The countdown to the 2018-19 Premier League season officially commenced when the Premier League champions Arsenal defeated the FA Cup champions Liverpool and lifted the FA Community Shield trophy.

All eyes were on the traditional ‘big four’ teams of England this season, with Manchester United and Arsenal being the teams that receive the most attention from the press and the rest of the world. There were not many people who talked about how England had just won the World Cup, or why Tony Twain had decided to retire.

Twain would often be surrounded by fans asking for either a photograph or an autograph when he takes his daughter out for a walk, but other than that, his life has been quite peaceful and he has never been bothered by the press. Twain does not like interacting with the press, but he likes interacting with football fans, especially fans of Nottingham Forest. Nottingham is his home ground, and every single Forest fan is just like a friend to him.

Of course, there were also times where Twain found himself in an awkward situation when he interacted with the Forest fans. For example, there would often be fans who ask him, “Will you come back, Tony?”

Twain knew very well what they meant when they asked that. Nottingham Forest is in a mess right now, and everyone is hoping for a great manager to come and rescue the team. They thought about who this ‘great manager’ could be, and the only person that comes to mind is Tony Twain.

Twain does not wish to sadden or disappoint the fans who hope that he would return to Nottingham Forest as the manager, but at the same time, he cannot take back the words that he said previously either. Therefore, he would always respond to the fans with a wry smile, “I don’t know, who knows what will happen in the future?”

Sometime later, Twain received a call from John Motson. “Tony, are you interested in coming over to the BBC5?”

BBC5 is a sports channel just like the CCTV5 channel. Every single match involving the England national football team would be broadcasted on the BBC5. Twain has worked as a guest commentator for BBC5 for a short period of time in the past, and he has provided commentaries on the World Cup and Euro Cup before. However, he has not worked for them ever since he took on the role as the manager of the England national football team.

“Go over to the BBC5?” Twain was puzzled initially, but he understood what Motson was getting at shortly after. BBC was able to triumph over Sky UK and ITV last year, and they managed to get their hands on the broadcast rights for a portion of the Premier League matches. Now, they are trying to recruit people from all across the country to become commentators for those matches, and the only way they would be able to recruit a popular commentator like Twain would be to make use of Motson’s relationship with Twain.

“Yeah, I want you to come over and provide commentaries for the new Premier League season. Are you interested?”

“Ah, John… I still want to rest some more.” Twain shook his head and refused Motson’s offer. “I have only retired for two months. Surely the break that I deserve after working for the past 10 years is longer than two months?”

“That’s a shame…” Motson knew Twain’s disposition very well. Twain would not do anything that he is not inclined to do. Persuading him any further would just be a waste of saliva. Motson found it to be a shame that the British football fans would not be able to hear Twain’s interesting commentary for the upcoming Premier League season.

A day after Motson called, Twain received a call from Martin Taylor. Just like Motson, Taylor also invited him to be a guest commentator for Sky UK for the upcoming Premier League season. Taylor had retired years ago, but he still has the company’s best interests at heart since he had worked at the company for over 20 years. Hence, it is not surprising that he would try and recruit a good commentator such as Twain for his company even though he no longer works for Sky UK.

Nonetheless… Twain still rejected Taylor’s offer. His reason remained the same: he still wants to rest some more.

Twain was well aware that working for the television station would be a very good option for him if he wishes to continue working after leaving his managerial post. However, he likes his current laid back and carefree lifestyle, and he also wishes to continue taking care of Theresa. His daughter has only been in England for half a month. How could he possibly throw her aside for work? Shania is the one working now, and he should just concentrate on being a ‘house husband’ for now.

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The new Premier League season commenced on the 17th of August. The opening match featured Manchester United against the newly promoted side Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club, and Manchester United eventually went on to win 2:0 at home comfortably.

The Premier League was in full swing the following day. Nottingham Forest welcomed their first ever opponent for this season at their home grounds – Everton.

Nottingham Forest might not be performing well in recent times, but their ticket sales have been impressive. They sold a total of 38,000 season tickets for this season, which is roughly the same as the number of season tickets sold in past seasons. The number of season tickets that were sold when Nottingham Forest was at its peak cannot be used as a reference because the capacity of the City Ground Stadium is much smaller than the Crimson Stadium. 38,000 season tickets might be about 10,000 tickets lesser than the 55,000 season tickets sold by Manchester United this season, but when one takes into the account the size of Nottingham, 38,000 is definitely an impressive number.

One can tell from the number of tickets sold that Nottingham Forest is not encountering any financial issues, and the money earned from the ticket sales gives Evan the capital he needs when he has to bargain with the financial groups.

Not only that, one can also tell that the Nottingham Forest fans are ‘die-hard’ fans based on the number of season tickets sold. The Forest fans might be upset with the board of the club, but they still continue to support the club by buying the tickets to the matches. However, one of the fans said this when asked about why he was willing to buy season tickets, “I just take it as spending 35 pounds every home game to scold that son of a b*tch Evan Doughty.”

The anger and hatred towards Evan Doughty is one that is shared by numerous Forest fans. Some of them even came together and formed a group called the ‘Son of a B*tch Evan’, and its members are the ones who create most of the banners that insult Evan Doughty at the Robin Hood stand.

