Godfather Of Champions

Even though Joe Mattock was his substitute in the Nottingham Forest team, the Little Monkey was very envious of him. That was because this substitute left back was able to get up close with boss and listen to his lectures in the changing room, joke with him and play for him.

For Gareth Bale, this was the kind of treatment that he might never enjoy again.

There were many players who had a good relationship with Twain in the Nottingham Forest team that he built from scratch. However, there were not many whom had a relationship that went beyond that of a manager and his players. Gareth Bale was one of them. To him, Tony Twain was the reason why he was able to play professional football, win so many trophies and accolade, and become a world famous left back now.

If not for the boss’ sudden inspiration to go to Southampton, he would not have met his own father and thus, the stories after that would not have happened for him. Bale was very grateful for the impact boss had on his life. In China, there is a saying that goes “the scholar dies for his bosom friend”, even though there is no such saying in England, the logic is the same.

For a professional player, the greatest happiness of one’s career is to meet a manager that understands and likes him.

He was happy for 11 years.

When the English national players returned to Forest, Bale was very happy to hear that Wood had patched things up with boss. He pestered Wood the whole day to ask him about what happened in the England national team, although he was actually focused on things related to Boss. If Wood did not tell him, he would ask the others.

Bentley was a little annoyed by him and he used “state interests” as a shield.

“We’ll be playing you next, Little Monkey. Are you trying to dig information about our tactics?”

“Who cares about that?” Bale proclaimed proudly, “Do you think there is any secret that England has and we Welsh don’t know about? I merely wanted to know how boss took care of those reporters.”

“How would I know? I didn’t attend that press conference. Go ask Gerrard!”

“You should have heard something about it, right?”

“Oh, you’re so annoying, Little Monkey! You were the one who insisted on representing Wales instead of England last time. They can’t even qualify for the European Championship…”

“It’s none of your business!” Bale glared at Bentley before turning and walking away.

Bentley scratched his head as he watched Bale walk away. He talked to in confusion, “Did I say something wrong?”

Now that Tony Twain was gone, the England national players in the team could still be reunited with him in the national team. But what about him?

Bale had never regretted his choice to represent Wales, although he wished that Twain could manage Wales…

He wanted to give boss a hug just like what Pepe did when they met on the field. However, he definitely could not do that in next week’s game. That was a match between two nations and he was representing Wales, not himself.

Therefore, as much as he liked boss, he would do his best to help his team defeat England in this match.

He also wanted to play in the World Cup for once…

※※※

England’s visit to Wales was the third round of the European Championship qualifiers and England’s second game in the qualifiers.

Wales was never considered a strong team. Even during the few years when Giggs was in his prime, they were unable to compete against the stronger teams in Europe. That was why the Englishmen did not pay much attention to this neighbour of theirs. They were discussing the match after this, the visit to Slovakia on 20th October. That would be a difficult game.

Unlike what he did against Macedonia, Twain did not avoid talking about this opponent. Instead, he mentioned a few Welsh players during the interviews with particular focus on the key left back for Wales, Gareth Bale.

“…I’ve managed Bale before, that was a beautiful memory for me. I know what he can do, and I also know what Wales can do. After all, they have many players playing in the English Premier League and I’m able to observe them first-hand. This is different from Macedonia. Bale is a talented player, I’ve never doubted it ever since he played from me. He did very well for Wales, taking care of the whole team’s attack and defence on the left. We’ll think of something to mark him out…”

Next, Twain reminisce about many things that happened with Bale in the Forest team.

Seemed like a very warm occasion, was it not?

However, Bale understood very clearly that boss was playing the mental game again. Why is he talking about the past? Isn’t that to disrupt me?

Bale did not fall for it.

Before he reported for duty with the Wales national team, he was interviewed by reporters at the Wilford gates as the media wanted to hear his replies to what his benefactor said.

“Even though Flores is my manager now, I had a great time in the 11 years I had with Twain. However, this will not affect the match next week in any way. I’ll still do my best to go for victory because this was what he taught us——Do our best no matter what. I’ll prove that I’ve not forgotten this with my actions.”

Bale was very serious and there were no signs of any smiles on his face.

Bentley watched him getting interview from the side and he mumbled, “Something feels weird after that day… Did I upset him?” Bale had not spoken to him ever since that incident.

“You idiot!” Mattock slapped his head, “It has always been a pain in Gareth’s heart that he was unable to participate in a major world competition. You just had to talk about it.”

“I got irritated as he kept pestering me…” Now that Bentley thought about it, he felt that he went a little overboard too.

“I understand that you guys miss boss, but…” Gago suddenly appeared behind the two of them, giving them a shock.

“But what?” Bentley asked.

Gago frowned, “Little Monkey is talking about how good boss was in front of the media, how he’ll not forget what boss taught him. How do you think these will sound to Mr Flores?”

The other two looked at each other and they too felt that what Bale said was not appropriate.

As they looked over, Bale was still talking about his expectations for that match with the reporters.

※※※

In the last round of the league matches before the international break, Gareth Bale found himself on the substitute’s bench while Joe Mattock started in his place.

