Godfather Of Champions

Only Brosnan did not find it strange. Because this was the Tony Twain that he knew. He was emotional and somewhat impetuous... and sometimes he did not appear to be a very mature professional manager. He was already 35 years old, but he looked like a 26- or 27-year-old young man, about the same age as himself.

"As to what the serious consequence is, I think everyone saw it yesterday. If the Millwall chairman has to look for an excuse to explain his team\'s crushing defeat, I suggest he go after the Millwall fans who sang in the stands yesterday. They asked for it! They lost the match and said the riot was caused by my fans? I\'m here to tell him to look into his conscience and see if he dares to repeat those words again?! As a man, he failed to assume the responsibility for the defeat. In order to give vent to his anger, he actually inverted right and wrong, fact and fiction, and misplaced his anger and blame on the innocent party. I can\'t believe there\'s such a chairman and such a manager... tsk tsk!" Tang En shook his head. "It\'s perfectly normal that we could defeat them by six goals! Why did they link the subway station to the stands at Millwall\'s new home, The Den? I think that this Mr. Chairman must be well aware of it in his mind. Just like he must also know very well what kind of people their fans are."

Not only the chairman was aware of this but also the reporters present knew too. Millwall\'s The Den was a newly built stadium in the 1990\'s. The prevalent problem of the Millwall football hooligans was considered during the design and planning stage. Therefore, the visiting fans\' stands were designed in the most southeast section whereby the visiting fans could directly go from the stands to the train station next to the stadium through a passageway and then buy their tickets home. It was convenient for the visiting fans to evacuate the stadium in the fastest time.

Millwall\'s football hooligans were notorious all over the United Kingdom, hence they had such a design feature in their stadium.

"If Mr. Paphitis thinks he\'s being insulted for no apparent reason and wants to sue me, then I will also seriously consider suing him and Manager Alan McLeary for the slander of Nottingham Forest fans and the club!"

As soon as Twain had finished, Doughty, who sat next to him, continued, "We will sue them using our club\'s name. Please rest assured that we are not making light of this or saying this in the heat of anger. Our Forest club will be happy to oblige them if Mr. Theo Paphitis and Alan McLeary intend to bring this deluded quarrel to the court of law, to trifle with the law and public trust."

If this was half a year ago, Doughty would have no right to say such things. This official decision, in the name of the club, required to be passed through a board of directors\' resolution. Now he owned 75 percent of the club shares, and he was the only owner of the Forest club, so he could do whatever he wanted.

Upon hearing these two men\'s words, there was a buzzing chatter among the crowd below. Was this an official declaration of war between Nottingham Forest Club and Millwall Club? Their innermost paparazzi blood was ignited and set ablaze! Our trip today had been totally worth our while! Manager Tony Twain, you did not disappoint us! Ah, with a gush of words from your big mouth, our newspaper sales are steadily rising!

"That\'s all I have to say. Good day, everyone!" After speaking, Tang En turned around and left the scene of the press conference. He did not care about the trouble that his words would bring him. He just had something to say and would feel aggrieved if he was not allowed to say it. He felt very good and refreshed now. As to how Mr. Paphitis and Mr. McLeary would feel about this, he did not care.

Brosnan looked at Twain\'s back and shook his head. Tony, you\'re being exploited by the media!

※※※

"Tony, did you see the reporters\' excited faces?" Doughty was at the window of his office with Twain, watching the reporters walk out the door.

"Of course, I saw it. That little man pretended to be pathetic to lure me to say what he wanted to hear. He succeeded."

Doughty scratched his head. "I thought you didn\'t know. What do you think?"

"The news media are happy... But I think public opinion is good for us. I did not think too much about the other stuff. If Millwall really want to sue me, I will not run from it."

When he heard Twain say that, Edward smiled. "You don\'t have to act like a hero, Tony. With regard to this matter, the club will completely support you. It concerns the club\'s reputation. I will not stand by and watch and not do something about it. Tony, you know what? After listening to you talk about the relationship between the team\'s performance and economics at Wilford Lane the other day, I re-drafted a terrific plan. Do you want to hear it?"

Twain turned his gaze away from the window and looked at the smiling Doughty. "Let\'s hear it, Edward."

"This can\'t be discussed in two or three sentences... We can have lunch together. It just so happens that Alan has come back from America. We\'ll have a lot to discuss." Doughty patted Twain on the shoulder.

"That financial advisor of yours?"

"That\'s right, but soon he\'ll become the club\'s marketing manager. He will be responsible for bringing in the money..." Doughty did not go on, he just smiled and looked at Twain.

Twain understood, and he smiled too. "And I\'m in charge of winning."

"Yes, the three of us will get along quite well, Tony!"

※※※

When Pierce Brosnan listened to the recordings of the press conference and organized his manuscript all over again, he felt more and more that the editor-in-charge was prescient. This highly charged declaration, when put together with the thriller-like news article documentary, was indeed more eye-catching than the other uniform media reports.

Of course, every word that Twain had said at the press conference was enough to attract more eyeballs... Looking at the obscenities in the manuscript, Brosnan sighed and then deleted them.

As a result, the draft that he had handed in was returned. Brosnan found it odd as he opened the Word document. He found that those swear words that he had originally deleted were added back in again and furthermore, they were also highlighted in bold.

He grinned. This must be Mr. Editor-In-Charge\'s handiwork. Though it might be unfavorable to Tony Twain, he had to admit that Mr. Editor-In-Charge doing this had made it more appealing to readers\' interest.

The media\'s top priority would always be to attract the readers\' attention... What about the journalistic ethics? The news media\'s social responsibility? Stop kidding…This was serious business. Ever since Rupert Murdoch\'s acquisition of The Sun, he started the trend of vulgarization in the newspapers, and in addition he successfully acquired The Times, revered at that time in the British newspaper media. He practically aligned the national newspaper which enjoyed a high prestige throughout Europe with the third-rate tabloid newspaper The Sun. As of today, 40% of all British newspapers were controlled by Murdoch. Morality and responsibility had long since been removed from the news lexicon.

And now, whatever that would attract the readers would be reported. If the news was not appealing enough, the news editors and reporters would write it until it could make the newspaper, or they would meticulously orchestrate and coordinate from all angles to seduce the leading news characters to act out a good story. This sounded like a Hollywood movie, but in the current news environment in the United Kingdom, this was a fact.

Brosnan knew this well, so he sighed and agreed to the editor-in-charge\'s amendments. Then he put his byline on it and sent it up again. This time it was not returned. He knew that starting from this afternoon, a news war between the media had begun.

Mr. Twain, you are truly a "news figure"!