Godfather Of Champions

A day’s rest was very short, and everyone made full use of the time to enjoy a momentary break because they were going to face two intense finals soon.

On the day they returned to training, Twain was waiting for the players at the training grounds with a smile on his face as he greeted every single one of them while observing their expressions. He was very satisfied with the results. The players did not go too crazy during their break and they still remembered that they had two finals waiting for them even when they were relaxing in their day off.

From the 13th to the 17th, the Nottingham Forest’s training was not focused on Tottenham Hotspurs. Twain was extremely familiar with their FA Cup’s opponent. They would have to play each other twice a year at least and there were no secrets between the two teams. The match would be very intense and exciting as they would not pull any punches.

While preparing for the FA Cup, Twain was thinking more about the Champions League final.

La Liga was not over yet, although it was inevitable that Real Madrid would win the league title. Even though they did not have the chance to win the Copa del Rey, it would be impressive to win the double nonetheless.

The Spanish media was already analyzing the odds of Real Madrid winning the 10th Champions League trophy in their club’s history. They gave an example from history to proof that this season’s Champions League belonged to Real Madrid —— In the year 2000, Real Madrid eliminated Barcelona before finally winning 3:0 against Valencia to win the eighth Champions League trophy.

The English media was not one to give up without a fight and the historical case study that they pulled out was equally compelling. During the times of Brian Clough, Nottingham Forest successfully defended their UEFA Champions League trophy at the Bernabéu. It can be said that Real Madrid’s Bernabéu stadium was their lucky ground.

Everybody seemed to care very little about the FA Cup.

For Tottenham Hotspurs, things were much simpler. The FA Cup was the only trophy that they still had a chance to fight for, it would be a good thing for them if Nottingham Forest did not pay much attention to it. They could focus all their attention on winning the FA Cup and getting the rights to compete in next season’s Europa League. Their league placing was not up to their expectations that season and if they wanted more glory and earnings for next season, they could only fight for the FA Cup.

There were even some Tottenham Hotspurs fans who indicated that the ideal result would be for them to win the FA Cup and Nottingham Forest to win the Champions League.

But…how could a sparrow know the will of a swan?

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The match was not for a few more days, but Twain could not bear the loneliness and initiated the war of words. When taking an interview with a reporter, he kept talking about the Champions League, about Real Madrid and the Bernabéu, but he did not mention the FA Cup or his FA Cup opponent.

In the end, the reporter interviewing him could not take it anymore and he asked, “What do you think about the upcoming FA Cup final Mr. Twain?”

Twain thought it was weird and he asked, “Do I need to think about it? It’s an opponent that we meet twice a year at least, we’re very familiar with them. I don’t think that a FA Cup final can make them change into a team of a higher level like Arsenal. There’s nothing to worry about.” He smiled at the reporter confidently.

This attitude and opinion infuriated Tottenham Hotspurs. Their fans must be kicking themselves for supporting Forest to overcome Arsenal to win the league title during the last round together with Portsmouth.

Harry Redknapp was an old timer in the English football scene, and he could be considered as someone with reputation. Now that his team was humiliated by someone of the younger generation, he had to show up and say something.

“Of course, I would hope that Tony Twain thinks that way. Because that would give us a higher chance of being the Champion. In fact, I can’t wait for Twain to continue thinking this way.

He expressed his displeasure by taking the initiative to show weakness.

His players were not so cultured though.

Fabian Delph, a talented player formally from the ranks of Leeds youth team joined Tottenham two seasons ago. Now, he was already one of the key players of Tottenham. He told reporters, “I’ve always looked forward to competing against manager Twain during such an important match. I don’t want to high my thinking… I want to defeat them!”

“A team of Arsenal’s level? A team of that level lost the league title too. Why would we want to become a level like that? Tottenham is Tottenham, we don’t have to become anyone else to defeat Nottingham Forest.” Ledley King, whom have been playing for Tottenham all this while, not only rebutted what Twain said, he even made use of the chance to mock Arsenal for losing the league title. A Tottenham old guard indeed, his hatred for the Gunners was deeper than anyone else.

“We’ve defeated Arsenal before, and we can defeat Nottingham Forest now too!” Brazilian goalkeeper, Gomes, also hoped to get his first champions’ trophy since he joined Tottenham.

There was actually some history between Tottenham and Forest because there were two ex-Forest players in the Tottenham ranks now. One of them was center-back Michael Dawson and the other was Jermaine Jenas.

The latter did not have much feelings for Nottingham Forest because he left the team before Twain took over. Initially, he had the title of “England’s highest valued youth player”, but he did not particularly do very well and was now a peripheral player in the team. Michael Dawson used to be a center-back with bags of potential, but he was too injury-prone and lost his position in the national team. However, he was still better than Jenas in the sense that he would still be a key player in the club if he was not injured.

Jenas did not feel much for Twain and he participated a bit in the war of words. Dawson was grateful for Twain’s part in developing him as a player and he did not participate. However, he would not think that way during the match. He would definitely do his best for Tottenham and defeat Nottingham Forest.

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After poking the hornet’s nest for Tottenham and causing so much chaos, Twain left. He was acting during the interview. Not only did he not look down on Tottenham, he thought very highly of them. In these few days, other than analyzing Real Madrid, the team did trainings specially catered for Tottenham.

If one had to find something special about the FA Cup, it would be because it was the final match and their opponent would have even stronger will and energy than usual. These energies could cover the distance between the powers of these two teams. If Forest was not careful, they might still lose due to carelessness.

Since Twain was going for the treble, he definitely would not allow losing due to carelessness to happen.

