Godfather Of Champions

When Tony Twain led the England team to win the first UEFA European Championship in history, the English media heralded that the football world had entered “Twain’s era.” During that period, Tony Twain’s prestige in England even showed trend of surpassing that of the British prime minister’s. Even Carl Spicer, his arch enemy, did not say anything bad about him. Just thinking about when he brought the England team back home, the scene of multitudes coming out from everywhere to welcome them, he already knew how unwise it was to say bad things about him at this time …

But Carl Spicer did not have to wait too long. When the World Cup qualifiers were reignited, they finally found a chance to attack Twain. The England team, which was awe-inspiring in the UEFA European Championship, seemed to have lost all its drive and faltered in the qualifying rounds.

There was even a time when Tony Twain’s manager position was precarious. The media admonished him and put him up against all kinds of charges. There had even been a number of authoritative media outlets that had proclaimed that the English Football Association was seriously considering whether to let Twain go. As for the great feat of leading the England team to make history a year ago, it had long been forgotten by people.

Competitive sports was so cruel. The losers were always in the wrong.

It was the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup held in Australia that saved Twain. As a preview for next year’s World Cup, the FIFA Confederations Cup, which gathered the champions from all continents, had received more and more attention. As the 2016 UEFA European Championship winner, England was invited to the tournament.

The England team, which competed in the Confederations Cup, was very different from the one that competed in the UEFA European Championship a year ago. The old players such as Gerrard and Terry had left the national team, with the 25-year-old Wilshere being appointed with the heavy task. The media all saw him as George Wood’s future successor in the England squad.

At this point, the England team was overwrought over whether they could advance out of the European section. The Confederations Cup would be a break away from it for them. No one had any hope of their results before the game. There were even rumors that Twain would be sacked by the Football Association when the Confederations Cup was over if the results were bad.

It was just that no one thought Tony Twain would show his talent once again. He led the team that no one was optimistic about, and surmounted all difficulties to finally beat his arch-rival, the Copa América champion, Argentina, to lift up the Confederations Cup trophy.

With a victory over a team like Argentina in the final and winning the Confederations Cup, Twain’s position was firmly established overnight again.

So much so that Carl Spicer said sourly in his program, “Twain always gets a good chance at a critical moment. The Confederations Cup was his good chance…”

And Twain had also completed the team’s generational change and reshuffling through the Confederations Cup. The new England team was younger, more dynamic and had more driver. They would not halt and go no further just because they won the title.

In the subsequent World Cup qualifiers, they went from third place to finish second in the group and eventually qualified for the play-offs. During the qualifiers, England beat Russia to secure a last-minute ticket to Australia’s World Cup finals.

But at that time, just as England was celebrating their qualification for the World Cup, perhaps anyone who was bold enough, did not expect them to see what they were going to see today.

※※※

Sydney’s Stadium Australia had never been as lively as it was tonight, like a volcano erupting. It was not spewing with lava, but with passion. Stadium Australia, which could hold up to 81,000 people, was the venue for the World Cup finals this time and was currently at full capacity. The snow-white lights shone out of the stadium, and the surrounding sky was lit up. The helicopter responsible for the aerial filming could be clearly seen hovering over the stadium.

Overlooking from the air, players of the two teams were caught up in an irresolvable fight in the middle of the green field. It was a brouhaha in the crowd within the stands and the heatwave shot straight into the clouds. It could be clearly felt in the helicopter.

More than 200 countries and regions around the world are watching the game live, with about 1.2 billion people watching it on the television. In a game like this, there was Tony Twain’s figure!

“… With less than five minutes to go until the end of the match, the England team is now 2:0 ahead of the last World Cup winner, Brazil! It is an unexpected score which no one could have anticipated before the game. Perhaps a lot of England fans will think they’re dreaming, even until now…”

The Brazilian team is turning up the full pressure. If they can’t equalize the score in these five minutes…”

“There are five minutes left! Just hold on for another five minutes! And we will hold up the World Cup trophy for the second time! Our tight defense has left the Brazilian team with no way to attack… From the beginning of the game, the initiative has fallen into our hands! Tony Twain completely figured out their tactics!”

“Twain is standing on the sidelines. I can’t tell what he’s feeling at the moment. His face is so calm that he’s not worried about the Brazilian’s counterattack.”

“I need to recap Tony Twain’s career since he became a manager – only one word consistently pops up in the entire list: champion! Now, the World Cup title is close at hand and within reach. If England can finally win the World Cup, then to Tony Twain, there’s no championship trophy that he hasn’t gotten in the world!”

The man who was commended by people was standing on the sidelines with his arms across his chest and looking calm. In fact, his heart roiled like boiling water, bubbling over. Although he had long set himself a goal to dominate the world, his heart was still beating uncontrollably at this moment as if it would jump out of his throat the moment he opened his mouth. So, he just tightly pursed his lips, which made him look unperturbed and serene…..

