All Good Things Must Come to an End
All Good Things Must Come to an End
However, those familiar with the relationship Pepe shared with Twain would understand the rationale behind his decision. The person Pepe was loyal to was Tony Twain, not Evan Doughty. Now that Twain had left Forest, there was no reason for Pepe to stay.
To Pepe, a football club unable to keep an illustrious manager was a sign of trouble within the club. He did not need to continue working for such a club.
It was only natural for him to choose to leave.
The Nottingham Forest fans did not think the same way he did.
They viewed his actions as another act of betrayal following Tony Twain's departure.
For the next few days, Pepe saw numerous banners that had been put up around the training grounds when he went for practice.
"Get lost! Go to Real Madrid, you traitor!"
"Who gave you everything you have right now? It was Nottingham Forest!!"
Those were some of the words printed on the banners being held up by the fans. They were extremely eye-catching.
Some of the players on the team found his decision incomprehensible as well.
Of course, the person who was the most upset with his decision was the man who sat at the top, Evan Doughty.
Pepe announcing his intent to leave the club before the press was akin to slapping Doughty on the face in public.
Doughty called O'Neill over to his office. On the surface, it looked like he was keen to hear what the manager had to say. In truth, he had already made up his mind on the matter. O'Neill was just there to hear his decision.
"Real Madrid, Milan, and Manchester United… Those clubs have all put in a bid for Pepe." Doughty sat in his office chair. He seemed to exude an air of arrogance as he spoke. "I never considered selling Pepe in the past, but things are different now, Martin."
The Doughty now was different from the Doughty who Twain first met back then. He had become one of the most successful chairpersons of a football club in England. The publicity surrounding him increased massively following Twain's departure as a manager. Now, the whole world knew he was the person leading Nottingham Forest.
In the past week, when the club had just begun to make use of its new stadium, Doughty made appearances on five television programs and accepted interviews from three magazines. Photos of him smiling were displayed all over the various media platforms. He was touted as the leader who led Nottingham Forest to glory. He was also regarded as the key figure in leading Nottingham Forest to greater glory in the future. Doughty repeatedly exhibited his ambition to achieve greater success by speaking about his philosophy toward football, as well as his methods in building a good football team before the media.
"I hope that Nottingham Forest can truly become a powerful, world-class team in the next five years. We have plans to build new training grounds following the opening of our new stadium. Our current training grounds at Wilford are too old and small. We have plans to use our current training grounds as the site for the Nottingham Forest Football Academy…"
Those were the words Doughty said before the press. The feasibility of his plans remained a question, but those plans certainly shocked numerous people. Wilford's training grounds were built and used in the early 1990s. It had barely been 20 years since then. For Doughty to call training grounds that had not been around for long as old highlighted his character and ambition.
Evan Doughty was now a successful chairperson who regularly attended luxurious dinners and meetings with the upper-class people. He was no longer able to get chummy with the manager as he did in the past as a novice chairperson. He had to maintain a distance between himself and the people who worked beneath him.
A second Tony Twain would never work for him ever again.
O'Neill was slightly horrified by Doughty's words. "We cannot sell Pepe. He's the most important element of the team's defense."
Doughty shook his head. He did not mind that the manager was protesting against his decision. "Right now, it's not that about whether or not we want to sell him. The player is the one who came out saying he wants to leave. Nothing good will come out of keeping him at the club against his wishes. Besides, let me remind you that Pepe is already 31 years old this year. If we don't sell a center-back at his age now, we probably won't be able to fetch a good price for him in the future."
He sounded as though he was talking about oil prices or gold futures.
O'Neill did not back down because of Doughty's words. The players the club sold before were all substitutes or players who were not so important to the team, which was why he did not particularly care about those sales. However, the club had already sold two of the team's center-backs. If they were to sell Pepe, where would he be able to find another suitable center-back to replace him? If the team's defense was unstable, how would he be able to maintain their results? The task given to him by Evan Doughty was to maintain a top-four position and ensure qualification into next year's Champions League.
"I can speak to him again. I believe he was just influenced by Tony Twain's decision to resign. He just can't come to terms with it just yet. He's just throwing a temper…"
"A 31-year-old throwing a temper?" Evan's sneer cut O'Neill short.
O'Neill did not mind that the chairperson was mocking him. He continued to voice his opinions. "Pepe is the core of our defense. If he leaves, the entire defense needs to be built from scratch. Now is not the time for us to do that, Mr. Chairperson. The team is unstable after a change of managers, and it will only lose cohesion if we continue to sell players. The new season is about to start. I think it would be better if we can maintain stability on the team."
"It's the complete opposite, Mr. O'Neill." Evan was starting to get irritated by the manager who kept going against him. He stopped referring to O'Neill as "Martin" and changed to the address of "Mr. O'Neill," which would make people feel like they were distant.
