Chapter 274: Derby Part 1
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Tony Twain's words again put George Wood on the cover page. Already, the media gave Wood the exaggerated epithet of "The World's Most Valuable Player." Even more of them gave him the moniker of "Mr. Two Trillion."
From the outsiders' perspective after the press conference, regardless of whether or not Twain's words were true, there was one thing that was certain; George Wood was Nottingham's, and he was not for sale.
Could anyone in the world afford to pay two trillion dollars? A single player was almost equivalent to a nation… Since no one could afford that price, what was he but a non-saleable commodity?
Due to that situation, Nottingham Forest's performance on their home grounds against Newcastle in the 22nd round of the League match garnered much attention. Everyone wanted to see if the performance of "Mr. Two Trillion" lived up to his value. They also wanted to know if George Wood would be crushed under the pressure. Some had criticised Tang En, saying that his words showed irresponsibility to the players under him. They questioned if he had considered that giving the status of "World's Most Valuable" to such a young player did more harm than good. After all, no one could withstand such pressure.
But Tang En did not seem to care one iota about the matter. He knew that Wood did not care for the status of "World's Most Valuable" or "Two trillion." If it were another player, Tang En may not have chosen to say that during the press conference. However, George Wood was different. The mental condition of the lad was much better than others in his age group.
The match against Newcastle was also the first time the Dutch goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar, would be representing Nottingham in the English Premier League. While there were still some adjustment difficulties with the team, primarily on the side of the defense, Edwin van der Sar was greatly experienced and could reduce such negative impact to a minimum. Since Tang En had purchased a world-class goalkeeper, he was not about to let him sit on the substitutes' bench. The conditions also did not allow for Edwin van der Sar and the team to continue adjustments on their training grounds.
Edwin van der Sar, who wore jersey number 33, stepped onto the field and started his performance in the last phase of his professional career.
Tang En's reformation of Forest's defense was still in the works. Although Newcastle was playing as an away team in the match, they had every intention to get three points out of it. Souness had held a grudge against Tony Twain for their loss on Newcastle's home ground. In this away match, he fielded his strongest line-up. And what was the result?
0:0.
The performance of the new goalkeeper and Mr. Two Trillion was flawless. No one dared doubt the ability of the 34-year-old veteran Edwin van der Sar or say that George Wood's title of "Mr. Two Trillion" would be too much pressure for him.
Wood's performance in the match was no different from any other. The media was awfully disappointed to realize that he had not failed to perform up to standards because of the tremendous pressure, nor was he particularly inspired to perform because of the excessive encouragement… nothing at all. He was much like his name: wood.
The media outside were crazily stirring up news of his apparent value, but he himself looked as if nothing had happened!
After the match, the players had to go through a common area where they would often be stopped by reporters for interviews. Most of them surrounded George Wood and Edwin van der Sar.
The most common questions fired at Edwin van der Sar remained the usual few:
Why did he choose Nottingham Forest? How did he feel about this first match? Was he in sync with his teammates? What was his impression of the manager? How did he feel about Forest's fans?
All these questions were handled with ease. He knew how he should answer to please the fans and close the distance between himself and his teammates.
On Wood's side, most of the questions stemmed from his "two trillion value."
Standing amidst the crowd, he waited until all the reporters had finished their questions before asking, "How much is two trillion?"
The reporters were momentarily stunned by his question. How could they explain the concept of two trillion to this person?
"That would be the entire GDP of UK last year…"
While that sounded very intimidating, it meant nothing to George Wood, who did not even know the concept of "GDP."
"Is that a lot?"
"It is estimated to reach and even go beyond two trillion US dollars!"
"How much is two trillion?"
And the question comes around again…
Someone amid the reporters wailed. This topic was clearly a juicy piece of meat for them, but in the face of such a player, they felt helpless with no inkling of where they could start.
Pierce Brosnan, who was among the crowd, took out his cell phone and opened the calculator. After clattering through some calculations, he looked up at Wood and said, "George. Based on your current weekly salary, you need to work for 7.692307 million years before you can earn two trillion dollars."
