10 players who went on strike and what happened next as Alexander Isak makes Newcastle return
With less than a fortnight to go until the start of the Premier League season, Alexander Isak's future is far from certain. He's back at Newcastle for the time being, though, and that's a start.
The Swedish striker sat out Newcastle's recent pre-season responsibilities with a minor injury. He would also quite like a move away from Tyneside - ideally to Premier League champions Liverpool.
Isak went back to Spain to train with former club Real Sociedad, nominally to work his way back to full fitness. While he was away, Liverpool made their first bid and Newcastle decided it wasn't enough to convince them to cash in.
He has been spotted at the Magpies' training ground ahead of what could be some awkward talks regarding his future. If things don't go to plan, the nuclear option might involve going on strike - but that too is no surefire thing.
Over the years, other players have gone on strike with mixed results. Here, Mirror Football takes a look at how some of those other players got on.
George Best
If you thought this was a new phenomenon, you'd be wrong. Back in 1974, Manchester United legend George Best was dropped by boss Tommy Docherty - reportedly after the manager dropped him for going on a three-day bender.
Best made it clear he was done with United, and it turned out he was done with the English top flight. His career continued in the lower leagues - via spells in the United States and South Africa - but he never played in the old First Division again.
Diego Costa
Costa twice fired Chelsea to Premier League glory, first under Jose Mourinho and then under Antonio Conte. However, things didn't go quite as well in his second season under the Italian boss.
Conte let Costa know by text that he wouldn't be part of the Blues' plans in the 2017-18 season, prompting the striker to head to Brazil while his team-mates returned for pre-season training. He did eventually get the exit he desired, rejoining Atletico Madrid, but not until January 2018.
Clint Dempsey
Dempsey refused to play for Fulham against Norwich at the start of the 2012-13 Premier League season amid reports of interest from Liverpool. "At first we didn't want to get rid of him, later on we had to change our position. But our view is that we won't let Clint Dempsey go on the cheap, that's for sure," manager Martin Jol said.
Fulham let the American join Spurs, not Liverpool, for £6m. We'll leave it to you to decide what "on the cheap" meant back in 2012, but it's worth noting that Dempsey would later return to Fulham on loan - albeit when Jol was no longer in charge.
Julien Faubert
Julien Faubert was desperate to leave Bordeaux in the summer of 2007, with Rangers and West Ham both keen. In the end it was the Premier League club who won the race, and te French international would later argue his case.
"Sometimes you have to take extreme measures. I used that to show my unhappiness," he told RMC. "It was not a lack of respect towards the club. I will never disassociate myself from Bordeaux, because they are a club who have been enormously useful to me in my career, who made me progress and allowed me to become an international."
Pierre van Hooijdonk
Dutch striker Van Hooijdonk fired Nottingham Forest to promotion before playing in the Dutch side which reached the World Cup semi-finals in 1998. When he returned, though, he didn't see his future lying at the City Ground.
After asking for a transfer but failing to secure a move away, he went back home to train with former club NAC Breda (sound familiar?). He eventually returned to the Forest line-up, but left in the summer of 1999 after suffering relegation.
A number of other moves would follow, including two stints with Feyenoord. He even had time for a second official spell in Breda, separate from that brief foray in 1998.
Riyad Mahrez
In the summer of 2017, Algerian winger Mahrez told Leicester he wanted to leave the club. He did the same the following January, having failed to seal a summer exit, and stayed away from Foxes training.
"I was away from here because I needed some time to think," he said after returning to first-team action. "You'll always have regrets but at that time I thought it was the best thing to do."
Mahrez did eventually get his move in July 2018. He would end up spending five years with Manchester City before leaving for Al Ahli, where he still plays today.
Matheus Nunes
Speaking of Manchester City players, Nunes made sure his move to the Etihad Stadium would come to fruition in 2023. And his decision to go on strike wasn't exactly well-received.
"I was disappointed with how it ended, it wasn't necessary the stance Matheus took, but we ended with a good resolution for everyone," Wolves transfer chief Matt Hobbs said. "Matheus is a hugely talented player but would admit that last season he didn't hit the heights he expected, but it was a tough season for the team, so maybe he wasn't allowed to do that."
Nunes has found things tricky in his two seasons with City. However, he did score a crucial late winner against Aston Villa last term to help his team qualify for the Champions League.
Paul Scholes
Scholes has legendary status at Manchester United but that wasn't always a guarantee. Back in 2001, the academy graduate was left out for a league game and reacted by refusing to play against Arsenal in the League Cup.
