718 The New Season After the Honeymoon

A photograph of the 40-year-old groom holding his 18-year-old bride in his arms and passionately kissing her made the news on BBC television the next day. The news soon spread all over the world. No matter how sad Shania's male fans were, it did not change the fait accompli—their idol, Judy Shania Jordana, coolly elegant and haughty on the runway, but lively and lovely in life, now belonged only to a middle-aged man.

The BBC's newscaster concluded, "Yesterday Tony Twain became the happiest man on the planet. Although the season that just ended was a failure for both him and Nottingham Forest, he personally won in a different arena. We wish them all the best."

But it was unknown how many fans of Shania's cried on the inside as they cursed him...

※※※

The morning sun came through the window, and shone on two naked bodies lying in bed.

Twain and Shania had just finished their "morning workout." Shania laid beside Twain, curled up like a sleepy kitten. The perspiration had not yet dried on the two of them, but no one got up to take a shower.

Twain had not stopped making love since he had become one with Shania that night. He knew he was not getting younger, and feared that if he did not procreate now, he might be mentally willing but physically unable to in the future. Shania also did not show any antipathy to this idea. Being pregnant would impact a model's career, but she also wanted a baby.

On the wedding night, the two of them had made frenzied love the entire night, and they started another sweat-dripping session when they woke up early in the morning. This surprised Shania somewhat.

"Uncle Tony..." She was still snuggled up in Twain's arms as she softly called his name.

"Hmmm?" Although he had moved uninhibited on top of Shania's body just moments before, Twain's hand still misbehaved, gently caressing across her smooth skin bit by bit as if to titillate his lovable wife.

"You're simply not like a forty-year-old... Hee hee!" Twain tickled her, and she laughed and twisted her body.

Twain did not know why he was like this. But every time he saw Shania's young, vigorous body, her tender, beautiful face, and her bright and lively eyes, he felt that an irrepressible fervor surge forth from his body. He would not be able to sleep if he did not let it out. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

The young girl has an irresistible attraction for me. Why didn't I realize it in the first five years? Lisa Aria was right. I don't know the people around me, and I don't know myself, either.

Twain patted Shania's smooth and pert buttocks and said, "Go take a shower. With such good weather, don't tell me we're going to lie in bed all day!"

Shania sat up and turned her head toward Twain to make a very tempting request. "Want to shower together, Uncle Tony?"

Twain gave her a look and said, "I don't want to."

Shania shrugged and jumped out of bed. She sashayed past the bed with her model's strut as she twisted her buttocks to walk toward the bathroom. After entering, she did not forget to poke her head out to ask, "You really don't want to?"

"No," Twain said without turning his gaze away from the television.

"I left the door unlocked, Uncle Tony."

"Are you trying to invite me in?"

"No, maybe I just forgot to lock the door." Shania giggled as she went in. Then there was the sound of flowing water.

The sound seemed to flow into Twain's heart, making it hard for him to resist.

He looked left and right and muttered, "Take a shower together? Well, that does sound like a good idea..." And he jumped out of bed.

※※※

This morning's interlude was just one of many in Twain and Shania's honeymoon.

The day after the wedding, the reporters captured shots of Shania in a bikini, frolicking by the sea with Twain at Copacabana Beach. The following week, the happy pair could be found in practically every corner of Rio de Janeiro.

Twain had never experienced such days the past 26 years of his life. He felt infinitely happy. In the streets, when the mood struck him, he would embrace Shania and French kiss her as if they were alone. He did not care, even if he knew that there were reporters hiding in secret places to take pictures.

"It looks like their relationship is going well..." In the beginning, the media could treat the fact that Twain and Shania were kissing in the streets as a big story. Later, they discovered that Twain treated this kind of thing as commonplace, so they could only say so.

※※※

Good times are always brief. As an English Premier League manager, Twain did not have a whole month to be intimate with his new wife, making love every day—sometimes three times, sometimes twice.

Rather than a honeymoon, it was really just a "honey week."

