847 Our City Ground Stadium (2/2)
Burns snapped out of his reverie and smiled at Twain. ”Go back home, Tony. Your wife is waiting for you.”
Twain shrugged. ”I still want to chat with you a little longer.”
”I'll definitely come down to watch the match during the weekend, Tony.”
”Are you trying to put pressure on me?” Twain turned and looked at Burns as he opened his car door.
”Are you telling me you are scared of pressure?”
Twain smiled. ”We'll definitely win. But as for whether or not we'll become champions of the Premier League, that still depends on the outcome of the match between Arsenal and Manchester City.”
”What an exciting season. I wish you all the best.”
Twain sat in the car. He then poked his head out of the window to wave at Burns. ”I wish Nottingham Forest all the best.”
He then drove away from the City Ground Stadium while being bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun.
Burns, on the other hand, started walking in the opposite direction towards the entrance of the City Ground Stadium where all the other fans gathered with a bouquet of flowers in his hands.
The next day, the Nottingham Forest players saw Pierce Brosnan and a cameraman make their way into the training grounds under the accompaniment of Allan Adams.
Twain frowned when he noticed Allan Adams beside Brosnan, but he said nothing in response.
When all three individuals passed by in front of him, he smiled radiantly at them. ”What a rare sight. I wonder what brings you here to our training grounds today, Mr. Reporter?”
Brosnan was about to open his mouth to speak, but he was cut off by Allan Adams.
”It's like this, Tony. Mr. Pierce Brosnan intends to do a feature article on the City Ground Stadium, and he hopes to be able to interview the team about their thoughts and feelings towards the stadium…”
Brosnan smiled and nodded his head by the side.
”Is that so… All right, go ahead. But I must remind you not to let it drag on for too long. They have just finished their training and have yet to change into a new set of clothes. If they were to somehow catch a cold…” Twain pulled a face. ”It won't be good for either of us, right?”
Twain turned around and left after finishing his words.
Brosnan felt a little awkward, because the very first person he had to interview was Tony Twain…
Allan could tell that Twain was upset, and he knew the reason behind his bad mood.
The first-team manager had not spoken a single word to him ever since he intervened and forcibly sold Lennon to another club. However, Allan was unwilling to reveal the strained relationship between him and Twain before the media, so he quickly explained to Brosnan, ”Don't mind him. He doesn't like to be disturbed, especially since there's a big game coming up…”
”Haha! We understand, Mr. Adams,” Brosnan said with a laugh.
To Brosnan, Twain was not acting the way that he did because ”a big game was coming up and he doesn't like to be disturbed.” Rather, it was because Twain was just a temperamental person, so it was normal for him to treat a person well on certain days and coldly on others.
The interview went quite smoothly due to Allan Adams' presence. The players were all well aware of Allan's status and position in the club.
Twain stood at the side with his arms folded and watched on coldly.
Once Brosnan was done interviewing the players, he went up to Twain to ask for an interview.
Allan Adams did not follow after him immediately. He hesitated for a moment, seemingly intent on keeping a distance between him and Twain.
”Tony. Can you talk about the final match that will be played at the City Ground Stadium?”
Twain continued to pull a long face as he looked at the two reporters. ”We will bid farewell to City Ground Stadium with a victory.” He did not go on to give an inspirational and passionate speech about how he would lead his team to become champions of the Premier League.
If it had been any other reporter interviewing Twain right now, he or she would have followed up with a question about why he did not say that he was going to bid farewell to the City Ground Stadium by becoming champions. Brosnan did not ask Twain the question because he knew Twain well, and he knew how complex the whole situation was.
Even if Forest was able to defeat Sunderland at home, their fate of becoming champions would still rest on the outcome of the match between Arsenal and Manchester City.
The entire Nottingham Forest team surprisingly did not display even a twinge of optimism towards the possibility of them becoming champions of the Premier League. Even their arrogant manager, Tony Twain, refused to comment about whether they could become champions as well.
Carl Spicer announced in his show that he had ordered a new and trendy table from Ikea for Tony Twain. Astonishingly, Twain did not say anything in response to Spicer's comments. His lack of reaction left the media very disappointed.
However, there were still many other areas that the media could focus on.
Will the champions of the Premier League be Arsenal or Nottingham Forest?
Will the two ex-Forest players in Manchester City go easy on Arsenal due to their personal grudges against Twain?
Bendtner had spoken up regarding the rumor that he would go easy on Arsenal in an interview that was conducted a day ago.
”I am a professional football player. What I care about is not who becomes the champions of the league. I only care about attaining victory for my team.”
As for Ashley Young, he confirmed that he would leave Manchester City for Liverpool at the end of the season. He indicated that he would like to bid farewell to Manchester City with a victory.
Neither player mentioned a word about Twain.
Fat John, Skinny Bill and their gang gathered at the Forest Bar a day before the kick-offs of the final match of the Premier League to create the banners and flags that they would use during the match. There were several other Forest fans who also gathered at other bars to do the same thing.
The Nottingham Forest players went through their last training session at Wilford. Tony Twain set aside some time to analyze Sunderland's game with his coaching team. They had already studied everything that they could about their opponent for the entire week, but they still wanted to analyze Sunderland a little more because they could not think of any other thing that they could do instead.
Perhaps they could somehow help Manchester City defeat Arsenal by analyzing Sunderland on a much deeper level?
As the day approached sunset, the number of fans who gathered at the City Ground Stadium entrance began to dwindle in numbers.
The only things that remained were the flowers and scarves that continued to sway in the breeze.
Thompson Isaksson, who worked as a football ground staff for Forest and helped to maintain the grass on the training grounds and at the stadium, appeared before the flowers that had been placed at the entrance of the City Ground Stadium.
If someone were to ask him whether the most memorable thing he ever did as a football ground staff was to help Forest defeat Barcelona by creating a ”one and only” stadium for Tony Twain, he would definitely shake his head and disagree.
To him, the most memorable thing that he did as a football ground staff was stepping onto the turf at the City Ground Stadium and maintaining it.
He had already decided to retire at the end of the season. He regarded it as an honor to be able to retire alongside the City Ground Stadium.
Today, he had come to say goodbye to the City Ground Stadium alone. The next day, he would return here with 30,000 other Forest fans, and he hoped to be able to witness the moment where Nottingham Forest bid their stadium of 115 years farewell by clinching the champions trophy.
Isaksson felt as though he was looking at his younger self as he gazed at the City Ground Stadium against the setting sun.
He stood quietly out in the open with a small smile upon his wrinkled face as a breeze caressed his skin.
”… This is our City Ground Stadium. It is as old as our granddad. It will still be here by the Trent River even when we all become granddads… It will still be here by the Trent River till the day we die… We will all die one day, but it will never grow old nor die, because it is our City Ground Stadium…”
There were not a lot of people who could still sing the song that Isaksson just sang. It was a song that the Forest fans dedicated to the City Ground Stadium when Isaksson was still young. The melody was simple and the lyrics were down-to-earth.
Sadly, technology was not as advanced back then. The fans were not able to record their songs by themselves, and there were no professional music companies who would help fans record their songs into CDs and then release them to the public either.
Darkness enveloped the streets, and the streetlights came to life.
Isaksson sang the song softly under his breath as he turned around and left.