Godfather Of Champions

“Fernando Gago! Fernando Gago!” The commentator roared. “A goal in the dying minutes of the match! Nottingham Forest has miraculously gone into the lead! They have made a comeback against Arsenal! My god! Look at them… They have all gone crazy!”

The Nottingham Forest players have truly gone crazy on the pitch.

Even Twain had lost himself in his ecstasy. He began acting rather inappropriately as a manager by the side of the pitch, and his behaviour caused numerous cameras in the stadium to be ‘attracted’ to him.

He was not acting inappropriately so as to anger the Arsenal fans. He was truly fired up by the goal. He had told his players during half-time that they needed to win this match if they wanted to continue their fight to become champions, and they had done just that.

How could he not be worked up?

When his excitement and euphoria died down, Twain noticed that Eastwood was murmuring to himself by the side. He looked like he had just cried as his eyes were red.

He walked over and patted him on the shoulder. “Why did you cry?”

“I didn’t cry… Boss.” Eastwood stopped murmuring once he noticed that Twain was standing next to him.

“What are you mumbling about?”

The Romani’s face turned red, but he said nothing.

His reaction piqued Twain’s curiosity. He shook Eastwood’s shoulder and asked, “Go on, tell me. What are you being embarrassed about?”

Eastwood hesitated for a while before he went on to say, “I, uh, I’m trying to memorize the words that you said at half-time, boss…”

Twain was taken aback by his words. A short moment later, he burst out laughing. “What is there to memorize? It won’t do you any good…”

Eastwood chuckled. His cheeks were still faintly red. “Your words are just like the bible, boss. I feel full of energy every time I recite them, boss.”

It was Twain’s turn to be embarrassed. He scratched his messy head of hair and did not know what he should say.

“… How can there be anything else in this world that is worth fighting for if we don’t even want to fight for a chance like this?”

Eastwood grinned at Twain after reciting the words one more time.

“Well said, boss. We fought hard and we have attained victory. Do we have what it takes to become champions now?”

Twain looked at the smiling Eastwood. The latter’s eyes were still red.

He definitely cried earlier.

It suddenly dawned on Twain that if Freddy had not retired, then he could have become a player who achieved the treble in his career.

Those achievements mean nothing to him now…

Twain did not answer Eastwood’s question. Instead, he said, “Didn’t I say this before? I equate Nottingham Forest with the champions. Looks like you didn’t memorize properly, Freddy.”

There were three minutes left to play in the match. The Arsenal players could only pick themselves up and continue playing in the match.

Twain had left his happiness from earlier aside and was shouting at the top of his voice by the side of the pitch. He wanted his players to stay focused and not give Arsenal the chance to level the score in the final few minutes of the match.

After all, if Nottingham Forest is capable of scoring a goal in the dying minutes of the game, then who is to say that Arsenal is not capable of doing the same?

“Stay calm! You all have to stay calm!” Those were the words that Twain shouted the most in the final three minutes of the match. He was worried that his players would get too excited and that their emotions would end up affecting their performances.

Twain was right to be worried, as the players’ emotions did nearly get in the way. Luckily for them however, they had a captain who was capable of staying composed in all circumstances.

George Wood kept reminding his teammates verbally and through his actions on how they should be acting in the final few minutes of the match.

The Emirates Stadium was filled with deafening cheers. The home team fans were all supporting and cheering their team on.

Wenger might be thinking that it was all right to lose the match since they still led Forest by three points, but there was not a single fan who would want to see the team that they support lose a match.

Wenger got his Arsenal team to go all out with its offense. It did not matter if they were to lose by another goal since it would still be a loss. But, if they were lucky, they could score a goal against Forest and level the score.

Arsenal earned a corner after shooting at Forest’s goalpost repeatedly. It was Arsenal’s last chance to score in the match. Even their goalkeeper Almunia had run up to Forest’s penalty box.

The ball was sent into the penalty box from the corner.

Almunia actually managed to head the ball!

Unfortunately for him, his shot went wide. It flew right out of bounds.