During this week, Twain reintroduced Shania to his parents. He had hoped that Shania would regard the pair of elders as her parents, and her behavior made him very satisfied. She used her recently-acquired Mandarin to address them as "Papa" and "Mama" when they met, which made the two old people laugh with delight, as happy as could be—they had just gained a beautiful Brazilian daughter.

Having the time of his life, Twain did not think about anything else, and simply spent a wonderful week alone with Shania—which soon passed very quickly.

Although there was still time, Twain did not stay on in Brazil to have fun. He took Shania on a tour of Latin America. Even though they were on a holiday, Twain was in fact inspecting the excellent young "seedlings" around. He wanted to see if there was any chance of unearthing a talented teenager who could become a big star player, without spending too much money. But the biggest problem with selecting talents in South America was that these young players might not be able to obtain work permits from the English Football Association and the Department of Labor.

They traveled through Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay... and all the way up to Mexico, which was Twain's last stop.

He wanted to go take a look at the development of Martín Galván, who had been bought by the Forest team two seasons ago.

He was overjoyed with the results.

Although he was not yet 17 years old, Martín had made several appearances in the Mexican league tournament on behalf of Cruz Azul. Furthermore, he had scored five goals and seven assists. He was also the midfield core of the Mexican under-17 team, wearing the number 10 jersey.

Over time, the lad would surely grow up to be the talent Tony Twain needed. The issue now was to prevent him from suffering injuries during the most crucial stage of his development. Therefore, Twain did not want Cruz Azul to let Martín compete too much.

He was afraid of spoiling him through excessive enthusiasm, and causing Martín to become like the fable of "The Decline of Zhongyong." Out of concern, Twain spoke with Martin alone. Twain had an amiability and affinity with the young players—of course, it was before the youngster became his First Team player—and even though this was Martín Galván's first face-to-face chat with Twain, he did not feel intimidated by the manager, who had won the UEFA Champions League title for two years in a row. They talked about everything, and Twain asked Martín what was fun to do in Mexico City so that he could take Shania sightseeing.

From the conversation, Twain knew what Martín's attitude to the Forest team was—the boy was keen to leave his home country and play in a higher level of football league in England. He also had a sense of belonging to Nottingham Forest.

Twain told Martín not to worry, and that he would have a chance when he was 18, provided he maintained a high level of quality and continued his progress over time. He would not give a mediocre 18-year-old a chance to play. He was extremely tough on this point.

Twain did not make an empty promise to Martín. Considering the increasingly severe economic environment, and the botched stadium project, Twain anticipated that in the next two to three years, he would not have enough transfer market funds to chase world-class, already famous star players. Giving opportunities to young people was not a new idea. Leeds United and Arsenal had been setting off a craze for invincible youths in England and European football. So why couldn't Nottingham Forest do the same?

Before the start of the new season, he had already heard a lot of doubts about him and Nottingham Forest. He did not want to argue with the other party in the media, because he believed that the facts would speak louder than words. Once he really set his plan in motion, then he could settle the scores.

In addition, there was another purpose in his trip to Cruz Azul: to promise Cruz Azul on behalf of the Nottingham Forest Football Club that, even though the current financial situation for the Forest Club was not good, the money to be given to Cruz Azul would still be fully transferred into their accounts.

It had to be said that selling Ribéry solved a big problem for Twain and the Forest team. They could 55 million euros go a long way with meticulous planning. When Wenger used half of the 30 million euros he got for the sale of Anelka to build the modernized London Colney training base, it benefited Arsenal's countless of players.

Nottingham Forest did not need to build a new training base for the time being. The 55 million euros in revenue were divided into two parts. One portion was to maintain the day-to-day operations of the club, including various expenses. The balance was to be used as Twain's funds for the new season's transfer market to buy the players he wanted.

As for the new stadium, the construction plan would continue to be put on hold until Allan could procure the money for it. Twain had heard that he had gone to the Arabian Peninsula this time to raise enough money for the new stadium, for the price of selling the stadium's naming rights. He was copying what Arsenal had done for the construction of the Emirates Stadium.