Everyone gave Brosnan grateful looks. This numerical value was much more comprehensible in comparison to the intangible GDP concept. It was like telling someone who had never seen a yacht that it was expensive. Exactly how expensive was it? You simply had to convert the money needed to purchase a yacht into units of a familiar food, and it would become clear.
The reporters waited in anticipation for Wood's thoughts, but he only nodded his head after hearing the figure.
"Oh. Well, I can't live for seven million years, so that's meaningless to me."
Everyone except one was disappointed. Brosnan was laughing soundlessly in great delight at the back. He knew that Wood would say that; he understood the kind of person George Wood was.
George Wood indeed liked money very much, but that was when he had needed a large sum of money to provide treatment for his mother. Now that the treatment of his mother's illness was overseen by the club and his living standards had improved more than a fold—he lived in a brand-new apartment and lived a life he could have only imagined or yearned for in the past—he had nothing else to pursue. What was left was to work hard and play well enough to be worth the salary paid to him by the club.
To him, a weekly pay of 2,500 pounds was an incredibly high income. He did not even know how he could spend it all. In fact, there was no real difference between receiving 25 thousand and 2,500 pounds; both were high salaries that he had no idea how to finish spending. His mother's and his living needs were only so much. Especially since he had no need to fork out money for his mother's treatment, all the excess money was saved up and there was nowhere that needed spending. He bought no branded clothes, expensive sports cars or luxury goods. Furthermore, he did not have a girlfriend and made no habit of visiting expensive entertainment centers. He had no vices that needed to be fed with large sums of money. Even though he was now earning much more than before, other than having a better quality of life, he and his past self were essentially the same.
Brosnan got why Tony looked so well upon the silly lad; he had a superior quality that many young players did not. This quality guaranteed that he would not lose his way and walk down the wrong path, causing himself to fall rapidly from a bright star into a shooting star.
Brosnan did not only get to know football from his work as a reporter. In his twenty years of experience watching football, he had seen more than enough genius players who came to a premature end. Often, it was not because they were lacking in ability, but because they could not withstand the temptations that came from beyond the football field.
Clearly, it was much better to entrust his hopes onto a player like Wood than onto those playboys.
Though George Wood did not come from a strong academic background and had never undergone any trainings for professionalism, he followed a very simple principle. That was something taught to him by his mother since he was young; once he had taken someone's money, he must do his best to work for them. Whether it was as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown or as a professional footballer, well-dressed with a bright future, there was no difference. To Wood, they were both just types of work.
Taking his chance while the reporters were flummoxed by Wood's reply, Wood turned and left the common area. He rarely took on interviews. In the past, he was not one of Forest's famous, big-shot players, so no one cared much about a young boy who did a tiring and dirty job on the field. Now, things were different. After he had scored a goal, he became a genius overnight and everyone started paying attention to him. Even his good looks became a reason for his genius. After practically every match, there would be reporters in the common area waiting to stop him. Initially, he was not willing to say a word before so many people; but when Tang En told him he had to, he complied. But he would never use two sentences if he could express himself in one, and would always take one word over two.
He was not as long-winded as Ashley Young. In any of his interviews, just his pet phrase, "you know," would be repeated more than 20 times…
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Although they only fought Newcastle to a draw on their home ground, Tang En was exceedingly satisfied with his players' performance. In the first place, he had intended to observe how Edwin van der Sar was working with the team. The result of having zero ball-loss was perfect and proved that Edwin van der Sar's assimilation into the team was progressing successfully.
The following match that Tang En had to face was a unique one.
In the third round of the English FA Cup, Nottingham Forest was playing as the home team against their arch-rivals from the same city: Notts County.
Nottingham Derby. In the history of world football, this could possibly be a derby in the oldest cities, or perhaps "one of the oldest." In the recent decades, due to Notts County staying consistently within the lower leagues, there were few opportunities for the two teams to meet. The so-called arch-rivals also had little chance to go up against each other on the field. However, this would not in the least affect the mutual rivalry between the two teams.
The fans of Notts County insisted on calling City Ground "a place of sin," and Nottingham Forest's fans as "The F."
It's quite easy to guess what the F was meant to stand for...