Chapter 677: To Part on Bad Terms
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Twain felt that he had been deceived, not that he had been deceived by others, but by his own wishful thinking. He had actually thought that all his players were obedient and well-behaved kids like the data in the FM game, which had no meaning other than a name.
It seemed that the impact of the transmigration had not completely disappeared…
Sometimes he really took this as a Football Manager game and play.
But Bendtner gave him a hard slap, which told him that this was the real world, so realistic that anyone in the team could break away from his control and pursue the future he wanted. Ribéry was a wake-up call, and Bendtner was soon to be a reality.
But Twain did not plan to let Bendtner go like that.
Furthermore, it was to sell to Manchester City.
The day after that phone call with Bendtner’s father, Twain turned down Manchester City’s offer of eighteen million pounds during an interview.
“Bendtner is the future of our team and we won’t be foolish enough to give him to other clubs.” His tone was tough as if there was no room for discussion.
※※※
The car park in Wilford was getting crowded, with the various latest models of cars filling up the lots—the Nottingham Forest star players came for training in succession.
Bendtner sat in his black Volkswagen and was not in a hurry to get out of the car. Empty cars parked around him as their owners were already in the locker room.
With the car windows closed up, Bendtner called his father.
Although he had been in England for four years, his family was still in Denmark and he lived alone in Nottingham. He first lived in a hostel provided by the team and then moved out to rent a house. Unlike his other teammates, he had not bought a house in the city till now.
“Dad, he refused.”
“I know. It’s all over the media.”
“How did you talk to him yesterday?”
Thomas heard some concern in his son’s voice, and he smiled to comfort his son, “Don’t worry. I put all my responsibility on myself, and it has nothing to do with you. We’re going to prepare for the worst. Even if you don’t end up leaving, he won’t make things difficult for you.”
Bendtner was slightly relieved to hear his father say so. He was only “slightly.” These days, Bendtner was under immense psychological pressure as he trained every day. As soon as he saw the boss wearing sungla.s.ses on the sidelines, he would feel a pair of eyes staring at himself.
As a determined “traitor” who wanted to escape the kingdom, while meticulously plotting the escape plan, he needed to be wary of the king. If the plan fell through and was exposed, a very harsh and cruel punishment would be waiting for him… This was no exaggeration. Bendtner and Anelka were not the same.
The Frenchman wanted to go, and Twain also wanted to drive him away. He only wanted to punish him before he left
On the other hand, Bendtner wanted to go, but Twain did not want him to go. Then the matter was not so simple as to discipline him before letting him go. This was a “revolt” to oppose the king’s will.
How could there not be any psychological pressure in doing such a thing?
“Train with a peace of mind and don’t think about anything else. I’ll take care of everything.” The father comforted his son, “If any reporter asks the question, just maintain silent and don’t accept any interviews…”
“But Dad, how can I put pressure on him if I don’t take a stand?”
“You don’t need to deal with this. I’ll put the pressure on him. I don’t want you to get involved. I’ll be the bad guy…”
Just then, Bendtner was startled by a knocking sound on the gla.s.s next to his ear, which startled him.
He turned his head around to find that it was Lennon who had just arrived. He leaned forward to the window and gestured to him, asking him why he did not go to the locker room.
“I’m sorry, Dad, my teammate came to look for me…”
“Ah… All right, you go on. Oh! Remember, if Twain comes to you, find an excuse to put it off…”
Bendtner quickly hung up the phone and got out of the car.
Lennon smiled at him, “Who you calling for so long? A girlfriend?”
Bendtner was worried about not knowing how to answer when Lennon gave him a reason. He smiled a little stiffly, “Yes.”
“Oh—how long have you known each other? Even we don’t know. Wow, you’re very secretive. Must be a beauty!”
“He he, I’ll call her out to meet everyone when there’s a chance the next time.”
Bendtner absentmindedly answered Lennon’s question on how beautiful his girlfriend was and left the parking lot side by side with him.
※※※
During a break in the training, Twain did look for Bendtner, wanting to speak to him alone. Mindful of his father’s instructions, Bendtner declined the suggestion on the pretext that he had a date with his girlfriend. To prove that he must show up for the date, he even said it was his girlfriend’s birthday.
Twain c.o.c.ked his head and looked at Bendtner for a while. His direct gaze scared him, and he almost came forth to confess. That was when Twain nodded and agreed. But before he left, he said, “I hope we both can have a good talk tomorrow.”
As soon as Twain turned around, Bendtner’s eyebrows drooped down—what reason he could find for tomorrow…
The training resumed. Twain stood on the side to watch when the cell phone in his pocket rang.
He knew there was only one person who would call him at this time because he had just rejected Manchester City’s offer earlier.
He pulled out his cell phone and stood by the training ground as he pressed the answer b.u.t.ton.