Twain sat down on the floor and watched his daughter play with her rag doll after they finished eating the lunch meal that Twain had prepared. A moment later, he asked his daughter, “Theresa. Do you want to go out and play with Daddy?”

“Okay.” Theresa stopped whatever she was doing and lifted her head to look at Twain. She was generally well-behaved and rarely disobeyed her parents.

“Okay. Then, do you want to watch a match with Daddy?” Twain magically dished out two match tickets from behind his back and waved them before Theresa’s face.

Theresa tilted her head and mulled over what her dad just said. It took her a while to understand what he meant by ‘match’. Thereafter, she nodded her head and replied, “Okay.”

Twain was overjoyed. He quickly scooped up Theresa into his arms before planting a kiss on her tender cheeks.

“Let us leave at once!” He got into the car with Theresa in his arms and drove towards the Crimson Stadium that was located in the south-western part of Nottingham.

In truth, Twain did not plan to bring his daughter with him at the start. However, it is too dangerous to leave his daughter all alone at home. Thus, he decided to bring her along and let her experience the atmosphere at the stadium when a match takes place. Who knows? Maybe Theresa would start liking football! Her mother dislikes football, but if Theresa ends up liking football, then it would be two against one, and the majority would win!

Twain was the manager of Nottingham Forest for 11 years. He might not have been a Forest fan before he was appointed as the manager of the club, but now, he is a die-hard Forest fan. Just like all the other Forest fans, he too has invested a lot of his time and emotion into the club after so many years at the helm. It does not matter how disappointing Forest has become. Twain has been consistently buying the season tickets for Nottingham Forest every single year ever since he was the manager of the club, and he did not stop buying the tickets during the four years when he was the manager of the England national football team either.

The truth was that he has never actually watched a Forest match from the stands as an ordinary football fan before. There are only two situations in which he would watch a match from the stands: the first is when he is sent to the stands by either the referee or the Football Association for verbally abusing them, and the second is when he comes to watch the performances of the Forest players as the manager of the England national football team. All in all, he has never watched a Forest match as an ‘ordinary football fan’ before.

Watching as an ‘ordinary football fan’ meant that he would not analyse the tactics being used by both teams and he would not try and find a flaw in either side’s tactics as well. He would not think about what he would do at halftime or what he would change in the next match either… Basically, he would not watch the match as a ‘football manager’.

Twain felt very happy when he thought about how he would be able to watch the match without any burdens being placed on him, and he began humming a song as he drove.

Theresa looked like a doll as she sat on the passenger seat next to Twain with a seat belt on. She turned her head to look at her father, and she most likely is not able to understand why he is so happy. Why would her father be happier than her when they are going out to play?

Twain was not in a hurry to step out of the car when they arrived at the stadium. The first thing he did was to don a pair of sunglasses and a baseball cap. Thereafter, he turned his collar upwards and donned a pair of sunglasses on Theresa as well. The sunglasses was so big that it covered half of Theresa’s face. He then placed a hat over her head and made sure that both of them would not be recognized by anyone else at first glance. Once he was satisfied, he opened the car door and stepped outside. He then held Theresa in his arms and followed the crowd towards the stadium.

Twain lifted his head to look at the gigantic Crimson Stadium before him as he trailed behind the crowd. This was the first time he has been able to admire the new stadium’s exterior while being so relaxed. He has always entered the stadium via a special tunnel in the past – the manager of the England national football team would definitely not enter the stadium alongside the rest of the spectators.

This stadium took six years to construct and there were also several accidents that occurred during its construction. However, the finished product was truly magnificent… It is no wonder Evan sounds so confident when he says that ‘the stadium is the best stadium in the world’. The stadium looks utterly imposing on the outside, and one can already tell how it would feel to be inside just by looking at the outside. Sadly… This great stadium has only witnessed Nottingham Forest’s decline over the past few years.

Twain sighed softly before turning his head to look at the fans all around him.

It did not matter how Forest performed the previous season. The new season is about to begin, and the fans are all brimming with hope. To the fans, the club’s board and the team were separate entities. There were numerous fans around him who were discussing about the upcoming match excitedly. They were speculating about how George Wood would perform during the match, and they were also wondering if Aaron Mitchell would score a goal later on…

A group of fans near Twain continued to discuss about the match for some time before the conversation topic suddenly shifted onto the new Forest manager.

“McAllister is no good as a manager… Look at the kind of manager this club hires! Nottingham Forest is a club that won five Champions League trophies! How can they let a nobody be the manager?”

“That’s right! I don’t think there’s any other manager besides Tony Twain who is able to manage Forest’s locker room…”

“It’s a shame that Tony has retired… He’s barely 50 years old…”

“How great it would be if he could return…”

“That’s right!”

Theresa, who was in Twain’s arms all this while, suddenly leaned towards Twain’s ear and asked, “Daddy, are they calling you?”

Twain instantly felt very embarrassed after hearing his daughter’s words. It has been two months, but he still has yet to tell Theresa what his previous job was. On one hand, he thinks that Theresa is still too young to understand what a ‘football manager’ is, and on the other hand, he does not think that there is a need to talk about what he used to do now that he has retired.

