Godfather Of Champions

Twain was just looking around when he suddenly saw a familiar person. The discovery greatly surprised him, so he left Kerslake and strode towards them.

When this other person saw Twain walking towards her, she was delighted. She bounced and waved enthusiastically at Twain.

"Uncle Tony, Uncle Tony!" This voice that was calling his name belonged to none other than Shania.

"Shania, why are you here?" Using "astonishment" to describe his mood at this time was not quite accurate. It was more appropriate to use "pleasantly surprised."

Wearing a green coat, Shania stood on the edge of the crowd with her long brown hair in a smooth ponytail that swung along with her bouncy movements. Seeing Twain, she smiled radiantly.

"Can\'t I come?" Shania stopped jumping, leaned towards Twain across the metal railing, and smiled.

"Aren\'t you supposed to be in class?"

"It\'s okay to skip a class once in a while..." Shania pouted. "If I don\'t skip class, I won\'t be able to see you!"

"Well, if you want to see me, we can just video-chat online."

"No! How can online compare with talking in person?" said Shania, frowning. She seemed to realize something. "You don\'t look well."

"Well, it\'s a cloudy day and there\'s not enough light in this weather, so I don\'t look good." Twain scratched his head.

They were both happily talking there when, all of a sudden, there was the sound of a cough beside them. Twain discovered that there was a guy standing beside Shania who was about Shania\'s height, but who was clearly older than Shania.

Shania stuck her tongue out. She had forgotten, too.

"Uncle Tony, this is my cousin, Tom." Shania pointed at the guy and introduced him to Twain, then turned to the guy and said, "This is Uncle Tony; I\'ve mentioned him to you before. I didn\'t lie to you."

The reason that Twain had ignored the guy at first was that he wore a Newcastle United home jersey. He had thought that he was a just Newcastle United fan who had come over to join in the fun. He did not expect him to be Shania\'s cousin.

Wait a minute! Cousin? A cousin who\'s living under the same roof?

Twain looked at Shania, looked at the guy, and reached out his hand. "Hi, I\'m Tony Twain. Very nice to meet you."

"Hello, I\'m Tom Sawyer, Judy\'s cousin. Nice to meet you too." The two men shared a brief handshake.

Judy...why is he calling her so intimately? Tang En thought, and then turned to Shania and said, "Shania, are you free this evening? I\'d like to take you to dinner."

"Okay, sure..." Shania said happily before she suddenly frowned. "Oh, in the evening, my aunt..."

She did not need to finish her sentence; Tang En could already roughly guess the situation. Ah, it appears that Shania\'s immediate family aren\'t the only ones who instill a strict upbringing. Even her relatives are the same...

Are we going to miss this great opportunity? It\'s not easy to meet with her, and we can\'t even have a meal together? Tang En was a little disappointed.

While both of them were feeling awkward, Tom, who stood next to him, spoke. "I can call my mom and tell her that I\'m going to eat with Judy this evening. It should be okay."

Shania was very happy and turned back to looked at her cousin. "Really?"

"Of course." Tom only smiled when he faced Shania.

Tang En secretly rolled his eyes. Now he had to take one more person out for dinner. It was not that he was reluctant to part with the money; it did not cost that much to treat one more person to dinner. It was just uncomfortable to talk with an unfamiliar person around. But did he have a choice?

"That\'s a good idea," Twain said casually.

Then Tom went and looked for a quiet spot to call his mother. Shania nagged at Twain, pointing to Twain\'s face and saying that he did not take care of his health. Twain did not deny it; he just bowed his head to admit his failure.

Tom Sawyer soon returned. He smiled at Shania and nodded, saying, "I took care of things with my mom."

"That\'s great!" Shania clapped her hands.

Twain turned around and looked at the players, most of whom had already finished signing autographs and had returned to the bus. They were now going back to the hotel to rest. So he said to Shania, "You guys wait for me."

He then turned and walked towards David Kerslake, who was standing at the bus door. The latter was smiling and looking at him, and he also saw the players smiling at him too when he glanced at the bus.

"Uh… David, I\'m not going back with you guys. I..."

"We know, Tony," said David. There was a burst of laughter in the bus behind him. "Have fun."

Twain scratched his nose. What was this group of people thinking? But he did not have time to correct them. He knew a saying that went, "to explain is to cover up." Let them think what they want. I haven\'t done anything wrong!

"Well, okay... Oh, yes, give me the game tickets, please." Even though it was an away game, the team would still receive some tickets. Naturally, the number of tickets was not as high as that of a home game, but they were still enough for a gift.

Kerslake took out a stack of tickets. "One or two?"

Twain extended two fingers. "Just two."

"That Newcastle United kid should have a ticket, right?"