There was no one guarding Arsenal’s goalpost right now. Akinfeev was not going to let this opportunity to carry out a counterattack slip. He ran over to the ball boy positioned behind the goalpost and asked for the ball. He planned on scoring a goal and making the score 3:1 by kicking the ball towards the empty goalpost before Almunia made his way back.

He did not get his wish, however. He heard three blows to the referee’s whistle right at the moment he received the ball from the ball boy.

“The match is over!”

The Forest fans at the stands all stood up with both hands raised to the skies, and they began cheering at the top of voices.

Their team had achieved victory in a challenging game. This win was worth six points in their hearts!

“Nottingham Forest has defeated Arsenal in an away game and they have obtained three valuable points. The gap between them and Arsenal is only three points now, and they have also risen to second place. In the match that kicked off before this, Liverpool drew with Manchester United and has dropped to third place. Tony Twain has taken another step towards a future where Carl Spicer has to eat a table.”

“It was a match that would get any football fan fired up. Gago scored a brace, and his second goal was crucial in rescuing Tony Twain’s heart. He is Forest’s biggest hero today. If Nottingham Forest were to end up becoming the champions of the Premier League, then Gago deserves a lot of credit for their success. His goal was extremely significant!”

When the whistle signalling the end of the match sounded, Twain stood to his feet and walked over to Wenger with his hand outstretched.

“I’m in the mood for a drink now.”

Wenger forced a smile as he stretched out a hand.

“I’m not in the mood for that sadly, Tony.”

Twain patted Wenger on the shoulder. It was his way of comforting him.

“There’s still one more match left to play between us. If you win, I’d wish that you can become the champions of the Champions League wholeheartedly.” Twain sounded sincere with his words. It was hard to discern even a twinge of sarcasm in them, and it was also hard to imagine that these words would come from a man whose goal was to become champions of the Champions League.

“Thank you.”

Wenger was the most influential manager in the Premier League after Ferguson retired. He has achieved many accolades during his managerial career, but the only thing that eluded him was the Champions League trophy.

“I too, would wish that you would become the champions should you win the next match between us.”

The two bade each other farewell. Wenger turned and walked down the tunnel, whereas Twain turned and walked towards the pitch.

Twain quickly made his way onto the pitch. He hugged each and every Forest player and thanked them for putting in a good performance earlier.

When he reached Gago, he gave the latter a tight hug with all his strength. The reporters surrounding them started pressing down on their shutters as they hugged, but neither Gago nor Twain cared about the attention that was on them.

“Well done, Fernando!” Twain patted Gago on the back forcefully.

Five minutes might have passed since he scored the match-winning goal, but Gago was still feeling pumped up. His lips continued to tremble, and he returned Twain’s hug with a lot of strength as well.

He was the main character in the stadium today. He was Nottingham Forest’s hero for the match, and he could very well end up being Nottingham Forest’s hero for the season as well.

He had definitely not expected things to turn out this way when he transferred to Nottingham Forest from Real Madrid.

He now saw himself as a member of Nottingham Forest completely. He did not have any lingering thoughts about his time in Real Madrid. It was all in the past now.

“The treble, boss! That’s what you said! We all tried our best…” Gago, who rarely got worked up, had trouble forming his words.

“That’s right. Like I’ve said, we would definitely achieve the treble.” Twain spoke softly by Gago’s ear.

Gago suddenly calmed down and stopped trembling after hearing Twain’s words.

Twain ruffled Gago’s hair affectionately before releasing him from his embrace.

“Enjoy this special night, Fernando.” He winked at him.

Gago was surrounded by countless reporters the moment Twain left.

“Can you talk about that very last goal of yours, Gago?”

“How do you feel to have scored two goals in the match, and one of them being the goal to clinch the victory for your team?”

“Can you tell us what you were talking about with Manager Twain earlier?”

“Let’s talk about the possibility of Forest becoming champions of the Premier League. You have just reduced the gap to just three points…”

“Hey, Gago…”

Twain, who had been making his way over to the tunnel, suddenly stopped in his tracks by the side of the pitch. He then lifted his head to look at the row of VIP rooms situated at the top of the Emirates Stadium.

He knew that Shania was in one of the rooms, though he did not know exactly which room she was in since there were people in each and every room.

He had gotten really worked up earlier, and he was certain that Shania must be worried sick.

