225 The Chief Part 1 (2/2)
Twain had not made any comments on this yet, and the local media in Nottingham did not release any articles on it either. Pierce Brosnan wrote a rebuttal article to Lawrenson's nonsense, and argued that Lawrenson's unfair comments about Twain and the Forest team were due to a grudge over his lost bet, and that he was just waiting for his chance to retaliate.
The Premier League had never lacked such lively scenes.
Since Brosnan had helped him out, Twain was disinclined to waste any energy on the media. He was concentrating on training for the next round. In the seventh round of the tournament, Nottingham Forest would be playing at home against Chelsea. It would definitely be a tough battle!
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On September 20, an ordinary Monday morning, the sun was shining brightly. Twain was leading the team in training as usual. He suddenly saw the club chairman, Evan Doughty, who had not made an appearance for a long time, on the sidelines of the training ground.
If the Chairman was there, it must have had something to do with Twain. Twain signaled to David to continue the training and turned to walk off the training ground.
”Evan, I rarely see you around here. If you're here, it must be something important!” Twain joked as he walked towards Evan. Despite the team's current average performance, Twain always acted optimistic in front of Evan.
”Well, it is something big… Tony, I just got a call from the Derby City General Hospital.” Evan did not smile at Twain's joke. He said with a grave expression, ”Brian Clough has just passed away. Stomach cancer.”
Twain froze for a moment. He thought that he had misheard him. ”What did you say?”
”Mrs. Clough would like you to attend a private funeral tomorrow. I know the relationship between you and the Chief, Tony...” Evan patted Twain on the shoulder and without saying another word, he turned and left the training ground.
Twain stood on the sidelines alone, staring blankly at Evan's back, and did not react for a long while.
Evan had just gone out of sight when Twain saw Pierce Brosnan stumble along outside the wire fence and gesticulate frantically to him, hoping that Twain would approach.
As Twain walked over, Brosnan asked wheezily, ”Tony, I've tried to call you… Did you not receive it?”
”I don't have my cell phone with me during training...”
”I just received the news, I've come to inform you: Clough… Brian Clough's dead!” Brosnan said in alarm. To him, this was a huge moment in the history of Nottingham football. A momentous event. Twain's reaction was not as intense than he had imagined.
”Evan, the Chairman, just informed me. I've been invited to attend a private funeral tomorrow.” Twain pointed to the direction in which Evan had disappeared. His face was neither shocked nor sad when he said this.
Brosnan looked at Twain, then nodded, ”In that case, I'm going to go off first and head to Derby to follow up on the story.”
”Bye, Mr. Reporter.”
”See you, Tony.”
When Brosnan had also disappeared from his view, it seemed that Twain's mind had just started to respond to the news.