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Godfather Of Champions Chapter 347

Chapter 347 - The Tournament Part 1

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

With three consecutive goals in three games, Anelka’s performance attracted the attention of the media. Although the media might have little affection for Anelka’s two agent brothers, they could not ignore Anelka’s performance. The return of a prodigal son was the best topic for the recent Premier League.

As a result, the Forest team’s training ground had another increase of reporters. The buzzing flies had returned.

Looking at the reporters pestering Anelka, Twain suddenly felt that Anelka’s two brothers did a good job. The price of forty thousand pounds per interview could really scare away a lot of people. He rubbed his chin and wondered if he should give himself a price of one hundred thousand pounds to make his life quieter. With the success of the Forest team, there were more and more people who wanted to get in touch with and interview Twain.

Twain would not reject media interviews, but he could not accept it if they went to his house and blocked his doorstep.

That was what happened to Anelka, and Twain did not plan to worry too much about it. The French striker was someone who had been in professional football for years. Some things were clear in his mind.

Anyway, he had made his stance pretty clear——Since you’re on my team now, you will have to do a good job. When you do well, there will be lots of money up for grabs. But if you’re not willing to do well and want to leave, I won’t make you stay.

What he had actually said to Anelka said that day was, Whether you stay or go, I don’t care.

Anelka was different from his other players. Twain did not need Anelka to be loyal to him because he was never part of his plan. He did not need Anelka to like him. He only needed Anelka to score for him.

What concerned him more was another person.

※※※

George Wood had encountered the most important problem in his nineteen years of life.

He thought that he should be a little different now from what he used to be, in training, in the locker room, and in the game….He should do some things that he had never done or paid attention to before.

But he did not know how to go about it.

Because he was the team captain. Although he was only a proxy, he was still the captain.

He needed to behave differently from the past because he wore the captain’s armband.

To be honest, asking him to do this was a little difficult for him.

When Albertini was around, he was able to make his teammates feel his presence as a captain, whether during training, in the locker room, or on the field.

George Wood did not have that ability. More often than not, everyone did not feel like they had a captain at their side during training, in the locker room, or in games.

Even though no one complained openly about it, Twain could see some signs of it; he believed that Wood could see it too. He was not an idiot.

He felt that he had to intervene to help with the matter. Since he had handed the captain’s armband over to Wood, he was obliged to pull him up when he encountered difficulties, or else he could hand the armband to Edwin van der Sar, or anyone else.

While the team was in training, Twain slipped back to his office and used the landline to call George Wood’s home.

The person who received the call was Wood’s mother, Sophia, who was pleasantly surprised to hear Twain’s voice. “Mr. Twain!”

Twain was not sure how to face the increasingly enthusiastic Sophia, so he rarely contacted her now. Nevertheless, it might be better for Wood’s mother to deal with the matter.

“Hello, Madam. Are you feeling better?”

“I’m much better.”

“That’s wonderful.”

“What’s the matter, Mr. Twain?” Sophia could sense that Twain was beating around the bush, so she asked first.

“Uh, Madam. Did Wood talk to you about his situation in the team recently at home?”

“Yes, he did. He said he was made team captain.” Sophia smiled. She was proud of her son.

“The thing is the new captain has met with some trouble lately.” Twain recounted the situation, “Wood listens to his mother the most. So, I need your help with this matter.”

Sophia kept quiet for a while over the phone, and then nodded, “Okay, I got it. Don’t worry, Mr. Twain. I know my son, I understand what I have to do.”

“Thank you very much, Madam.”

“I’m the one who needs to say thank you, Mr. Twain. If you had not allowed him to go to the Forest team for training, where would George be today?”

Twain laughed as he recalled his first season of coaching the Forest team. He had met George Wood in that cold season and the kid had said to him, “I think you should sign the best player in England,” as if he was reciting a line. Wood himself had had no idea what the best player in England was at that time but now he was getting closer to that goal.

After she thanked him again, Twain ended the call with Sophia and returned to the training ground. He stood on the sidelines and quietly observed.

Wood worked diligently, harder than before. He looked like he wanted to complete enough training for two people. But his simple and crude approach did not have any effect on his teammates, because he always worked hard. Everyone had long been accustomed to him working so hard.

The kid failed to grasp the point of it. Twain secretly shook his head.

He waited to see what Sophia could do to help.

※※※

A day’s training was over again, and Wood broodily head back to the locker room to change his clothes. He then walked away by himself.

He felt that today was as bad as any day in the past. He had not accomplished anything and had failed as a captain. He even began to doubt Twain’s decision to make him the team captain. He felt totally unfit to be a captain. Although he admired Demetrio and had learned some things from him, he did not think he could be a captain like Demetrio.

It was too difficult for George Wood to have a smile on his face all day long and treat everyone familiarly like old friends of many years.

Wood only smiled when he went home to face his mother’s smile. His mother always smiled at him and watched him smile. It was hard to keep a straight face. Furthermore, his mother’s smile was warm with no other meaning. It was a genuine smile, completely different from all the smiles he had encountered outside. That kind of smile completely put him at ease.

Both mother and son made dinner in the kitchen together. As if she suddenly remembered something, Sophia asked casually as she busied herself with her work at hand. “That’s right, George. When you return from Spain, I would like to invite someone to dinner.”

Wood was a little surprised. His mother was poor in health. Except for Twain and his agent, Woox, who occasionally came to update Wood on work, they did not receive any guests at home. With his mother offering to invite people to dinner out of the blue, he could not help but be surprised. He turned to look at his mother.