"Yeah, that was a stupid thing to do, I know that now," Scholes said a decade later. "At the time you think it's right - you're young and you're not as experienced as you should have been.
Thankfully for the midfielder, he wasn't left regretting it too long. Less than two years later, he was celebrating another league title with United - having scored a career-best 14 league goals along the way.
Sebastien Squillaci
Sure, Squillaci might not be the player you think of first when discussing strike candidates, but football is full of surprises. Not only did he refuse to play for Sevilla amid interest from Arsenal, but he did so after being named in Antio Alvarez's XI for a game against Braga in the Champions League qualifiers.
'I knew if I played against Braga then I would not have been able to play for Arsenal in the Champions League,' Squillaci said. He played just eight Champions League games for Arsenal, and just 39 in total - you can't help but wonder if he still thinks it was worth it.
Carlos Tevez
Early in the 2011-12 season. Tevez refused to come off the bench for Manchester City. The club took disciplinary action, and he was out of the picture for months, though he would later argue he didn't go on an effective strike - claiming it was all a misunderstanding.
After six months away from the team, Tevez returned to action in March and later scored big goals to help City win the title. That was enough for pretty much everyone to put the whole affair behind them.
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South Wales Argus
23 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
Thursday's briefing: Son completes MLS move and Man Utd close in on Sesko
Manchester United believe they are closing in on a deal for RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko, which looks like dealing another blow to Newcastle as the uncertainty over their star striker Alexander Isak continues. Troubled Sheffield Wednesday are up for sale on the eve of the new Sky Bet Championship. Son: LAFC switch 'not my first choice' A new era begins in Black & Gold. — LAFC (@LAFC) August 6, 2025 Son Heung-min admitted Los Angeles FC were not his first choice destination after he ended a 10-year stay at Tottenham, but insisted they had 'changed his heart' on a record Major League Soccer transfer. The 33-year-old on Wednesday completed a move worth in excess of £20million – the highest transfer fee paid by an MLS club – after it was revealed on Saturday he would be leaving Spurs following 173 goals in 454 appearances and months after he captained the club to Europa League glory. At an introductory press conference in Los Angeles, the South Korea international admitted he had to be persuaded of the merits of moving to the United States before signing an initial two-year deal. 'They've been absolutely working so hard to get me here to join LAFC,' Son said. 'If I'm honest, it was not my first choice but John (Thorrington, LAFC general manager) was the first call when the season finished and John changed my mind, he changed my heart.' United confident on Sesko deal Manchester United believe Benjamin Sesko favours them over a move to Newcastle (Andrew Milligan/PA) Manchester United believe Benjamin Sesko favours a move to Old Trafford over Newcastle as they look to strike a deal with RB Leipzig for the Slovenia forward. The 22-year-old striker has been the subject of a tug of a war as the Premier League sides attempt to bolster their attacks ahead of the new season. Newcastle made the first move and their second bid for the striker was worth a reported 82.5million euros (£71.9m) plus add-ons. United have followed with a lower offer of 75m euros (£65.4m), plus a potential 10m euros (£8.7m) in add-ons, but PA understands United believe Sesko favours them. The Slovenia international, who scored 21 goals in 45 appearances in all competitions last term, has long been on the Red Devils' radar, stretching back to when he moved from Domzale to RB Salzburg in 2019, and they have made him their priority in the search for a new striker. Isak trains alone as uncertainty continues Alexander Isak arrived to train alone after his Newcastle team-mates had gone home on Wednesday (Owen Humphreys/PA) As Newcastle face the prospect of disappointment in their pursuit of Sesko, the future of their current star striker Alexander Isak is no clearer, with the Sweden international only reporting for training on Wednesday after the rest of Eddie Howe's squad had gone home. Isak, 25, did not join Newcastle's pre-season trip to Singapore and South Korea, and had recently been training at former club Real Sociedad as Liverpool saw a bid worth £110million rejected by the Magpies. Howe's players were back in training on Wednesday after two days off with their families invited to join them later in the day, but PA understands Isak, who reported back to their Benton base on Monday, was told not to come in until after they left. The £63million frontman has been a huge hit since his arrival from Sociedad during the summer of 2022 and played a key role last season as they ended their 70-year wait for a major domestic trophy with the Carabao Cup and qualified for the Champions League for the second time in three seasons. EFL in talks with Chansiri over Wednesday sale Sheffield Wednesday are up for sale on the eve of the new season (Cody Froggatt/PA) The English Football League is in 'advanced discussions' with Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri over the sale of the troubled club on the eve of the new season. The crisis-hit Owls are under various EFL-imposed embargoes for financial breaches and failed to pay salaries on time for the third consecutive month in July, with players refusing to play in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Burnley last Saturday. While the players have said they will play in Sunday's opening Sky Bet Championship fixture at Leicester, the EFL is now working with Chansiri to find new ownership. 'The League wants to see a strong, stable and competitive Sheffield Wednesday, and for that to happen we are clear that the current owner needs either to fund the club to meet its obligations or make good on his commitment to sell to a well-funded party, for fair market value – ending the current uncertainty and impasse,' the governing body said. What's on today? Several clubs are in action in the qualifying round of the Europa Conference League, with Hibs away to Partizan and Dundee United travelling to Rapid Vienna. Linfield are away to Vikingur and Larne host Santa Clara. In League One, Port Vale host Cardiff.