“h.e.l.lo, Mr. Thomas Bendtner.” He said in a cold voice.
“h.e.l.lo, Mr. Tony Twain.” The voice over there carried a hint of smile.
“You must be annoyed that I turned down Manchester City’s offer, right?”
“No, how can I be? I understand that because their offer is too low. My son shouldn’t be worth only eighteen million pounds.”
“This is not a matter of price, Mr. Bendtner. Your son is not for sale by the club. He is the future of Nottingham Forest, and for the next ten years, he will be the team’s leading striker and the number one center forward!” Twain put weight to his tone in the hope that the old man would understand how important his son’s status was.
“As far as I know, a lot of clubs claim that certain players are not for sale, but they still change hands and sell them to the highest bidder.” Perhaps he sensed that Twain would be angry with this remark, so he hurriedly added, “I agree with your first remark, Mr. Twain. It’s really not about the price. It’s about the player’s will. As I said, it’s unsuitable for my son to continue to stay here because you simply can’t keep the promises you made to him… No, don’t talk about the future. I hope you respect the individual will of the player. Did not you just agree to let Piqué go back to Barcelona? Why can’t you respect my son’s idea the same way?”
“This is completely different!” Twain growled.
This was certainly different. He definitely did not spent as much efforts on Piqué like he did on Bendtner.
“I think it makes no difference. You have van Nistelrooy who can play as the center forward anyway.”
Twain felt that he had nothing to talk about with this stubborn old man who adamantly refused to believe him. He brusquely hung up the phone and stood there as he seethed.
※※※
Manchester City raised their offer again, which saw them made a twenty-million bid to purchase Bendtner.
After some secret warfare, the Manchester United Football Club bought Berbatov for 30.75 million pounds. The transfer market had fewer and fewer good center forwards. If Manchester City did not hurry up, the transfer window would be closed soon. Then even if Bendtner really wanted to go, he must wait until January. Half a year’s time was not long and not short either. Who knew what would happen between now and then?
Meanwhile, Manchester City finally managed to sign the deal with the Brazilian star, Robinho who was at odds with the top bra.s.s at Real Madrid, costing them a fee of forty million pounds after much hard work. Schuster was extremely unhappy with this deal, but what could he do? He was not a manager at an English club. In the Spanish clubs, the club’s sporting director had more authority than the head coach. He did not dare to do anything but complain about a summer wasted, the winger, Ronaldo that he had planned did come, the original winger, Robinho was gone, and now the team only one winger, which had a negative impact on the team’s tactics.
At this point, the transfer drama was basically coming to an end, with the entire world following closely the news that Manchester City was chasing Bendtner because it could perhaps be the last bombsh.e.l.l before the summer transfer window closed.
Bendtner rose to fame along with Nottingham Forest’s three seasons in the Premier League and European football arena. He was no longer the young rising star of the future, but a star player calling the shots. He was the main center forward in the Denmark team and also had a stable goal-scoring rate in the Forest team. Many teams’ managers thought that Bendtner had a bright future. If Twain had not held onto him tightly, people would have stand in line to buy him long ago.
However, this time, Twain finally met an opponent who was good at hounding and had thick skin. Most importantly, this opponent was very, very rich.
They could not buy van Nistelrooy because the Dutchman did not want to leave the Forest team for Manchester City, so Twain and the club were able to reject confidently. After all, no matter how much money was offered, the player himself did not want to leave, which was out of their hands. Bendtner’s situation was completely different. Now the player himself wanted to leave…
Twain patiently waited for Bendtner to finish celebrating his girlfriend’s birthday, and then looked for him again. This time he was going to have to talk to the Danish kid in person no matter what.
“Can we have a chat after the training ends? It’s about the recent transfer rumors.”
“This…” Bendtner felt a little awkward.
“Your father won’t let you talk to me, would he?”
Bendtner looked up in amazement at his boss.
“He did not tell me, but any fool could guess the connection.” Twain said with a smile. “I think It’s necessary for me to talk to you. I want to know what you think. You know, the day before yesterday I realized one thing: I thought I knew the person I see all the time very well but in fact, I do not know him at all.”
Having said that, Twain tilted his head slightly and looked at Bendtner in front of him.
Bendtner was hesitant. Should he listen to his father, or the boss?
In the end, he chose the latter. He knew what his father was afraid in not letting him talk to his boss. Ribéry was taken to Mallorca by his agent to hide from the boss at that time. In the end, Ribéry’s att.i.tude changed immediately after the boss made a trip to Mallorca.
The boss was an expert at words and best at using words to stir up people’s sentiments. He knew this very well. But he was also confident in his resolve. This time, no matter how well the boss spoke, he would not stay.