He kept bringing Theresa over to Kenny’s bar a while back, and Fat John and his gang would refer to him as ‘Tony’ every time they ran into him. That has allowed Theresa to memorize the name ‘Tony’. She is still young, so she does not know that there are countless other people named ‘Tony’ in this world. She probably thinks that only her dad is called ‘Tony’.

“Er… No, they are talking about a different ‘Tony’.” Twain was unwilling to explain the situation to Theresa because he was afraid that the fans around them would recognize him. He became self-conscious and pulled down his cap further before saying, “Let’s go in, Theresa.”

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Twain held his daughter in his arms as he slowly ascended the steps towards the stands. However, he was not in a hurry to find his seat once he had reached the top of the stairs. Instead, he stood at the entrance for a moment. He could see everything in front and beneath him from where he stood. The stands opposite of him were fully occupied, and there were players doing their warm-ups on the green pitch below. The fans of both teams streamed towards their respective seats in the stadium and began singing songs.

Twain did not find those scenes before him to be foreign. But, he could not help but feel fired up now that he was seeing those scenes from the stands. This is what football is all about!

Theresa, who was being held in Twain’s arms, suddenly cupped her ears with her hands. She found the stadium to be too noisy… The noise that is produced by the fans at every match can be quite frightening. The FC Schalke 04 fans once set a record for shouting during a certain period of a home match. Their shouts were deemed to be as loud as the noise that a plane makes during take-off, and it is likely that the shouts in the Crimson Stadium right now are as loud as that too.

Fortunately, Twain came prepared. He dished out a pair of furry earmuffs and placed them over Theresa’s ears. The noise in the stadium was instantly reduced by a quite a bit.

“Let’s go, darling.” Twain patted Theresa’s face gently before walking away from the entrance with her in his arms.

A broadcast was being played in the stadium, and it called for the fans to welcome the Everton fans. Numerous fans responded to the broadcast by standing to their feet and singing songs for the Everton fans at the top of their lungs. Of course, they did not exactly welcome them amicably. Twain searched for his seat with Theresa sprawled on his back. Theresa kept looking around at the people around her, and she showed keen curiosity about what they were doing. She was no longer as afraid as when she first entered the stands.

Twain soon found his seat and he sat down quietly. He did not stand to his feet and shout chants like ‘Die, Everton’ like the other fans around him.

Honestly, a stadium is truly not the kind of place that one should bring their kids to, because swear words are constantly thrown about by the fans and a kid can be negatively influenced when they stay in such an environment for long. Twain still remembers a picture that he saw on the internet when he was a Chinese football fan. The picture showed a kid pointing his middle finger at the camera while standing at the stands and being dressed in a jersey of one of the football clubs in England. The shape of his mouth clearly suggested that the word that he said was ‘f*ck’.

Well, it is not like Theresa can understand whatever the Forest fans are saying right now. They are speaking in their incomprehensible Nottingham accent and using slang words that only people living in Nottingham would understand.

※※※

The fans cheered for every single Nottingham Forest player who was starting in the match when they made their way onto the pitch. Twain had remained seated initially, but he eventually stood up and joined the other fans as they shouted ‘St. George!’. He felt compelled to shout partly because he was influenced by the atmosphere and partly because he felt that he would attract attention to himself if he remained seated while everyone else was shouting and cheering.

Twain felt pleased and proud when he saw Wood appear on the pitch. That lad has become the leader of the team, and he even seems a little domineering now.

Theresa pointed at Wood, who had his back towards her, and shouted excitedly, “Big brother! Big brother!” Twain did not expect Theresa to recognize Wood. He had brought her along when he visited Sophia and Wood’s house previously.

Fortunately, the fans around them were even more excited than she was, and no one paid much attention to a little girl. Twain was shocked that his daughter was able to recognize Wood without even having to see his face. She had only seen him once, but she was able to tell that it was him from behind. Theresa has remarkable memory!

When Twain directed his attention back onto the pitch, he noticed that the players for both teams had already walked onto the pitch. They formed two separate lines on the left and right side of the referee and posed for a photo. Twain scanned the Forest players who were standing on the pitch, and he realized that most of the players on the team were strangers to him.

It was not that he knew nothing about them. He knew their names and positions that they play in.

But, that’s it. His knowledge of them is limited to just their names and positions. He knew nothing else about them, and that is why they feel like strangers to him.

He reminisced about the time when he was still a manager of Nottingham Forest ten years ago. Back then, he thought of every player, even the substitutes, as a part of his family and he knew them inside out. When they stood together, they formed a whole. They were a sea of red, and their name was ‘Nottingham Forest’.

But, what about now?

The players looked like 11 separate entities as they stood on the pitch. George Wood, Mario Balotelli, Gareth Bale, Nkoulou, Joe Mattock and Chris Cohen… They were all standing side by side together, but they were not a team.

The fans around Twain continued to shout at the top of their voices, “Forest! Forest! Nottingham Forest!”

But, no one knows just how much of those cheers are actually heard by the players…