Daily Mirror
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Championship 1-24 predictions: Promotion race decided as Ipswich and Wrexham discover fate
The Championship is officially back this weekend and the division's 24 teams will all spend the next 10 months battling it out for the prize of promotion to the Premier League After months of ticking off Saturdays on the calendar, we are finally ready to welcome back the Championship ahead of Friday night's big opener between Birmingham City and Ipswich Town. One week on from Leagues One and Two taking centre stage, the Championship will return over the coming days as 24 teams all fight it out for a shot at the big-time: promotion to the Premier League and the untold riches that come with such a feat. The Championship is now regarded as one of the most exciting leagues in Europe in its own right and a big part of that is the unpredictability of it. So, as I'm an absolute glutton for punishment I figured I'd take a crack at trying to do the impossible by predicting where every single team will finish. My 1-24 is below, so feel free to get stuck in and bookmark accordingly for when May comes around... 24 - Sheffield Wednesday Unfortunately, it's hard to see how Sheffield Wednesday recover from a severely damaging summer. Dejphon Chansiri's failure to sell the club has not only caused turmoil off the pitch, from a football perspective it's seen the Owls lose key players. To make matters worse, they are also now bound by restrictions when it comes to replacing them. At the time of writing, Wednesday have made no signings at all this summer and another of their players, Max Lowe, has just handed in his notice and will likely be at a new club before the month is out. If Henrik Pedersen, the Owls' newly minted head coach, keeps Wednesday up then he deserves the keys to the Steel City. 23 - Oxford United In Gary Rowett, Oxford have a manager who practically guarantees Championship survival. Yes, Birmingham went down with Rowett at the helm two years ago, but the damage was done long before he took over. With that being said, I'm tipping them to go down. Why? I'm not blown away with the recruitment in a division which looks far tougher than last year on paper. Goals are probably the biggest concern; Mark Harris started the 2024-25 campaign on fire with four goals in as many games but scored just two more between the end of August and May. They averaged just over a goal a game last season (49 in total) and if Nik Prelec and Will Lankshear fail to hit the ground running, it could be a long hard season. 22 - Hull City Sorry Hull fans, but I've got you marked for the final relegation spot after another turbulent summer under the enigma that is Acun Ilicali. The goodwill that Ilicali built up after acquiring the club back in January 2022 is quickly (and justifiably) eroding and the off-field turmoil that has made headlines in recent months is bound to have a detrimental effect on a squad which has a manager who is untested in the Championship in Sergej Jakirovic. Quality wise, is Hull's squad worse than 21 other Championship teams? No. But I reckon the aforementioned other factors at play will ultimately bring down the Tigers. 21 - Charlton Athletic Charlton will be up against it after coming up through the play-offs, but their activity in the summer transfer window has given me just about enough optimism to back them staying up. While the majority may be untested at Championship level, the Addicks have an abundance of options at the top end of the pitch: Tanto Olaofe, Rob Apter and Charlie Kelman have all arrived for seven-figure fees to bolster an attack which already featured Matty Godden and Miles Leaburn. At the other end of the pitch, Thomas Kaminski and Reece Burke were part of a defence that got relegated last season. But Charlton's options up top should be enough to get them over the line. 20 - Preston North End After sleepwalking into the relegation dogfight last season, Preston North End could well find themselves flirting with League One again in the coming months. Paul Heckingbottom has good Championship pedigree and could be worth his weight in gold if the season plays out how I think it might. At the time of writing, PNE are among a clutch of clubs pursuing a deal for Wycombe's Richard Kone which would arguably be one of the division's top summer coups. But at the moment - like most of the clubs I'm tipping to finish in the lower echelons of the table - I'm not bowled over with PNE's current options in attack. Will they go down? No. But I don't think they'll be tearing up any trees. 19 - Blackburn Rovers Tipping the team who finished seventh last year to end up in 19th place this time around feels bold, but I'm struggling to see how Blackburn improve on that this time around. The reasoning? Well, they've lost two of last season's top performers in Tyrhys Dolan and Callum Brittain. When you then factor in the departure of Andi Weimann, Rovers feel light on firepower and it's hard to see where the goals will come from. The jury is still out on Valerian Ismael for me personally, too. 19th might feel low but at the same time I think Blackburn are substantially better than the bottom five and won't be looking over their shoulder in terms of relegation. 