Flores’ explanation for this was “normal rotation of the team”. However, why was he rotating the players now when there was a two-weeks international break after this? Rotating for the national team? Since when did the managers of the clubs sympathized with the national team managers so much? The media were not stupid. If Forest won, that would be fine. If they lost, the reporters had a truckload of questions prepared to bombard Flores, the foreigner who still had not learnt how to speak English yet.

Maybe only Flores himself, and the Nottingham Forest players understood why their key left back, who had been performing well, would suddenly find himself on the bench.

Sometimes, a more stronghanded approach was required to remove Tony Twain’s influence.

Bale sat silently on the substitute’s bench and he appeared to be deep in thoughts as the camera swept across him a few times.

Maybe news of him falling out with the manager would spread like wildfire after this match. It was his fault for openly declaring his longing and love for his previous manager. This meant that he was obviously not showing any respect for his current manager.

While Bale was still in a daze on the substitute’s bench, his team was trailing Arsenal by 2:0 at the Emirates stadium.

Arsenal focused their attack on Joe Mattock’s side as his individual skills were still some way off Bale’s standard after all. One of the two goals came directly from his flank while the other came indirectly from that side.

Tony Twain and Des Walker were watching this match from the VIP box seats at the Emirates stadium as they were observing the performances of the players involved in the national team. At the same time, Twain also wanted to observe Bale’s performance to see if he was affected by what he said earlier. He did not expect Flores to not play Bale at all.

“Idiot,” Twain complained unhappily, “He’s doing this in such an important match against Arsenal, he’s asking for it.”

“Didn’t you announce long ago that you don’t care what happened to Nottingham Forest anymore?” Walker teased.

“I’m worried that Flores will cause my national team players to lose their form. He’s able to do this to Bale today, who knows if he’ll do the same to Wood, Bentley or Mitchell and gang?”

Walker did not say anything else as he felt that Twain was right.

George Wood scored with a long-range effort near the end of the match, but it was merely a consolation goal. Arsenal defeated Nottingham Forest easily at home with a score of 3:1. This was also their second successive loss under Flores.

“Bentley did not play well either… He was much worse when compared with Walcott…” Twain stood up and told Walker beside him after the match, “If there’re no accidents, Bentley will not be starting the game against Wales.”

“Mattock is still a little lacking in terms of skills, his name will probably not be on the call-up list this time.”

He evaluated the performances of the players on his name list one by one.

“Wilshere did very well, maybe I should give him a chance?”

“You can only have four players in midfield, how are you going to do that?” Walker asked.

“Gerrard can be on the bench,” Twain replied nonchalantly.

“Aren’t you worried that the Liverpool media will destroy you?” Walker laughed.

“I’m only responsible for the team. Media? Who cares what they think, “Twain said as he turned to leave. “Besides, Gerrard’s performance in this round of league match was very average. I think it’s logical to let Wilshere, who performed better, start the next match. Wood also played very well in this match. If we’re to rate their performances, he should get the highest score out of the whole Nottingham Forest team.”

“George is now our core player, his status and effect are the same as what Gerrard used to be for England a couple of years back, “Twain told Walker, “A midfielder who can both attack and defend, is consistent and hardly ever injured. I’ll have to be mad to not make him our core player.”

He left with Walker closely behind him.

Below the stands, Flores was shaking hands with Wenger with a forced smile on his face. The reporters surrounding him kept taking pictures of him and some could not wait for the press conference before asking him their questions, “Mr Flores, can you explain why you didn’t play Gareth Bale? He was not injured, and his performances are very consistent…”

Flores pretended not to hear them as he walked straight into the tunnel.

※※※

There was indeed news of Gareth Bale and Flores falling out with each other in the papers and online the next day. The picture that accompanied the report was that of Flores anxiously shouting commands at his players on the side line with Bale daydreaming on the substitute’s bench behind him.

However, the reporters did not manage to get any further information as they were unable to interview Bale. That was because Bale had already left Wilford for Cardiff. He had been staying in Nottingham all this while but his home was actually in Cardiff.

As the biggest footballing star in the Wales national team, he had become the player who captured the most attention from Wales ever since Eastwood retired due to injuries. He was again stopped by reporters outside his home who wished to get some replies from him regarding the latest rumours floating around in the media.

Only an idiot would say that he had a falling out with the manager, unless he had already decided to leave.

Bale denied any unhappiness between him and Flores. As for the reason why he did not feature for the match against Arsenal for even a minute, he had this to say, “…There are not issues with my form and my body, and I’ll prove it in the international match. However, Flores said that he wanted a rotation, so I accepted his suggestion. That is all. I don’t think things are as complicated as you imagined.”

There was no reporter who would believe what he said. They were waiting to collect new evidence to expose the disharmony within the Nottingham Forest changing room!

Wales’ manager, John Toshack, stood out in support of his key player, “I don’t know why he was the only one who was rotated, but I’m very happy that Bale had this precious opportunity to rest. This is a piece of good news for us against England. I believe that Bale is the best left back in the world and we’ll be going to Spain for the European Championship this time. England? They know us well and we know them well too. I’ve already formulated a plan to restrict their Lampard-Gerrard Duo in midfield…”

Toshack was confident and Gareth Bale was fired up as he sought to prove that he still remembered what his benefactor taught him.

It looked like England’s visit to Wales would not be all smooth-sailing this time?