Manchester City wanted to buy Nottingham Forest's number two center forward, Nicklas Bendtner. The news reached the outside news media almost at the same time that Twain saw it on his desk. Clearly, the Manchester City club deliberately leaked it to the outside world.
Just like the Nottingham Evening Post had a close relationship with Tony Twain, the Manchester City club must have one or two media outlets that were close to them. They could speak up for them at critical moments, and the reward was to know "inside information" earlier than other media outlets.
Twain stared blankly at the Manchester City club's offer sheet.
In previous seasons, there had been news that some clubs were interested in Bendtner, but none of it had come true. On the one hand, Twain would not sell his team's future center forward. On the other hand, Bendtner's father and spokesperson had announced more than once that his son would not leave the Forest team.
So, would it still be the same result this time?
He decided to wait a day and see.
Was a day enough for Thomas Bendtner to react?
So, he pressed Manchester City's fax under a pile of folders.
※ ※ ※
A day later, there was more and more news in the media about Manchester City's desire to bring in Bendtner. The local media in Nottingham all reprinted the news.
Bendtner's father, Thomas Bendtner, did not react at all.
At this time, Twain smelled danger in the air.
Reporters flocked to the Wilford training base, wanting to hear what Bendtner himself had to say about the "rumors."
But Bendtner remained silent and did not answer any of the reporters' questions.
Bendtner was a slightly silent young man in the team. He was different from Eastwood and Ribéry. Even so, his popularity was good. His silence was different from Anelka's. Anelka was eccentric, while the Danish hunk was just a little shy and introverted.
But not saying a word was a problem.
Twain felt he should call Bendtner's agent. He did not believe the Manchester City club would follow the rules — find the club first and then the player. The other side must have found the player's agent first before making an offer to the Forest team. They had learned a lesson from the van Nistelrooy incident. At that time, Manchester City lost because they did not first find out what van Nistelrooy's intentions were.
Bendtner has two agents. One is his father, Thomas Bendtner, who is more like a spokesperson. Bendtner expresses his thoughts through his father. He was not involved in negotiating contracts or looking for a team, but he was the most important person who could not be ignored because his son depended on him.
The other agent is Nicolás Juric, who is licensed by FIFA. He was in charge of contacting the team.
Tang En decided to call Juric first because the two of them had interacted more often than he did with Bendtner's father.
"Mr. Twain, I know why you're looking for me." Yuric was a smart man. He went straight to the point and did not waste time with Twain. Even without waiting for Twain to ask, he said it all himself, "The Manchester City people came to me, hoping to know about the possibility of Bendtner's transfer. I told them it would be very difficult because Mr. Twain would definitely not let them go. But they said it didn't matter, they just wanted to know what Bendtner thought. As long as he wants it, then … "
"Very good." Twain nodded. The problem was simple. "What does Bendtner think?"
Juric smiled on the other end of the phone. "You can't ask me this, Mr. Twain."
Twain froze for a moment and reacted — to know what Bendtner thought, he had to ask his father. Bendtner's thoughts were all told through his father's mouth.
Hanging up the phone, Twain was not in a hurry to call Thomas. He wanted to straighten things out first.
Clearly, Manchester City was short of strikers. From the beginning of last season to this season, they had been short of strikers. Last season, Manchester City had so many strikers, but none of them scored double digits in the season! This was a great humiliation for a team's strikers. In that case, after the new boss came to power, they searched for strikers all over the world and messed up other people's transfer deals not to make enemies everywhere, nor to engage in performance art, but because they really had no other choice … As a result, Berbatov, Adebayor, Drogba and van Nistelrooy did not appreciate Manchester City's kindness at all and did not even look at the upstart.
Since the world's top strikers were unwilling to "condescend." Then it was reasonable for Manchester City to settle for second place …
The problem was, they should not be begging me, Tony Twain, for the second best!
Nicklas Bendtner is my handpicked future number one center forward. Manchester City, you have a big appetite …
After figuring this out, Twain went on to find that he was at loggerheads with Manchester City this summer.
