241 Read the Headline Part 2 (2/2)

This time, it's real.

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The news that the Forest team had successfully broken into the UEFA Europa League was a matter of some interest to the English media, since this was an old football team returning to the public eye. But most media outlets were cautious about Nottingham Forest's prospects in the UEFA Europa League. They thought that the Forest team, which had been absent from the UEFA Europa League for a long time, would not be able to keep up their momentum. They even earnestly brought up the painful memory of the '95-96 season, in which the Forest team had lost to Bayern Munich in the UEFA Europa League quarter finals with a total score of 7:2, to support their views on the Forest team.

With regard to those suspicions, Twain chose to fight back in his column, but he did not write a lengthy rebuttal to make his case point-by-point. The latest issue of Twain's column attracted a lot of attention both because of his headline and his main body text.

The headline was: The UEFA Europa League is just the first step towards the UEFA Champions League title.

The full text of the article was only three words: Read the Headline.

The contract between Twain and the Evening Post stipulated that his fees were based on word count, so Twain would not receive a single cent for this article. However, it doubled the sales volume of the Evening Post, and all the readers fixated on its arrogance. They could almost imagine Twain saying those words with a condescending expression.

The next day, even Gary Lineker mentioned this matter in his online column and considered Twain's simple ”Read the Headline” was the most ideal comeback, and that it was perfectly succinct.

Everyone was talking about Twain and the article. He might be the first manager to lead a newly promoted team and still proclaim to take the UEFA Champions League title.

Mourinho was arrogant because he had won the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Champions League, and the Portuguese league, which had led Porto to achieve a treble in a single season. He had the qualifications to be outrageous.

And Twain? What did he have to show other than a measly EFL Cup title? It was an eye-opener to see how a man with nothing could be so conceited.

More and more people were becoming interested in the Premier League's youngest manager.

When the Forest team was training the next day, there were more journalists around the training base than ever before, which surprised the club chairman, Evan Doughty, as drove up to the base.

While parking his car in the parking lot, he saw Twain, who was approaching after getting rid of the reporters pestering him, and quickly stopped him. ”Tony, what's going on here?” he said, pointing to the gate.

Twain smiled and said, ”Evan, don't you ever read the papers?”

”Of course, I do but what does this have to do with... Oh! I know!” Evan Doughty cracked up in laughter. ”Is is because of 'Read the Headline'? That was good, I loved it!”

”Did you think I deliberately did that to refute the press?” asked Twain.

Evan shrugged. ”I don't know about that.”

”Evan, remember that time when we were planning the future with Allan in that Indian restaurant?” Twain glanced at the clear sky.

Evan nodded with a smile. ”Of course I remember. How could I forget?”

”It's getting closer and closer,” said Twain with certainty.