Chapter 497 - A Bombshell

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Beckham’s willingness to enter negotiations about individual salary with Nottingham Forest was kept strictly confidential by Twain’s order. No one else knew except for the Beckham couple, his agent and the three heads at the Forest team, as well as Twain’s close friend, Dunn. Even Real Madrid did not know about it and still used insulting terms to drag their feet on the “tough” negotiations for the contract extension with his agent.

On the one hand, it was not December 31st yet, and Beckham’s contract with Real Madrid was still in effect. The other clubs could not contact the players in private. Otherwise, if Real Madrid found out, it could be taken to FIFA, and then it would create a mess.

In addition, Twain did not want to give other competitors the opportunity to intervene. As far as he knew, there were three clubs in England that had made it clear they were interested in Beckham.

What kind of advantage did Twain have? If he had not become Beckham’s friend by chance, then he would not have had the upper hand in the contest, let alone the opportunity to persuade Beckham to change his mind in person.

Allan quietly set off for Madrid to negotiate the individual terms with Beckham’s agent while Twain and Dunn worked on how to arrange the team’s lineup and tactical play once Beckham arrived.

Beckham could play as the right midfielder and also the defensive midfielder. Taking his increasing age and frequent injuries into account, Twain was not worried about him competing with the other two right midfielders for a position. The Forest team would certainly have to compete in more tournaments next season, so they did not need to worry about not playing. Furthermore, this was England and not Spain. No matter how arrogant the club’s top players were, they could not give orders on Twain’s lineup. If he put Beckham on the bench or even in the stands due to his poor form, Allan would not dare talk back other than muttering a few words in private.

After Albertini had retired, Beckham could occasionally play the defensive midfielder position. Although his defensive ability was average, his long pass could still be counted as the best in the world. A defensive counterattack would be amazing with such a kick from him.

In addition, van Nistelrooy had been close friends with Beckham while he was at Manchester United. There was no need to worry about the rapport between the two of them. With a strong center forward like Bendtner, Beckham’s precise flank, pass, and set pieces would be given more room to play.

At the same time, when he was on the field with Beckham, their free kicks would also be better.

Moreover, Beckham was usually professional. Twain was not worried at all that this “celebrity” would be a bad influence on this bunch of boys. Beckham would only set a better example for the players on the training ground. There were not many people in the world who were as famous as he was and still insisted on practicing every day.

Maybe Beckham’s arrival would make Aaron Lennon a little worried. However, Twain would placate Lennon himself when the time came. After all, no matter how good Beckham was, he could only play for a few more years. The future of the team still belonged to him and Ashley Young.

On Christmas, Twain finally received Allan Adam’s Christmas present from Spain: a copy of the contract in effect signed by both parties.

Under the contract, Beckham would move to Nottingham Forest on a free transfer for a two-year contract after his contract with Real Madrid expired this season. Nottingham Forest would pay Beckham a lower weekly salary of just one hundred and ten thousand pounds, a far cry from the Los Angeles Galaxy’s promise of five hundred thousand pounds. In exchange, the Forest team gave up all the usage rights to Beckham’s images. At the same time, Beckham’s agent also said that it was because of the friendship between Beckham and Tony that he decided to take a voluntary pay cut.

But Allan did not know that the friendship was only one of the reasons. There was a more important reason Beckham did not tell anyone—just like Twain admired Beckham, Beckham also admired Twain. He thought Tony Twain, a manager who repeatedly worked miracles, would be able to change the world’s impression of him. As a 31-year-old old man, he could be revitalized under Twain’s hands. It was a gamble; the remaining few years of his career at stake could be the right amount of time to rise to glory again.

Therefore, he gave up a high salary for it.

Allan did not really care about the income from the usage rights of Beckham’s images. After all, compared to that, the Forest team would be the one earning the big bucks as Beckham was willing to come to the Forest team. At that time, with the rise of their image internationally and influence in the global market, they would grow exponentially. With a “low weekly salary,” they could also finally balance the team’s wage structure and not make Beckham too prominent, avoiding some dissatisfaction. The team’s internal unity would also be ensured.

The details of the contract had not yet been revealed, so Allan tried his best to suppress his ecstasy. They had to wait until January 1st of the following year to announce such important news.

Then it would be like having one bombshell after another landing and exploding among the media.