"I know exactly who Pepe listens to, and it's not you. Keeping someone like him in the locker room would be the biggest threat to the stability of the team."
Evan was right. He might not have stepped foot into the locker room before, but there were some things that he understood without even having to do so. Pepe was not very pleased with the new manager, despite the latter being an accomplished manager like Twain. There was only one person he would willingly serve in the whole world. It did not matter how brilliant the other managers were. Those managers would never replace the position that Twain had in his heart.
O'Neill kept silent for a moment but continued to struggle. "I still think things would change for the better if I were to speak to him face-to-face."
Evan Doughty laughed. "It doesn't matter how many times you speak to him. Pepe is hell-bent on leaving. You should just listen to me, Mr. O'Neill. Give up on him. We'll go and find another top-class center-back for you now. There's still time. You still have time to bring the team together. We can't afford to drag this out for too long. It'll be too late once the season starts."
"I still want to speak to him once more. I'm the manager of this team. It's my responsibility." O'Neill stood up and left without saying another word.
Behind him, Evan Doughty smiled in disdain.
※※※
The outcome of O'Neill's talk with Pepe was just as Evan Doughty had expected. Martin O'Neill was left feeling exhausted.
No matter how O'Neill tried to persuade Pepe, Pepe was just unwilling to remain on the team.
Pepe was forthcoming with his thoughts during their talk. He told O'Neill that he was not upset with him as a manager and that he was just utterly disappointed with the club. Tony Twain's Nottingham Forest used to be a team brimming with warmth. Now, that warmth had vanished without a trace. He did not like playing football in such an environment. His decision had nothing to do with the higher salary offered by other clubs. He had the right to choose to play football in a place that he enjoyed playing in. In the past, he enjoyed playing football in Forest, but he no longer enjoyed it. That was all there was to it.
The player did not want to stay, and the club's chairperson insisted on selling. Martin O'Neill was sandwiched between both parties. There was little that he could do. He felt like the entire season he spent at Manchester United was not as exhausting as the two months he had spent at Nottingham Forest thus far.
O'Neill was left with no other choice but to nod his head and agree to Pepe's departure.
It was just one day. Only one day had passed since he agreed to sell Pepe and news about a completed deal was published in Milan, Italy.
AC Milan spent 30 million pounds to buy the 31-year-old world-class center-back Pepe from Nottingham Forest. This deal was officially confirmed by both clubs shortly after.
O'Neill realized one thing after seeing the news. It did not matter if he agreed to Pepe's sale or not. Pepe was bound to be sold from the start. Allan Adams, who was nowhere to be seen, must have already flown over to Milan some time back to finish all the required paperwork for Pepe's transfer. It was only a matter of time before Pepe was sold. Even if O'Neill threatened to resign as a manager before Evan Doughty, the outcome would not change.
The higher-ups in the club had finished all that was needed for Pepe's transfer by the time he met Doughty. He was the only one who did not know what was going on. O'Neill felt like Pepe must have known the outcome of their talk from the start. He had been a fool trying to convince Pepe to stay behind in Forest…
※※※
Pepe's departure was not well-received among the fans. However, none of the fans went over to Birmingham Airport to throw rotten eggs at him. That alone was considered a blessing.
The media, on the other hand, saw something interesting that they could write about regarding the whole situation.
Martin O'Neill sounded deflated when he spoke in an interview. "Pepe is a talented center-back. His departure means I have to come up with a new plan to rebuild Forest…"
Pepe's transfer to another club was not something the manager desired. That could only mean that the management had forcefully stepped in and sold Pepe against the manager's wishes.
It seemed like the once impregnable Nottingham Forest warship was starting to crumble from the inside. It was something that caught the media's attention.
The media began to publish numerous articles about Pepe's transfer. The coverage led to growing unease within the Nottingham Forest players. No one knew who was the next one to be forcefully sold to another club.
After escaping the vortex that was Nottingham Forest, Pepe made an appearance at a press conference in Milan, where he held up AC Milan's red- and black-striped jersey before the press. However, the smile he had on his face was not as bright as before. He looked like a kid who had run away from home and was reminiscing about the happy times he spent with his family during the wee hours of the night.
The memories of those happy times would probably flood him when AC Milan faced off with Nottingham Forest in a Champions League match in the coming months. Of course, he might not reminisce about anything either.
A professional footballer had to learn to get used to separations, be it from their previous club or their previous teammates.
"I… hope that I can… help AC Milan clinch a Champions League trophy…" Pepe stuttered as he tried to speak in poor Italian.
AC Milan's manager, Marco van Basten, was elated about Pepe's transfer because AC Milan had finally welcomed a qualified center-back into their feeble defense. He could start thinking about how he was going to lead his team to dominate Europe.
