Chapter 276: Poaching Part 1
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After eliminating Notts County in the English FA Cup and winning his first derby since starting to coach the Forest team, Twain was in a good mood. And there was more to add to his mood. Sports Interactive was going to hold a press conference in London to formally announce its collaboration with the Nottingham Forest Football Club, as well as their appointment of Manager Tony Twain as a spokesperson for one of their company products, the “Football Manager” series, or FM.
After the press conference, without a break, Twain rushed to shoot his first personal advertising photo. It could not delay the team’s normal training, so it had to be completed within a day.
Shania had returned to Newcastle before the FA Cup since her Christmas holiday was over. Otherwise, Twain would have really wanted to bring her to attend the press conference.
First, the guests from Nottingham were taken to the company’s headquarters in Islington, North London, where they visited the developer of the small-scale but world-renowned football video game. Evan Doughty and Allan Adams were just going through the motions. They followed their host and nodded, or expressed surprise and interest at the appropriate times. No matter how much they knew about the game series, it could not be more than Tony Twain did, who was there with them.
It was very gratifying for an FM gamer to be able to go inside the company that made the game, and see for himself how they developed the game. That was how Twain was. He showed a greater interest than Evan and Allan did, and did not seem to be faking.
As the group was heading towards the press conference, Twain and the others were introduced to the company’s capabilities and were assured of the quality of the database that they wanted.
In the history of English football, this was the first time that a commercial collaboration between a professional football club and a football game developer was launched with such great fanfare; as a result, it attracted a lot of media attention. Moreover, the news about Twain serving as the spokesperson for the FM series was sent out in advance. With a game being endorsed by a Premier League manager, how could such a unique occasion not receive the British paparazzi’s attention?
The press conference was packed.
After the routine statement, both sides announced a strategic partnership and signed a collaboration contract in the presence of the reporters. Although the collaboration was the first of its kind, there was nothing surprising about it. After all, both sides’ interests were aligned with each other. The next part was the highlight of the media’s expectations.
SI announced that they would engage the Nottingham Forest Manager Tony Twain to be the spokesperson for their newest Football Manager series, and there would be an additional image of a man on the cover and game display of FM, and that person would be Tony Twain. Furthermore, in the game, Tony Twain would become an active character. Unlike the other coaches, who were just amalgamations of data, he would have a higher degree of freedom and do a lot of things that were consistent with the true character of Tony Twain. For example, after the gamer played against Twain and defeated him, he might say “we’ve been raped.” When the gamer wanted to buy George Wood in the game, Twain would inform the gamer, “unless you can fork out the United Kingdom’s GDP from last year, there’s no need for discussion” Of course, those changes would only be realized in the next game, FM06.
“I think I’ll play the game and choose to coach Nottingham Forest to see which football club I’ll be squeezed into in the game. It would be wonderful to play against myself.”
Twain’s words amused everyone present.
When asked why Manager Tony Twain was chosen as the spokesperson, the head of SI said, “We followed the Forest team’s movements in the last summer transfer market very closely, and discovered an amazing coincidence: Tony Twain’s picks were identical with our game developers’ picks. At that time, FM05 was not on sale yet on the market, but the new Wonderkids inside the game were always the ones Mr. Twain had his eye on. Maybe that’s not the right way to put it, but I can’t think of a more appropriate statement. FM is about emulating the real football environment in the digital world, and Mr. Twain is playing FM in the real football world.”
Twain smiled as he listened to the compliment, and said in his heart, “That’s right, I am playing FM!”
At the end of the press conference, the reporters did not disperse. Instead, they followed Twain to the advertising shoot. SI did not stop them because it was an opportunity for free publicity. Why would they give that up?
When Twain was posing according to the photographer’s requirements on the set, although the door was closed and nothing could be seen, there was still a large crowd of reporters outside, waiting to interview Twain after he was done.
Truthfully, Twain enjoyed this lifestyle now. Most of his desires that he had had when he had first arrived had been realized: to become a real football manager, to become a public figure, for his every word and action to be followed with interest, to be liked by some and hated by others… He remained calm throughout because he knew how everything came about now.
To solidify that life, he had to lead the team to win continuously and bring home championship trophies. He had seen too many examples of people who were glorious one day and forgotten the next; he did not want to be such a loser.
He still had a lot of victories which he had not achieved yet, and he still had not won a lot of championship trophies. He also had a lot of powerful opponents that he still had not played against, and his coaching career had just begun.
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Today was the first day of Forest team’s resumed training after the FA Cup. The sun made a rare appearance in the sky. Twain was in a good mood, having just finished his first advertisement in his life. On his way to the Wilford training base with Dunn, he bought a copy of the newspaper with his photograph on it. They looked at it as they strolled along, and when they reached their destination, he also read the newspaper report about Twain’s trip to London yesterday.
After parting ways with Dunn on Wilford Lane, one of them went northward, and the other walked southward.
The weather was nice, and his mood was good. Twain did not go directly to the training ground, but circled around to see Eastwood first.
“Hey, Chief! Good morning!” Eastwood beckoned to greet Twain, while holding a newspaper in his hand with Twain’s picture on it.
Even though Eastwood had become the star player of everyone’s focus, he still lived in a caravan in the training base and did not feel that it was at odds with his star footballer status. He did not care about how other people talked about or viewed him. Twain was very glad to have such clear-headed players in his team.