First, the two sides parted on bad terms because of Richards. Then, because of van Nistelrooy, Twain added fuel to the fire, making Manchester City almost unable to step down. Now, the other side did not look for anyone else but Bendtner. What did that mean? Did they want to win back a point with me?
No way!
Twain picked up his cell phone, found Bendtner's father, Thomas's number, and dialed it.
※ ※ ※
The Forest players arrived at the training base one after another, ready to start the day's training.
Every summer, the topic in the locker room was always "transfer rumors." The reporters and fans outside racked their brains to find out the story behind every transfer rumor and the relevant inside story, but here, they could be discussed as a joke.
Some time ago, van Nistelrooy became the focus of everyone's discussion and jokes. The boss's actions at the press conference also made everyone happy for a long time. Now it was Bendtner's turn.
"Hey, do you want to guess how the boss is going to turn down Manchester City again?" A naked Wes Morgan bounced around in the changing room while he was changing his clothes.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"Burning a cheque?" Bale said.
"I heard no blank cheques were sent this time." Baines answered him.
"Well …" Eastwood frowned. "It's not fun to directly reject them …"
Bendtner listened to others discussing things related to him, but he quietly changed clothes on the side. While Wes Morgan was still swinging his dick around in the locker room, he had already started to sit down and tie his shoelaces.
Finally, someone remembered that the person involved was around. Lennon's locker was on Bendtner's right, and the two men were close together. He patted Bendtner's back as he bent over to tie his shoelaces. "Nicky, did they look for you?"
Bendtner did not look up and continued to tie his shoelaces. "No."
※ ※ ※
"Mr. Tony Twain, I don't want to lie to you. In fact, they did look for me. "Thomas Bendtner was answering Twain's question on the phone.
It was not a surprise at all. Twain's expression did not even change. He continued to ask, "I'm not going to ask what you specifically talked about. I just want to know what Bendtner thinks?"
To hit back at Manchester City, it was natural to know what Bendtner himself thought. Only then could there be targeted countermeasures, just like how he dealt with van Nistelrooy's matter.
Twain thought he would hear something like "he doesn't want to leave," just like what his father had said in the previous few rumors. He did not expect to hear Thomas say very clearly this time, "he wants to leave."
"That's good …" Twain's brain had not turned around for a moment, and he continued to say it out of habit. Only then did he realize something was wrong, and hurriedly changed his words. "No, I mean … what? Leave? "
"I'm sorry, Mr. Twain. I don't want to lie to you, so I have to tell the truth. My son, Nicklas Bendtner, wants to leave Nottingham Forest. "
Twain was stunned for a moment. He found that his brain was not enough to process it. "What do you mean?"
"My son often complains that he is not put in an important position in the team, Mr. Twain. He wants to go to a team that can give him a core position in the main force. Unfortunately, Manchester City has agreed to all his conditions. "
Twain's head and feet went cold. He did not expect it to turn out like this. The future main center forward, whom he had always valued, pinned his hopes on, and spent several years of hard work on, actually felt that he was not put in an important position in this team and wanted to leave!
Am I hallucinating?
Or is he still asleep?
Or is that old man Thomas still not awake, and his head is still muddled from yesterday's fever?
※ ※ ※
The locker room was very lively. The boss did not appear on the training ground anyway, and there was still some time before the start of training. Everyone did not mind talking about some very private topics here. Such as continuing to guess how their boss would deal with Manchester City.
Lennon was still chatting with Bendtner. This time he asked half-jokingly, "You won't leave, will you, Nicky? I heard Manchester City is very rich and can give you a very high salary. "
Bendtner shook his head. "I don't care how high the salary is."
Lennon laughed.
"I just want to play as the main force." With that, he stood up and walked straight out of the noisy locker room.
Lennon watched his back strangely as he disappeared behind the door.