※※※

Twain took the fax to his office and shut the door before he burst into laughter. He was not able to pretend to be serious and mature at this moment. He was really excited. Since he joined this world, everything that he did seemed to have changed the world, whether intentionally or not. However, Beckham’s transfer was the first time that he had used so much personal belief and motivation to change an ending known to him.

Looking at the future that he had torn to pieces, he’d never felt better. All the stuff about Barcelona being invincible and AC Milan rebuilding its dynasty; they were all nonsense! Now, slowly unfolding in front of him, was not a wonderful picture, but a blank page.

A clean white page with not even a single ink drop on it. He could enjoy writing and painting. He could draw the picture that he wanted to see and write a future that belonged to him.

That feeling was like holding the entire world in his hands. It was like the Nottingham Forest’s theme song—I’ve got the whole world in my hands!

Beckham was just a key to the new world. After Twain unlocked the door, he discovered what had appeared in front of his eyes this time was really a brand-new world. It was completely different from that world when he’d first joined.

Nothing could stop him from creating a new world. Tony Twain, an otherwise unknown nobody, was going to be a nightmare that no one would ever forget in the future!

※※※

After Christmas, Allan Adams, who had returned from Spain, spent almost every day marking the calendar. As the days went by, the day he’d long anticipated—Jan 1st, 2007—was finally here.

After the arrival of the new year, Beckham only had six months left on his contract with Real Madrid. According to the regulations, any club could bypass Real Madrid at this point and talk to Beckham directly about the contract. They also did not need to pay Real Madrid for the transfer fee at all. They could just take Beckham, on whom they had spent 35 million euros by that time.

Real Madrid was supposed to avoid this kind of situation at all costs and complete the contract renewal with the players before the new year. But since Beckham lost his main spot during this half of the season and the new president wanted to erase the footprints left from the Florentino era when he came to power, Real Madrid was not in a hurry to renew the contract with Beckham. Therefore, Twain was able to burrow his way into the gap.

“Happy New Year, boss.” Pierce Brosnan, the reporter from Nottingham Evening Post who did not need to be at work on the first day of the new year, picked up a call from his boss in puzzlement. He was woken from his sleep by the phone call. He glanced groggily at the alarm clock on the bedside table, which read 8:45 AM.

“Enough with the niceties, Pierce!” His boss’s voice rang with urgency over the phone “Where are you now? Home? In a car to your vacation? Or in the bathroom?”

“Uh, I’m still in bed....”

“You’re still in bed?” his boss yelled. “Get up at once!”

“But, sir, I don’t have to go to work today....”

“Stop your damn nonsense. Get out of bed right now, and get dressed and get to the City Ground stadium! You only have 15 minutes!”

“What? What’s going on?” His boss’s loud voice woke him up completely. He sat up from his bed and put on his pants while he was on the phone.

“You’ll know once you get there!” The call ended with a beep. Before they disconnected, Brosnan vaguely heard his boss’s voice coming through. “I don’t know what the hell’s going on.…”

Pierce Brosnan did not dare to waste any time. The news that made the old man so excited, it had to be big.

With a tie in one hand and a briefcase in the other, Brosnan rushed out of the house like a whirlwind with no time to comb his hair.

※※※

When Pierce Brosnan arrived at Nottingham Forest’s home, the City Ground stadium, he found that the parking lot was full of cars from the various media across the country, and even the press from other countries. He had been following the Forest team for nearly four years, and the sight of so much media gathering like this was still rare to come by. Even when Nottingham Forest advanced to the Champions League final, there were not as much media as there were today.

Besides several of Britain’s leading media outlets, he briefly counted Spanish, French, Italian, American, and even Japanese and Chinese media were here. It appeared something big had happened. Baffled, he made his way to the press hall, which was specially reserved for press conferences.

He was still some distance away when he saw the busy crowd going in and out of the entrance. Various equipment for photography and videography had been moved in. The BBC and Sky TV’s broadcast vans were parked at the entrance. Walking in, he was startled by the crowded scene inside. Other than the equipment, the room was filled with the reporters. The sea of bodies pressed against each other made the originally spacious room impenetrable.

Brosnan had even more doubts in his mind as he struggled to squeeze in. His ears were filled with commentaries from his peers. He planned to take this opportunity to discreetly scout out some information first. However, the people around him did not know and were just guessing. A few of the reporters he knew came up to ask when they saw him. They wanted to know if he knew why Tony Twain decided to hold a press conference at the last minute and what kind of tricks he was playing. These people thought that Brosnan was the reporter in the media circle closest to Twain. Perhaps he would have some “insider information.”