18 - Wrexham This is one of the shouts which could age horrifically over the next nine months given Wrexham are capable of doing pretty much anything in the transfer window between now and 1 September, but their current squad struggles on paper. They've signed well and players like Lewis O'Brien, Josh Windass and Kiefer Moore are quality additions. But the majority of Wrexham's players are not Championship calibre, which is completely understandable given their rapid rise through the divisions. Phil Parkinson has taken Wrexham from non-league to the second-tier but his Championship record is unremarkable to say the least. He won just 26 games across 141 during spells at Bolton and Charlton and I don't see that changing this year, which could leave Wrexham with a tough decision to make. 17 - Stoke City Mark Robins worked wonders during a near-decade long spell at Coventry City. And if anyone needs a bit of magic after a few dire years in the Championship, it's Stoke. They've failed to finish in the top half of the Championship at all since dropping down to the second-tier eight years ago and even with Robins at the helm (who I rate highly) I'm not ultra convinced that sorry run changes this year. They do, however, have one of the best goalkeepers in the Championship in Viktor Johansson. And I like the signings of Sorba Thomas and Maksym Taloverov. I fancy Stoke to be steady but they won't rip up any trees. 16 - Middlesbrough Rob Edwards has replaced Michael Carrick at the helm ahead of the new campaign but I'm not convinced that move has particularly made Middlesbrough a better bet for promotion. Yes, Edwards guided Luton to the Premier League three years ago. But do I deem him as an improvement on Carrick? No. Nor do I think Boro have an infinitely better squad this time around even if I think the additions of Alfie Jones, Callum Brittain and Abdoulaye Kante are good ones on paper. Boro will need to replace the goals of Emmanuel Latte-Lath if they are to trouble the top-six this season. Add in the fact that Boro's other two top players in Hayden Hackney and Rav van den Berg could also be sold all of a sudden things are looking pretty bleak. 15 - Portsmouth Portsmouth stayed up with games to spare last year and I'm expecting a year of consolidation this term under the impressive John Mousinho. Adrian Segecic is an intriguing signing, while John Swift is still a quality operator at this level. They feel light in attack, though, and it's imperative that Josh Murphy and Colby Bishop stay fit if Pompey are to stay clear of trouble. They will be buoyed by how they finished last season, though, and boast one of the EFL's top young managers, so I'm backing more progress for Pompey. 14 - Bristol City Liam Manning took Bristol City to the play-offs last season but I can't see Gerard Struber replicating that feat this season. Style-wise, going from Manning's controlled approach to Struber's heavy metal football is quite the leap. But with the Championship's fascination of keeping possession for possessions' sake dying out, Struber's philosophy should translate well. For me, the biggest question mark yet again is around the goals. Anis Mehmeti top scored last year with 12, followed by Nakhi Wells on 10 and Scott Twine on five. That's a big drop and Wells is no longer around. Is Emil Riis the answer? The jury is out on that for me personally but he has hit double figures in two of his five seasons in the Championship for PNE - including last year - and should be a good fit for what Struber wants to do. A drop-off from last year feels inevitable, though. 13 - West Brom West Brom are probably the hardest team to place for me in this. Much of that is down to their new head coach, Ryan Mason. The former Tottenham man has never been the main man before and while he inherits a decent squad on paper, this is largely the same group which fell away from the play-off picture after Carlos Corberan departed on Christmas Eve (good tidings and all that). Firepower is something they do have with Josh Maja and Daryl Dike now joined by summer signing Aune Heggebo. Sometimes it's alright to hold your hands up and say, in all honesty, I haven't a clue. And that's very much the case with me and West Brom here. 12 - QPR A mid table finish might be boring, but I think QPR will be anything but this season. After all, they have Illias Chair, Karamoko Dembele and Kwame Poku in their ranks after landing the latter from Peterborough United on a free transfer. Will that translate into a top-six finish? Maybe; there's certainly lots to like about their squad and Julien Stephan is an intriguing choice to replace Marti Cifuentes. Keeping goals out was the issue last season, rather than scoring them, but Amadou Mbengue is a shrewd pick-up, as is bringing in Steve Bould - formerly of Arsenal - as head of defensive coaching. Could QPR trouble the top-six? Anyone from this point in should be in the picture and I'd have them higher if I was higher personally on their No 9 options. 