The England team was now completely in a defensive stance on the pitch. Wilshere, who had scored his second goal for the team, had long since been brought off by Twain. England deployed a double defensive midfielder formation in the midfield, with the two players, George Wood and Michael Johnson locked in their positions in front of the penalty area. It was hard even for the Brazilian team to attack.

The current situation was also thanks to the fact that Brazil’s current manager was not Dunga from four years ago. Dunga had left after he succeeded in leading the team to their sixth World Cup using a more conservative approach and then went to Europe to make his fortune. He was replaced by the former Brazilian under-20 national team’s manager, Rogério. Unlike Dunga, he was a supporter of the classic Brazilian football tradition. He preferred offense, emphasized the short passes on the ground and aspired to restore the glory of the Brazilian art of football.

It was a pity that his ambition was no use in the face of Twain. Rogério, who wanted to play offense head to head against England in the final, found they faced a shrinking England team that fought defensively. As a result, the Brazilian team did not score and instead, the England team made use of its defensive counterattacks to score two goals in a row, forcing them to the brink.

Twain did not stay and stand on the sidelines to watch the game. He turned around and walked back to the technical area. Next to him, no one could sit still in their seats. They all went to the sidelines, waiting for the referee to blow the final whistle of the game so that they could rush into the field to celebrate the historic moment with the players on the pitch.

The other people were excited. Only he felt tired.

He had been under a lot of pressure over the past year and he himself had exerted most of the pressure. Now it looked like the England team would win the World Cup title without a doubt. And after that?

Go back home to celebrate…

Twain thought even further.

Before the World Cup, the Football Association had hoped to renew his contract with Twain, but he refused. Despite Shaun Harvey’s displeased look, Twain still laid his cards on the table – he would not renew his contract with the Football Association when the World Cup ended, and his contract expired. That meant he would not continue to be coaching the England team again. The piece of news was nothing new.

As the national team manager, he had won all the championship titles there were. What was the point of staying? Twain did not want to lead the England team to create to create a great undertaking of all ages. He had no interest in the future of English football. For him, leading the England team was just to satisfy his love of football as well as a challenge to himself. Now that the challenge was over, he was tired.

As Twain sat alone in his chair, lost in his thoughts, the referee blew the final whistle.

“The game is over! England has won the 2018 World Cup title in Australia! Congratulations to them! Congratulations to Tony Twain, too! He has led the national team to accomplish the national team’s grand slam honors – the UEFA European Championship, the FIFA Confederations Cup, the FIFA World Cup! This is indeed an enviable achievement!

Twain only stood up from his seat at this moment and raised his hands high, appearing as a winner in front of the camera lenses. Fatigue was not displayed at times like this.

“England is a world champion! This is an unexpected result! Who would have thought they would have a day like this when they couldn’t even get out of the European qualifiers at one point? Two years ago, Twain had led the team to the top of Europe. Two years later, they have become the king of the world!”

“We are the champions! We’re the champions!!” John Motson was incoherent from the excitement. He only knew how to shout the phrase, which everyone knew well.

Around him, the coaches and players rushed about in ecstasy. Some people even cried tears of excitement. And Twain? He was in a calm mood and was being interviewed by reporters at the moment.

The reporters surrounded him. They thought that Twain had become the world champion tonight, so he must be in a very good mood. So, he would answer every question. They could also use this occasion to get more insider news to satisfy a wide range of audience and readers.

As Twain looked at the reporters who kept throwing questions and microphones at him, he just waved his hands and signaled that they did not need to hurry.

Seeing his hand gesture, the reporters did calm down. Yes, the game was already over, so there was no hurry. They had a lot of time to ask questions. The award ceremony was another half an hour away.

“First of all, I have a name list here…” Twain said as he pulled out a folded piece of paper from the inside pocket of his suit. He unfolded it to wave it at the press. No one could see clearly what was written on it. They only saw a swath of dense text.

“For the names of the media outlets which I call out, I will refuse to accept interviews from them.”

Once he said it, it was as if a heavy artillery had been dropped in the crowd!

What did that mean? Why did he have to have such a grim expression and refuse to be interviewed during such a happy time? What was going on with Tony Twain? Was there something wrong with his brain again?

It was during this time that a lot of the English media suddenly realized – the person they were facing was still Tony Twain. More than a decade had passed. Even though there were more wrinkles added on his face and the hair on his head was getting whiter, he was the unruly Tony Twain who liked to clash with the media.

“The Sun, News of the World…” Twain looked down and read the names on the “blacklist” one by one. These names were the media outlets which had hit him while he was at the lowest and during his most difficult times. They viciously scolded him and clamored for him to be fired from the England national team manager position. At that time, Twain also had his own column to fight back, but his voice was like a small stone dropped into the sea. It did not even create a ripple.