It was not that he was hard-hearted. It was because he knew that things had come to a head. If all that he had achieved went down the gutter and he would have chosen to stay in the end, he was not sure that the boss would not look for an opportunity to make life difficult for him. He appeared broad-minded, but in fact he was narrow-minded. He would always remember that he let him down.
Once the relations.h.i.+p between two people had the slightest crack, it was impossible to be perfect as before. It was inevitable that it would be awkward in the two people’s interaction.
In this respect, he had no way out this time.
He nodded.
Twain smiled, “After the training ends at noon, I would like to invite you to lunch. What do you like?”
“The cafeteria will do.” After Bendtner made his decision, his mood was a lot more relaxed. “I’m not particular about what I eat.”
※※※
During the noon break, most of the players chose to go home. Only a small number of people would stay in the training base’s cafeteria for lunch.
Twain and Bendtner found a small corner and started their lunch with “things on their minds other than food.”
The two people ate their meal in silence at first. Once the meal was almost done, Twain wiped his mouth with a napkin. He wanted to talk. Bendtner saw his look and stopped what he was doing.
“Your father told me that you plan to leave?”
Bendtner was already mentally prepared. He nodded without hesitation.
“Can you tell me why?” Twain said amiably. There was no hint of anger.
“I don’t think I’m being put to important use here.”
Accordingly, Twain began to give him a list of figures, proving that his number of appearances for the Forest team had gradually increased over the past few seasons. His rate of goals scored was also steady. He even cited his performance in a few important games to prove that he was really an important member of the team.
Bendtner just shook his head and said, “Honestly, boss… I don’t like the position you give me. I’m a center forward and my job is to score. But more often than not, I have to pa.s.s the ball to my teammates on the pitch…”
Twain suddenly saw the light. Was this what he meant when he said he was not being put to important use?
However, this complicated the issue. In Twain’s tactical system, the center forward would not simply be used to score goals. Most of the time, they needed to contribute to the team’s overall offense. An a.s.sist was a very important indicator. Van Nistelrooy’s ability had not actually diminished when he came to Nottingham Forest, but he had not won the Premier League’s top striker again because most of the time he needed to sacrifice his place in the penalty area, pull to the middle of the backfield, even support his teammates at the sides and act as a bridgehead to protect the ball. As a result, he scored fewer goals than he did at Manchester United. But van Nistelrooy did not complain, nor had he ever publicly or privately revealed his displeasure with the arrangement. That was one of the reasons Twain specially liked van Nistelrooy.
Now Bendtner was completely at odds with Twain’s tactical habits, which made him a little uncomfortable.
“Why do you think so? Nicklas, the center forward is also a member of the team. You help the team by doing so, which is also not bad for you.”
“Boss, I don’t want to be a center forward with more a.s.sists than the number of goals scored.” Bendtner said resolutely as he already had a plan in his mind. “I’m only interested in scoring goals.”
Twain grinned, “I thought everyone was used to my tactics at Nottingham Forest. I did not think someone would oppose it here. If the team can’t win the game, is it useful for the striker to score more goals?”
“I don’t think the team can win if the striker can’t score.”
Twain listened to him say so and sighed, “I am now more determined in my idea that you should continue to develop and grow … You had it backwards, Nicklas. Teams that don’t know how to defend can’t win games. Defense is the foundation of everything.”
Bendtner spread his hands and said, “This is where we differ, boss. I revere offense, and you’re more conservative.”
“Ha, I’m conservative?” There was a lot of media out that used this word to describe him, but Twain did not expect to hear this word from one of his players’ mouth. “Well, I’m fine with people saying I’m conservative as long as I can win the champions.h.i.+p t.i.tles. Don’t you like champions.h.i.+p t.i.tles?” Twain stared at the reckless kid in front of him and asked in return.
“I like. But I want to win the champions.h.i.+p t.i.tles my own way.”
Bendtner looked directly at Twain and did not flinch.
“Very well, very well.” Twain pushed away the cutlery placed in front of him and stood to get up. “Then you use your way to win the champions.h.i.+p t.i.tles!”
Having said that, he left without turning his head back.
He did not expect things to end up like this…
※※※
Thomas Bendtner was pleased to hear his son’s retelling and said, “It looks like he’s agreed to let you go, son!”
As a result, Twain once again rejected Manchester City’s twenty million-pound transfer offer the next day. The reason was no different from before. He stated, “Bendtner is not for sale. He’s the future of the team. I will not be a fool and give him to others. I won’t do it for money!”
It was hard to guess what he was thinking. It was obvious that he parted on bad terms with Bendtner yesterday after their talk. Why did he immediately act like a private deal had been brokered with Bendtner?
Just after he turned down Manchester City for the second time, another man at the club finally could not sit still and came to Twain in person, hoping to talk to him frankly.