※ ※ ※
"How can he not be put in an important position? Last season, he had played 27 matches! That's almost half the number. He's my number two center forward. Doesn't that explain the problem? "Twain was a little emotional. Because he felt that Thomas's reason was a pile of shit and not credible at all. He had a lot of data to overturn the excuse of "not being put in an important position." "He scored ten goals and had eight assists! Such excellent data, if he were at Arsenal, he might not have been able to get it! "
"Mr. Twain, that's the problem. You said he's the number two center forward. My son, he wants to be the number one center forward. And I also think he has the ability. "
It turned out that he was not willing to be van Nistelrooy's substitute. "Van Nistelrooy has more experience than him. And, in my plan, in another season, he will officially replace the Dutchman as the number one center forward! "In that case, Twain was confident that he could keep Bendtner.
"No. My son is already tired of waiting. Mr. Twain, do you remember what you said to Nicklas when you first met him? "
That question stumped Twain. How could he remember things from four years ago so clearly?
Seeing that Twain did not answer, Thomas laughed. The voice made Twain frown. He was suddenly very angry.
"You see, you don't remember, Mr. Twain. Back then, in order to get my son to refuse to go to Arsenal and come to your team, you guaranteed that he would become a main player and the core of the forward line. I don't know if I'm wrong? Or maybe you're just saying it casually. I can understand. After all, in order to attract players to play for the team now, you managers always have to give empty promises and make promises that are impossible to fulfill. But my son has always remembered those words. After he came to the Forest team, he worked hard to train and compete, working towards this goal … "
"Mr. Thomas Bendtner …"
"It's a pity that four years ago, Viduka left and van Nistelrooy took over. You're saying that next season belongs to Nicklas? To be honest, I'm very skeptical. My son is a kind and good lad. He always trusts others easily. But I'm not a 20-year-old kid. I'm older than you, Mr. Twain. I know what you're saying is just an excuse to delay time. If the Dutchman can't play anymore, you'll definitely find another center forward from the transfer market, right? There are so many good center forwards now. I'm not willing to let my son be a substitute for someone else for a lifetime. I've never doubted my son's ability, but I suspect that you can't give him the chance to fully display his abilities. Nicklas can become the best striker in the world, provided that he doesn't be a substitute for someone else in the Forest team. If you want to keep him, I'll never agree. "
After being said so much in one breath, Twain's mind gradually calmed down. He asked, "Are you done? Mr. Thomas Bendtner? "
"I've said everything that needs to be said, Mr. Twain. I know you like people to be honest, so I'm very honest. "
Twain took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "Thank you for your honesty. I think I need to seriously consider everything you said."
"When you're done, you're welcome to give me a call."
This time, Twain did not slam the phone. He hung up and sat in a chair alone in a daze.
He knew that he sometimes deliberately suppressed Bendtner's desires, but that was because he was afraid that he would become too arrogant. He understood what kind of person Bendtner was. This young genius was proud and arrogant. Sometimes, it was inevitable that he would have his eyes on the top of his head. He did not wish for a genius who originally had talent and a bright future to end up with mediocre achievements because of some psychological and character reasons. So, he worked hard to create a less smooth environment for Bendtner to grow up in and never told him his true thoughts. He hoped that Bendtner could experience it for himself.
At this time, the Chinese's and the British's were all focused on Tony Twain, the fake foreign devil.
He was unwilling to expose it because he felt that it would lose the meaning of growing up. Now, it seemed that he was wrong.
Bendtner was not the kind of person who could endure and willingly experience growth. His thinking was typical of the West. Since I have such a great foundation, environment, and conditions, why do I need to experience some bullsh * t growth? Why can't I directly become the main core? If I have the ability, I'll do it!
Twain felt that it was wishful thinking on his part.
He had spent so much effort and painstaking effort to nurture the striker, but he actually felt that he was not being put in an important position.
For Twain, who liked to have everything in his hands, this was a great irony.
He leaned weakly against the back of the chair and looked out the window at the sunny training ground. Bendtner and his teammates had already appeared one after another.
He really wanted to know what Bendtner was feeling at this moment.
Did he feel that he had been deceived?
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