At the time, these media did not think that one day they would have to put up a smile to interview Twain and hoped that he would open his mouth to let them have their reports.

Gentlemen, it was time now to settle all accounts.

Twain had long remembered each and every name of these media outlets and written them down on the list to be carried with him at any time. He was preparing for this moment. Of course, if he did not win the championship in the end, the list might not come in handy, because even if he wanted to refuse to be interviewed by these media outlets, he would not be able to stop the others from rebuking him.

When these media outlets heard Twain read their names, the expressions on their faces suddenly became excited. Twain’s list included the vast majority of the English media outlets, as well as several foreign media, including one media outlet in China, which once described him as “impotent.”

After he read not so short list, Twain looked at the crowd of stunned reporters in front of him and asked, “Do the other people have any questions?”

The first people to react were the Liverpool Echo reporters. Because they had an anti-Twain representative, Christopher Beesley, so there were a lot of bad stuff written about Twain in the newspapers. They appeared to be agitated by Twain’s announcement that he would reject their interviews. They said, “You can’t do this, Mr. Twain!”

“Of course, I can, Mr. Reporter. I’m a world champion!” He roared cockily. “You’re the ones who asked to interview me while I’m not the one who asked you to come and interview me.”

“You…” The Liverpool Echo reporter was rendered speechless by Twain’s words for a long time.

On the side, The Sun reporter was relatively sly. He would not directly protest. Any fool could now see that Twain was in the limelight. It was fruitless to clash with him. Although they had clashes before, being flexible and taking advantage of the situation was a basic quality of an excellent reporter.

He moved closer, adopting a humble approach as he said, “I’m a reporter for The Sun. We’ll publish an apology in the newspaper, and offer you our sincerest apologies for what we’ve said in the past…” His submissive attitude made the other media outlets “wake up” – that’s the right thing to do now! Use an apology to ease the strained relationship with Twain and make the boss happy after the World Cup first. Why did not they think of it? Instead, they had let The Sun reporter seize the key moment!

The Sun and other media outlets all thought that it was the only solution to the problem.

But Twain’s words shattered all of their dreams as he said, “I refuse to accept any form of apology, and I will not accept any form of interview from you.”

His attitude was very firm and had absolutely no intention of making any jokes or giving in. He laughed when he saw the group of media reporters dumbfounded.

“It looks like everyone has nothing to ask. That’s good. I have to be with my players. Sorry, step aside.” He pushed away a few people in front of him and squeezed out the huddle of reporters.

The group of reporters watched as his figure mixed in with the celebratory crowd before they reacted. But in the face of the meritorious manager who had just led the team to win the World Cup, they could only lament – they did not dare to say anything bad about Tony Twain in their respective published media all because he was now the national hero. Anyone who went against him would be going against the whole of England, and even the whole of Britain. He would be the public enemy of the country.

Furthermore, what made the media even more frustrated was Twain would announce his departure after the World Cup. Since he was not in the manager’s position, there was naturally no handle for the media to seize upon, not to mention such talk of “it was never too late for a gentleman to exact revenge.”

Twain was suave with the turn of events and cut off the possibility of the media looking for an opportunity to pick a quarrel with him. He had incensed this group of people with no ways of venting it till they stifled from the bottled-up anger.

The group of reporters sighed helplessly and dispersed.

On this happy night, they were not happy at all.

※※※

Twain was not done with dropping bombshells yet. At a press conference that evening, Tony Twain, who had just led the England team to its second World Cup title, had announced a somewhat unexpected piece of news:

“I’ve decided to retire. Yes, it’s retirement, not resignation. Not only am I going to step down as the England manager, I am also not going to consider invitations from the other teams. I’m no longer Manager Tony Twain from today onwards,. I don’t have any plans for the future. For the moment I just want to enjoy the joy brought by the World Cup victory. I want to thank my team and to the fans who have supported me.”

When he finished his speech, the reporters below the stage were in a frenzy…

Everyone had been looking forward to Twain creating a new glory. How could he retire? He was currently not even fifty years old… As a manager, how could he retire when he was in his prime?

No one knew what Twain was thinking. Since more than a decade ago, no one had been able to guess what was on this man’s mind. He always liked to be unexpected. When he was admonished by people and during the most difficult times, he persisted and did not resign. Now that he was at the peak of his success, he suddenly announced his retirement.

Maybe he just liked to dally with the masses like this…

Twain stood up and waved to the media, preparing to say goodbye. Perhaps realizing that this was his last public appearance as a manager, the reporters lifted their cameras in succession, pressed the shutters, and set his image with the cameras.

Just that for such a mad man to suddenly bid farewell, even though those media outlets had been checkmated by him, they still inevitably felt that it was a great pity – what are we going to have to attract the attention of readers in the future?!