"We now have the most talented center-back on this planet in our team!" The manager was so excited that he immediately commended Pepe as being the best in the world.
Conversely, his words meant that Nottingham Forest had lost the best center-back in the world…
※※※
Pepe's transfer was not like any other transfer. His sale sparked interest from other clubs toward Nottingham Forest's other talented players.
If the club is willing to sell the core player of its defense, would it sell Gareth Bale? What about Aaron Mitchell, or perhaps even George Wood?
Was there a player Nottingham Forest would not sell?
All the football clubs throughout Europe went into a frenzy. In the eyes of the astute, or perhaps even the not-so-astute football managers, Nottingham Forest was like a big supermarket that had numerous items of excellent quality up for sale at reasonable prices. Things looked promising for Nottingham Forest after they won the Treble and moved into a brand new stadium, but clearly those things did not cause Forest to refuse to sell its players.
The players Tony Twain spent 11 years to groom all had their own respective values. The starting players were sought after by big clubs in Europe, whereas the substitutes were well-thought of by mid-table clubs. If Evan Doughty sold all the players, he would easily rake in a profit of at least 500 million pounds.
George Wood alone was worth at least 60 million pounds. If he was an attacking player, he might be able to fetch a price of 90 million pounds.
The fact that he just signed a contract with the club did not cause his suitors to look away.
Signing a new contract with the club was nothing more than an attempt to mask his selling price! Don't worry, we have the money!
"George Wood is the best midfielder in the world. He's better than Gerrard." Mourinho was being friendly toward Wood. His words also attacked his bitter rival, Liverpool.
He wished that the steely midfielder from Forest would join Manchester United and help the team go against other strong teams.
Besides Wood, Mourinho also expressed interest in Forest's goalkeeper. "I hope that the team can bring in a world-class goalkeeper. A good goalkeeper is the key to becoming a champion. Akinfeev is brilliant, and I've always kept an eye on him. He has received a lot of experience and training during his time at Nottingham Forest, but I think it's time for him to consider switching to another club…"
"Mitchell is the second Ibrahimović. He should come over to a big club like Inter Milan to play football." Zola, the new head coach of Inter Milan, also expressed goodwill toward the player known as the "Little Giant of Forest."
"Ribéry is brilliant, but he has gotten on with age. Perhaps this is the best time for Michel González to rectify the mistake that Real Madrid made." Diario AS published an article discussing Real Madrid's failed attempt at bringing Pepe over to the club and how they had switched targets and focused on Gago now.
"Barcelona's tradition is to attack. We need a left-back who is good at moving forward to attack. Bale fits what we need. That's all there is to it." Guardiola said those words when asked about the players he would buy in the summer.
"Agbonlahor is very quick. The past few years he spent in Forest has nurtured him into an even better player. His shooting abilities have improved significantly. He's the type of player we need." Manchester City was also keen on joining the battle for Forest's players.
"Şahin is an immensely gifted player. If Bayern Munich wishes to prove that it is still a strong and powerful club in Europe, then he is the kind of player they need to get." According to the German media, Bayern Munich was getting closer to sealing a deal for the Germany-born Turkish footballer.
Other players, such as Chris Cohen, Adriano Moke, Nicolás Millán, Joe Mattock, and Rafinha, also received invitations from other clubs. Europe interpreted Pepe's sale as a message sent out by Nottingham Forest:
Our supermarket is always open for business. As long as you have the money, all players are up for sale. We hope you have a pleasant shopping experience here.
A wave of bids for its players assaulted Nottingham Forest Football Club. Martin O'Neill went to bed each night fearing that he would wake up the next morning and see that all his starting players had been sold by Allan Adams. He did not doubt that Allan Adams was capable of doing something like that. The latter was a man who only had money in his sights. He might have only known Adams for two months, but he was already starting to despise the businessman.
As O'Neill was agonizing over the news of other clubs wanting to buy his players, he received a phone call from Pierce Brosnan.
"Mr. O'Neill, I am Pierce Brosnan from Nottingham Evening Post. You promised me last week that you'd let me interview you tomorrow. Do you remember?" Brosnan knew that O'Neill was going through a rough time. He was worried that O'Neill would reject giving him an interview.
It was only then that O'Neill remembered that he did promise Brosnan an interview. If he had not promised him, he would have rejected the interview since he has not been in a good mood recently.
Then again…
O'Neill suddenly felt an urge to rant to someone the moment he thought about all the things that had happened to him the past couple of days. He did not care if the listener was the press or his wife and children. He just felt like ranting to someone.
There were some words he needed to get off his chest. As for what would happen after he said those words, he did not particularly care.
"Yes, I have not forgotten about it, Mr. Brosnan. Come over to my office tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. I'll be waiting for you there."