work hard to earn money to support their families. If they had a baby, they would need more money.

When Shania returned to Nottingham, she started to get busy with the runway shows, film production for commercials and promotional activities for the brands she endorsed.

While Twain met with Evan Doughty and resumed work for the new season.

After more than five months of rest, Twain was starting to get restless and could not wait to start his career again.

But to put it bluntly, what was in front of him now was a big mess. If comparisons were to be made, it was probably better than the team Twain faced after he was knocked to the ground on the back of his head.

Real Madrid really seemed to treat Nottingham Forest as a newly opened supermarket for new players that was still offering discounts. After they poached Ribéry, they set their sights again on Lennon, the right back. They hoped to spend fifteen million euros to buy Aaron Lennon and take him to Bernabéu.

In addition, they had their eyes on van der Vaart for two seasons. This summer, Mijatović thought it was time to make a move. They offered eighteen million euros to buy van der Vaart.

AC Milan hoped to get Arshavin who could play as the forward, winger and midfielder. For this reason, they were willing to offer twenty million euros.

Whereas Juventus had its eye on Nottingham Forest captain, George Wood. The Old Lady was ready to come up with thirty million euros to bring in the steely midfielder whose form was constant even as the team declined. Ranieri wanted George Wood to come and take over from Nedvěd.

But Juventus was up against aggressive rivals.

Inter Milan, Barcelona and Bayern Munich were all interested in George Wood’s defensive ability and the level of attacking capability he was gradually showing. Several years of offensive training had brought Wood’s offense skills to another level every year. One of the simplest, most specific and easy-to-understand examples to illustrate:

When George Wood made his debut at Nottingham Forest during which the famous Football Manager game created by Sports Interactive had the real player data that they were proud of, listed his passes, crosses, shots and dribble, skills, and long shots as 9, 5, 4, 8, 10, 6.

In the latest FM 2009 which still referred to the 07-08 and first half of the 08-09 seasons, the points of these various technical attributes became—passing 14, crosses 9, shots 11, dribble 12, skills 14 and long shots 13.

He was only twenty-one years old and had the potential to continue to develop. And FM had also set his potential at 9, which was a very high number. But Twain believed that after a period of time, Wood’s potential would be set at 200. He had that confidence.

Although Wood’s quality was excellent, it was almost impossible to get him. The more pragmatic approach was to find someone else in the Forest team.

Pepe had been lured by Chelsea and Scolari hoped that the player whom he was proud of in the national team could partner with Terry to become the Premier League’s best center back, pushing Vidic and Rio Ferdinand. As a result, the media speculated that Abramovich might make a bid of thirty million euros for Pepe. Scolari’s rivals were certainly still Real Madrid. After a failed season, Real Madrid had decided to come up with more transfer money to fill in their flawed positions on all fronts.

Eastwood had also been favored by a number of teams. Tottenham Hotspur hope to bring in the “lucky striker” who had always brought victory and championship titles to the club at crucial moments.

Gareth Bale was also lured by Tottenham Hotspur. They promised Bale a higher salary for and more signing fees for Bale’s father and agent. They hoped that the youngster with his outstanding attacking abilities, who could play as a left back and left midfielder, could be taken away from the City Ground stadium at a price of fifteen million euros.

Kompany was favored by AC Milan. With Nesta constantly injured and did not play all season, they were in desperate need of a good center back. The Italian media expected Galliani to bid nineteen million euros for Kompany.

…

Twain suddenly found that his players were so popular… If he sold all these players, let alone the economic crisis, the new stadium could start construction right away.

But could he do that?

If he really did this, he would be the biggest idiot in the world. Similarly, Evan and Allan would not really accept all of these offers.

Nevertheless, the departure of some players were already inevitable…