When it was only two days to the match, he wanted the whole team to watch the videos of the last five Tottenham games, to familiarize themselves with their opponents while he analyzed every single detail for them, including Tottenham’s usual tactics, the technical specialties and loopholes, how to make use of these loopholes, their method of doing so…etc.

The training durations were deliberately shortened for these two days and watching videos became a compulsory activity for everyone.

Who said that Twain was underestimating his opponent? If his opponent really thought so, they would be in for a show.

Watching the videos familiarized the team with their opponents and get themselves ready.

Next, Nottingham Forest only needed to wait for the match to start.

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On May 15th, the Forest team set off from Nottingham on their bus towards London and stayed in a hotel to prepare for the FA Cup final on the 17th. That was the first time Twain led the team to the FA Cup final and the club treated the game with utmost importance. The chairman even put down his work and specially rushed over to London to cheer the team on. He also announced that there would be a cash prize if the team won the FA Cup.

The club chairman motivated the players using money whereas Twain used discipline to ensure that the players would be in their best form. He requested everyone to sleep before 11pm and wake up before 8am for breakfast. There must be a break of one hour in the afternoon and there was to be no pork in all their meals, and no alcohol for the two days. These regulations were not just for the players, the coaches had to enjoy the same “treatment”. It was still okay for them to have a set timing for bed and to wake up, but asking these Englishmen to not drink felt even worse than killing them.

Twain told the coaches during the coaching staff’s internal meeting that there was no better way to manage a team than to lead by example. If you want your players to follow the regulations that you set, then you have to follow them first in order to convince them. Take Wood for example, he was always the most hardworking one in training and he was also the most serious one in matches. That was why he was still held in very high regards in the team even though he was not good with his words. That was the power of “leading by example”.

He treated this FA Cup final very seriously and he would not allow even the smallest error.

This was Tony Twain’s first time after all…

He had experienced many first times in his life, but this first kept eluding him.

Even though he had already won many different champion’s trophies, he was still a little nervous when facing the FA Cup. It was as if he was a scholar taking the Imperial Examinations in the capital city in the past, he would not know whether he would be pass or fail the examinations the next day.

The other reason why he was so serious about the FA Cup was simple —— This was the second trophy in the treble. If they lost the FA Cup, they would have failed to achieve the objective that they worked so hard for that season. This was the same logic as with the league, there was no room for failure.

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One day before the match, when the teams went to check out the venue at Wembley, both managers participated in a press conference.

No one could tell that the two of them were just engaged in a war of words when Redknapp and Twain sat together.

They were both very polite, Twain gave his senior in the industry enough respect while Redknapp seemed to have forgotten that Twain looked down on Tottenham previously.

They only talked about themselves and not their opponents. This press conference was so boring that it disappointed many people. Those reporters who came because of the news and wanted to incite some reactions between them were left wanting as the two wily foxes of different ages did not bite. They did not want to meddle with the other’s affairs.

If the reporters insisted to asking Twain about what he said a few days back, Twain simply shut up and did not answer. It was not his first time doing so and he did not find it difficult at all.

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On May 17th, there was a slight drizzle in London since early in the morning. The temperature was four degrees lower than the day before and the atmosphere was comfortable. A drizzle should not have much effect on the pitch, however, Twain still requested for the coaching team to prepare two sets of boots for the players.

The rain was still coming down when they went to the stadium in the afternoon. Twain looked at the faraway sky before boarding the bus. The sky near Wembley was so white that it was shining, the rain would probably still fall for quite a while.

On the bus, Twain received a text from his wife reminding him to not stay out in the rain too long during the match in case he caught a cold.

The players were more relaxed and some of them even started playing poker at the back. Twain did not stop them, it was good for them to relax a little now.

Twain merely turned back to look at his players, then looked down at the message on his phone again.

If there was anything that could calm him down during this nervous moment which could trigger anytime, it had to be the care and concern of his wife.

When the Wembley Stadium appeared in the sights of everyone, the people who were playing cards, resting their eyes, listening to music, or texting, all looked up to witness England’s iconic stadium.

This was their final battleground.

Twain also looked away from his phone to look at the massive stadium under the overcast skies.

This was not his first time competing in Wembley, but it was his first time managing a FA Cup final. There should be not much difference.

He closed his eyes to go through every one of his opponent’s players once in his mind. He firmly believed that both him and his team were well-prepared, and the FA Cup would definitely belong to them.

The bus stopped at the exclusive lane and the fans nearby all rushed forward to witness the players at the earliest moment.

Kerslake was the first to alight, and he said in the rain, “Get down, get down!”

The players alighted one by one and they even had the mood to react to the fans’ cheers.

Twain was the last to alight and he was stopped by the reporters who insisted that he reply some questions.

Twain remembered Shania’s message and he put on a stern face and said, “No questions about prediction of the match, no questions about prediction of the score, no questions about the tactical arrangements, no questions about the starting lineup…”

“What can we ask about then?” One of the reporters protested.

“Oh, so there are not other questions? I’ll be leaving then,” Twain turned around and left after making a fool out of the media. He had no intention to stay out in the rain with the reporters who were in raincoats and holding umbrellas.

“Hey…”

“Mr. Twain, please stay…”

“He got us again!” Complaints from the reporters rang out all around them.

“Fine, he better pray that his team doesn’t lose in the FA Cup final, otherwise I’ll not let him off easily in the papers!”

“I think he better pray that his team will keep winning, otherwise none of us will let him off easily…”

Twain did not hear the vicious cursing of the reporters as he hurried into the tunnel to prevent himself from being drenched.

Even if he heard them, he would not pay much attention to them. It would not be so easy for those reporters to get the goods on him. He would not give his opponents a chance so easily.

Want to watch me embarrass myself? Not even in ten thousand years!