Twain looked back. Tom seemed to be chatting happily with Shania. "I\'m not sure. It doesn\'t matter even if he does. He won\'t refuse if I want to give him a free ticket. Let him watch tomorrow\'s game among the Forest fans. It will definitely be a very special feeling for him."

The two men looked at each other and laughed in mutual understanding.

Twain took the tickets and turned back. Kerslake boarded the bus and asked the driver to take them back to the hotel. On the bus, the players\' gazes were still following their manager. Several of them pointed to Shania stuck their tongues out. When Kerslake saw this, he clapped his hands to signal for everybody to turn away.

"All right, everybody\'s seen it."

"Of course!" A group of people answered in unison.

"We don\'t have a reason to lose the game tomorrow," Kerslake said, laughing.

"That\'s right!" There was a huge burst of laughter inside the bus.

The bus drove past Twain and the others, and the men in the bus whistled at him. Twain glared at the guys with a stern expression, but his imposing manner was ineffective.

As the bus drove away, Twain looked at the two young people in front of him and said, "I\'m not familiar with Newcastle; where would you like to have dinner? Or, we can go shopping first. Shania, do you have anything you\'d like to buy?"

※※※

Finally, they decided to go shopping first and have dinner afterwards. Shania did not have anything she wanted to buy. Twain bought Tom a pair of Adidas sneakers in the latest model as a meeting gift. After receiving the present, Tom had a distinctly better attitude towards Twain and he smiled more. He also became more talkative.

During their dinner, Twain had initially want to catch up with Shania, but he was tied up with Tom. The guy was an avid football fan, and he could talk endlessly with another fan, even one with only a little football knowledge. But Twain was not some fan who only knew a little football. He was a professional football manager.

As a result, once Tom opened up, it was like opening the floodgates of the River Thames.

Shania became a tag-along guest and sat beside them, unable to get a word in edgewise. She smiled when Twain glanced at her.

If the kid weren\'t Shania\'s cousin, Twain would have really wanted to stuff a whole piece of steak into his mouth.

The conversation naturally turned to tomorrow\'s game. Tom was full of confidence in the team he supported, and did not care about Twain\'s feelings. He believed that the Forest team could not win this game.

"Shearer\'s very good, and he\'s been in great condition recently! Bowyer is also really powerful; his left foot is simply amazing! And then there\'s Kluivert... he\'s currently the team\'s number one striker!"

Twain calmly listened to his bragging, and then said evenly, "Thank you for the reminder, I\'ll go back and tell my players to focus their attention on those players."

Still chattering away until then, the smug Tom was stumped. Shania, sitting next to him, snickered.

Tang En felt that time was wasted this evening when he could have had the opportunity to chat alone with Shania, and he wanted to get rid of this Newcastle United fan who was full of hot air.

He glanced at his watch; it was 8.45 PM.

When Shania saw this, she knew it was time to say goodbye, so she tactfully said to her cousin, "Tom, it\'s getting late. We should head back."

"Oh? Oh, ok. Sure." Tom nodded in agreement.

When they reached the hotel entrance, Twain took out two tickets from his pocket and handed them to Shania. "You can go watch the game with your cousin tomorrow afternoon, Shania."

Shania nodded and gave a ticket to her cousin.

Tom was delighted. "That\'s fantastic, I was worried about not being able to buy tickets!"

Twain chuckled happily. "Well, see you tomorrow afternoon."

"Okay, sure."

The taxi, which the hotel had called for the guests, had stopped at the entrance. Tom opened the car door for his cousin to get in. Shania got in the car, and Tom went around to get in from the other side. At that time, Shania leaned out of the car window and said to Twain, "Uncle Tony, where are you going for Christmas?"

"I\'m not going anywhere." Twain shrugged.

"That\'s great, I\'ll go visit you then!" She said with a smile.

"I\'m going too!" Tom called out from inside the car.

Shania turned to him and said, "Aren\'t you going to Switzerland with your classmates?"

"I don\'t really want to go..."

"Didn\'t you say you would send me a lot of photographs?"

"Uh… of course. But I was just kidding..."

Shania leaned out of the car window again and waved to Twain with a smile. "See you then, Uncle Tony!"

"I\'ll see you then, Shania." Twain watched their taxi merge with the traffic before turning towards the taxi that was waiting for him.

When he got in the car, the radio was broadcasting a sports segment, which was a recording of the press conference from that afternoon. Souness answered the reporters\' questions with great confidence. "The Forest team is strong, but Newcastle United is playing on its home ground. I hope to give the fans a wonderful game at that time; when the game is terrific, the results will be terrific too."

Sitting in the back seat, Twain sneered.

I\'m also looking forward to it.