Watching football matches is a great enjoyment to most of the fans who turn up at the stadium every week. It is a way for them to vent their pent-up emotions and to experience the highs and lows that watching football brings.

However, Shania was an exception. Watching football matches was a form of torture to her. She did not care about the exciting performances that the players put in, nor did she care about how the two managers are battling with each other through their use of tactics. She certainly did not care about whether a particular player is handsome or not either.

All she cared about was Tony’s performance in the match. She did not want him to overexert himself or get too overly excited, because she was afraid that those behaviours would affect his heart.

She did not care about how appealing football is as a sport, or how it is reckoned as the number one sport in the world. Some people even call it the ‘war’ within a peaceful era, or a ‘game between men’, but none of those things mattered to her…

She just wanted her husband and lover to be healthy at the end of each and every match.

Twain did not manage to see which room Shania was in but he waved his hands at where the rooms were situated, before pressing a hand on his heart.

He was sure that Shania would see this action of his, and that she would also know what it meant.

Shania did indeed see that action of his. She smiled and waved back at her husband from the VIP room as a response.

As for whether Twain saw her gestures…

There is no need to ask, is there?

Twain did not solely commend Gago’s performance during the post-match conference. He commended the team’s performance collectively.

The players shared the same opinion as him as well. All of them spoke about how the victory was only possible because the team had worked together as one during their interviews at the mixed zone. They also brought up how the words that Tony Twain said to them at half-time became their source of strength to pull off the feat.

Their comments piqued the reporters’ curiosity. However, neither Twain nor the players were willing to divulge what was said in the locker room. Therefore, ‘what Tony Twain said at half-time during the Arsenal game’ would most likely become yet another secret that no one knows the answer to for a long while…

Twain and the Nottingham Forest players were in a good mood during the press conference. Likewise, Wenger was also composed and did not throw a temper either.

In contrast, the Arsenal players did not appear to have been able to accept the outcome of the match.

Fàbregas kept shaking his head during his interview. He was clearly dissatisfied with the result.

“A loss is a loss. There’s nothing else that I can say about it… I have no idea what to say either. We’d focus on the Champions League next. We still have a chance. The initiative is still on our hands. We still lead them by three points…” His voice grew softer as he spoke before he turned and left. It was as though he did not believe what he had just said.

Wilshere did not approach Wood to request for an exchange of jerseys at the end of the match. He was not in the mood to do it. He finally understood what Wood must have felt when he refused to exchange jerseys when his team lost.

If another player were to go up to him and ask to exchange jerseys right now, he might not refuse the other person, but he would definitely not feel good during the exchange.

Fortunately for him, the Nottingham Forest players were too busy celebrating their victory, so no one went up to him to ask for his jersey. He left the pitch briskly, but was still stopped at the mixed zone. The reporters wanted him to say a few words about the match from before since he looked crestfallen.

“I don’t know if we are still able to become champions of the Premier League. They (Nottingham Forest) are right on our trail…” He realized that it was not appropriate to say such words after losing the match, thus he quickly added, “However, we don’t know what will happen in a match until the very last moment. Thus, it’s not the end of the world just because we lost a match…”

He left in a hurry after he said those words.

The way in which Wilshere and Fàbregas left after providing an interview to the reporters was subsequently adopted by all the Arsenal players.

None of the Arsenal players were in the mood to talk about the match after losing the match at their own home grounds. All they wanted to do was to get away from the stadium, take a nap, forget all about the match and start preparing for the second leg of their Champions League semi-finals match.

The Arsenal players were well aware that the best way to forget the pain of losing a match is not with the passage of time, but with a victory instead.

Their manager was of the same opinion as well.

At the end of the press conference, Wenger said, “To me, today’s match is already a thing of the past. I’d not think about it anymore. What’s really important is the Champions League match three days later. We’d be playing at the same stadium then, and we would not lose to Nottingham Forest again.”

His expression was solemn. It was a stark contrast to Twain’s smiling face.

The next day, the various media outlets all reported about how there was immense pressure riding on Wenger’s back, whereas things were easy for Twain going into their Champions League match.

Sadly, they were all wrong…….