But Brosnan’s answer disappointed them. “I was called straight out of bed by my boss. I don’t know what’s going on either.”

The group of disappointed people turned to walk away when a man with the BBC logo on his chest muttered, “It’s not Beckham coming, is it?”

When Brosnan heard this, a thought popped in his mind. There is a good chance.

He turned his gaze toward the table already covered with microphones and recording pens. Everything could only be speculation when the leading man was not there yet.

※※※

While the reporters made full use of their imagination to guess what big news Twain was going to announce, Twain made a call to Beckham in the room upstairs.

As someone who had already experienced it, he knew what Beckham would face in Real Madrid after this press conference. There were things that could change because of him, such as Beckham had changed the team of his choice. But there were things that would never change, even if the Earth died out, like the old guy, Fabio Capello’s character.

“I can almost see the look on Capello’s face once he hears this news.” Twain stood in front of the huge lattice window as he looked at the busy reporters below and said over the phone, “I think I should warn you, David, before you officially announce the news. Your move will definitely aggravate that proud Italian. He will see this as a betrayal.”

“The contract is already signed. Why would I still be afraid that the announcement will infuriate him?” On the other end of the line, Beckham smiled. “I don’t think I have any problems with what I did. Even if Real Madrid becomes angry, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Twain kept quiet for a moment before he said, “Very well. If Capello is really angry about this and wants to eliminate you, even though I know I’m in no position to say this, I still hope you can continue to train hard to return to the main lineup as the goal of your training efforts. That guy has a stubborn temper, but he’s not completely unreasonable. This may be an opportunity for you, David. If you keep training under such circumstances, he may change his mind about you, and in the last half of the season, he may even give you a chance.”

“I intend to do the same as what you just said, Tony. I’m not going to give up trying to get my position in Real Madrid just because I’m going to the Forest team next season. I don’t want to.” Beckham was silent for a moment. “I don’t want to leave Bernabéu as a failure. But, Tony, why are you suddenly so concerned about Real Madrid? It’s not even your team.”

Twain smiled wryly as he thought to himself. Who says that I’m concerned about Real Madrid? You just confirmed that you will do this. He found a lofty excuse. “Because I don’t want my future players to be called ‘a failure that fled Bernabéu.’ You know, my players are very strong.”

Beckham laughed. “Thank you, Tony.”

“Don’t thank me, David. As a welcome, I’ll give you a present at that time.”

“Oh? What is it?”

“It’s a secret. It will not be a surprise if I say it.”

“Haha, okay, I’ll wait for your surprise, Tony.”

At the end of the call, Twain realized that Allan Adams and Evan Doughty stood behind him.

“When did you get here?”

“Right when you said, ‘my players are very strong.'” Evan smiled brightly.

“Let’s go. Those people down there must be waiting anxiously.” Allan could not wait to announce this piece of news.

“I think you’re anxious to do so.” As soon as Twain said those words, all three men laughed at the same time.

The last time all three men appeared at a press conference at the same time was when Tony Twain was announced as the new manager of the Forest team. This time it was to announce that David Beckham was to join the team.

Both times could be counted as milestone events. The first time represented the rapid rise of Nottingham Forest in tournaments. Would this time be the beginning of full economic growth in the Nottingham Forest Football Club?

※※※

When the three heads appeared at the press conference, all the reporters quieted down. There was no other sound on the scene other than the noise of the working equipment.

It was rare to see these three men appearing at a press conference simultaneously. Some people’s guesses had been gradually confirmed.

“I don’t know how many people here have guessed the right answer. But it doesn’t matter. I’m going to announce the answer now.” Twain smiled and looked at the dense mass of reporters under the stage. This was absolutely sensational news. Who could have thought of it before? Not a single person!

“I don’t want to talk rubbish, because everyone is waiting to go back and write the article. So, I’m just going to say one thing.” Twain straightened his right index finger.

When everyone saw this finger, they held their breath, pricked their ears, and widened their eyes.

“We’re happy to have reached an agreement with the Real Madrid player, David Beckham, who will join Nottingham Forest on a free transfer at the end of the season.”

There was a rumble and the venue, which had been so quiet that one could hear a pin drop, suddenly erupted in a clamor.

The three men sitting on the stage watched the group of overwhelmed reporters below, smiles of satisfaction on their faces.