※※※

After ending the visit to Mexico, Twain made a brief stop in Los Angeles with his young wife and met up with Clarice Gloria and Tom Cruise—the two people had "hooked up" due to their connections with Twain and Shania. But to call it "hooking up" could be misleading, because it was strictly a work partnership. With their help, Twain also met some of the big stars he had heard about and knew of in Hollywood. They spent three happy days and nights there.

Then he flew back to England with Shania.

The honeymoon had officially ended. They did not come from wealthy families—Shania's parents were considered part of the up-and-coming middle class in Brazil. Therefore, both husband and wife needed to work hard to earn money to support their families. If they had a baby, they would need more money.

When Shania returned to Nottingham, she started to get busy with runway shows, film production for commercials, and promotional activities for the brands she endorsed, while Twain met with Evan Doughty and resumed work for the new season.

After more than five months of rest, Twain was starting to get restless. He couldn't wait to start his career again.

But to put it bluntly, he was now faced with a big mess, although if comparisons were to be made, it was probably better than the team Twain faced after he was knocked to the ground on the back of his head.

Real Madrid really seemed to treat Nottingham Forest as a newly opened supermarket for new players—a supermarket that was still offering discounts. After they poached Ribéry, they set their sights again on Lennon, the right back. They hoped to spend 15 million euros to buy Aaron Lennon and take him to Bernabéu.

In addition, they had had their eyes on van der Vaart for two seasons. This summer, Mijatović thought it was time to make a move. They offered 18 million euros to buy van der Vaart.

AC Milan hoped to get Arshavin, who could play as the forward, winger and midfielder. For this reason, they were willing to offer 20 million euros.

Juventus, meanwhile, had its eye on the captain of Nottingham Forest, George Wood. The so-called "Old Lady" was ready to come up with 30 million euros to bring in the steely midfielder, whose form was constant even as the team declined. Ranieri wanted George Wood to come and take over from Nedvěd.

But Juventus was up against aggressive rivals.

Inter Milan, Barcelona and Bayern Munich were all interested in George Wood's defensive ability, and the level of attacking capability he was gradually showing. Several years of offensive training had brought Wood's offense skills to new levels every year.

When George Wood made his debut at Nottingham Forest, the famous Football Manager game created by Sports Interactive, which was proud of its use of real statistics, listed his passes, crosses, shots, dribbles, skills, and long shots as 9, 5, 4, 8, 10, and 6. In the latest FM 2009, which was based on the 07-08 season and the first half of the 08-09 season, these statistics became 14, 9, 11, 12, 14 and 13, respectively.

He was only 21 years old, and had the potential to continue to develop. And FM had also set his potential at 9, which was a very high number. But Twain believed that after a period of time, Wood's potential would be set at 200. He had that much confidence in Wood.

Although Wood's quality was excellent, it was almost impossible to get him. The more pragmatic approach was to find someone else on the Forest team.

Pepe had been lured by Chelsea, and Scolari hoped that the player whom he was so proud of on the national team could partner with Terry to become the Premier League's best center back, pushing Vidic and Rio Ferdinand. As a result, the media speculated that Abramovich might make a bid of 30 million euros for Pepe. Scolari's rivals were certainly still Real Madrid. After a failed season, Real Madrid had decided to come up with more transfer money to fill in their flawed positions on all fronts.

Eastwood had also been favored by a number of teams. Tottenham Hotspur hoped to bring in the "lucky striker" who had always brought victory and championship titles to the club at crucial moments.

Gareth Bale was also being lured by Tottenham Hotspur. They promised Bale a higher salary and more signing fees for Bale's father and agent. They hoped that this youngster with the outstanding attacking abilities, who could play as a left back and left midfielder, could be taken away from the City Ground stadium for the price of 15 million euros.

Kompany was favored by AC Milan. With Nesta constantly injured and thus not playing all season, they were in desperate need of a good center back. The Italian media expected Galliani to bid 19 million euros for Kompany.

Twain suddenly found that his players were very popular... If he sold all these players, without even factoring in the economic crisis, the new stadium could start construction right away.

But could he do that?

If he really did this, he would be the biggest idiot in the world. Similarly, Evan and Allan would not really accept all of these offers.

Nevertheless, the departure of some players was already inevitable...