His mother pointed to the pot. “Give it a stir.”

Wood obediently picked up a ladle to stir in the soup.

“Well, didn’t you become the captain?” His mother said with a smile. “I think we should thank a few people, so I would like to invite your mentors to have dinner at home.”

“Demetrio?” Wood did not think that his mother would have thought to invite him.

Sophia nodded. “He’s been a great help to you. I want to thank him in person.”

Although he was surprised, what his mother had suggested was appropriate. Wood did not object.

“Other than that, I would also like to invite Mr. Twain too.”

Wood turned to look at his mother again. Sophia bowed her head to busy herself with her chore as if she had not said anything.

“Oh, okay. I’ll talk to him.” Wood nodded.

Godfather Of Champions

Godfather Of Champions

冠军教父
Score 8.3
Status: Completed Type: Author: , Released: 2007 Native Language: Chinese
This is a story about the pursuit of victory. — “I subscribe only to the theory of victory. I only pursue victory. As long as I am able to obtain victory, I don’t care if it’s total football or counterattack. What is the ultimate goal of professional soccer? In my opinion, it is victory, and the pinnacle of victory is to become the champions. I am a manager. If I don’t wish to lose my job or be forgotten by the people, there’s only one path for me to take, and that is to lead the team in obtaining victories, in obtaining championship titles!” The main character was not well-liked by people. — “⋯We conducted a survey which had been deemed by Manager Tony Twain as extremely meaningless. In a random street survey conducted, ninety-three percent of those surveyed chose the option ‘I hate Tony Twain’, while only seven percent chose the option ‘This person is rather decent, I like him’. It is worth noting that nobody chose the option ‘Who is Tony Twain? I don’t know him’. Mark, do you know why Manager Twain felt that our survey was very meaningless?” Parker, a reporter from laughed loudly and said when he was being interviewed by BBC. But there were also people who were madly in love with him. — When Tony Twain was forced to talk about the survey conducted by during an interview, his reply was : “I am happy, because Nottingham Forest’s fans make up seven percent of England’s population.” And he did not seem to care about how the others saw him. — “What are you all trying to make me say? Admit that I am not popular, and everywhere I go will be filled with jeers and middle fingers. You all think I will be afraid? Wrong! Because I am able to bring victory to my team and its supporters. I don’t care how many people hate me and can’t wait to kill me, and I also won’t change myself to accommodate the mood of these losers. You want to improve your mood? Very simple, come and defeat me.” His love story had garnered widespread attention. — “Our reporters took these pictures at Manager Tony Twain’s doorsteps. It clearly shows that Shania entered his house at 8.34pm and she did not leave the house throughout the night at all. But Manager Tony Twain firmly denies, and insists that that was merely the newest-model inflatable doll which he had ordered. He was the number one star of the team. — “⋯ Became the spokesperson of world-wide famous clothing brands, shot advertisements, frequented the fashion industry’s award ceremonies, endorsed electronic games, has a supermodel girlfriend. His earnings from advertisements exceed his club salary by seventeen times, owns a special column in various print medias, publishing his autobiography (in progress), and is even said that he is planning to shoot an inspirational film based off his own person experiences! Who can tell me which part of his life experiences is worthy of being called ‘inspirational’? Hold on⋯. Are you all thinking that I’m referring to David Beckham? You’re sorely mistaken! I’m talking about Manager Tony Twain⋯.” He was very knowledgeable about Chinese soccer. — “⋯ I’ve heard about it, that Bora gifted four books to his manager Mr. Zhu before your country’s national team’s warm up match. After which, the team lost 1:3 to a nameless American team from Major League Soccer. The new excuse that Mr. Zhu gave for losing the match, was that Bora gifted “books” (‘books’ and ‘lose’ are homophones in the Chinese language). Here, I recommend that you guys find out what that one specific book is. Which book? Of course the one that caused you all to score a goal. After that, tell me the title of the book. Before every match, I will gift ten copies of that same book to you. In that case, won’t you all be able to get a triumphant 10:0 win over your opponents every time?” An excerpt taken from Tony Twain’s special column in a certain famous Chinese sports newspaper. He was loved and hated by the press. — “He has a special column in at least four renowned print media, and he is able to get a considerable amount of remuneration just by scolding people or writing a few hundred words of nonsense weekly. While we have to contemplate hard about our drafts for three days before our boss is pleased with it. In an article inside his special column, he scolded and called all of the media ‘son of a bitch’, announcing that he hated the media the most. But every time he publishes an article, we flock towards him like flies which had spotted butter. Why? Because the readers like to read his news and see him scold people. I dare to bet with you, and Manager Tony Twain knows clearly in his heart as well, that even though he says that he hates us, he knows that the present him cannot do without us. Similarly, we also cannot do without him. Is this ultimately considered a good or a bad thing?” Bruce Pearce, a reporter from said with a face of helplessness when talking about Tony Twain. But no matter the case, his players were his most loyal believers. — Gareth Bale, “No no, we never had any pressure when playing on our home grounds. Because the pressure is all on the manager. As long as we see him standing by the side of the field, all of us will feel that we will be able to win that match. Even the football hooligans are like meek lambs in front of him!” (After saying this, he began to laugh out loudly) The reply from George Wood, the team captain of Nottingham Forest, was the most straightforward. “We follow him because he can bring us victory.” The legendary experience of Tony Twain, the richest, most successful, most controversial manager with the most unique personality! Debuting this summer. Thank you for reading.

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