11 - Derby County I almost tipped Derby to finish a couple of places higher than this and I quietly fancy John Eustace will make them a bit of a force after coming in and having a huge impact last season. Eustace is a top coach and Derby have added well: Carlton Morris, Patrick Agyemang and Rhian Brewster will spearhead a new-look attack alongside the returning Andi Weimann and David Ozoh is also back for another loan spell. Derby have strengthened in key areas, suffered no big losses and have a coach who outperformed his parts at both Birmingham and Blackburn. The Rams will go well indeed. 10 - Swansea City Swansea have done some quality business. But I'm not sold on them having the depth to push for a top-six finish. Picking up Cameron Burgess on a free transfer from Ipswich is one of the most eye-catching deals of the summer and Ethan Galbraith just oozes class. But they still feel a quality striker short of being bonafide play-off contenders. I like Alan Sheehan, though, and I think Swansea are a good bet for a top-10 finish. Higher than that? Maybe next year. 9 - Norwich City Norwich were one of the Championship's biggest disappointments last year under the uninspiring Johannes Hoff Thorup. Enter Liam Manning, who defied the odds to steer Bristol City into the play-offs last season. I'm a big fan of Manning and Norwich have been ambitious in the transfer market with 11 new signings. Most are unknown quantities at this level but some, such as Papa Amadou Diallo and Mathias Kvistgaarden, are eye-catching additions. If they can hit the ground running in Norfolk, then expect Norwich to push higher than ninth - even if they lose the impressive Josh Sargeant. At the bare minimum, though, the appointment of Manning and Norwich's attempt to overhaul a squad which massively fell short of expectations last year are signs that the Canaries are back on the right track. 8 - Leicester City Plenty fancy Leicester for an instant return to the Premier League, but I don't think it will be as cut and dried as that. Marti Cifuentes is fine as a Championship operator. But the division is strong this year and I'm not sure that fine cuts it. The same goes for Leicester's squad; there have been no major additions to the group that dropped out of the top-flight last year and they look light on quality No 9 options. A possible points deduction would leave Cifuentes and Co with a mountain to climb from the off. When you also factor in financial concerns, fan unrest and the likelihood of key players such as Mads Hermansen and Bilal El Khannouss moving on, it gets harder to tip Leicester for that top-six finish. My gut says they miss out. 7 - Watford 12 months on from being suitably worried about Watford to tip them for the drop, I've done a complete 180 and am labelling them as my dark horses this year. They've got a player I rate as one of the division's very best in Giorgi Chakvetadze and there's serious quality around him, too, in the form of Imran Louza and Kwadwo Baah. Furthermore, Watford's summer business on paper looks exciting even if the likes of Nestory Irankunda and Luca Kjerrumgaard are Championship newbies. The same can be said for the Hornets' new head coach, Paulo Pezzolano. And while that means there's maybe an element of risk backing Watford to finish this high, there's lots to like about them this year. And after being proved massively wrong by them last year, I'm all in on Watford this year. 6 - Birmingham City Birmingham have one thing on their mind this season: promotion back to the Premier League. And while that may seem bold for a team who have just come up from League One, they look nailed on for a top-six finish. If we're being blunt, Birmingham's squad was far too good for the third-tier last year. Add in the likes of Tommy Doyle, Kyogo Furuhashi, Demarai Gray and Eiran Cashin amongst others to that group and you've got a squad which is up there with the best in this division. Do I think Blues go up automatically? No. But they should be shoo-ins for the top-six unless something goes drastically wrong. 5 - Millwall Without being biased (honestly) I think this is the year Millwall finally crack the top-six after some near misses in recent years. 4-4-2 is sexy again down at The Den and Mihailo Ivanovic and Josh Coburn (signed permanently for a club-record fee after a positive loan spell) have the scope to add the goals Millwall have been sorely lacking in recent years. In the former, it feels like the Lions have a genuine golden boot contender IF they can keep him beyond 1 September. The signing of Alfie Doughty is a major coup and his quality can keep Millwall's front two well fed, while in Alex Neil the Lions' boast one of the Championship's most consistent coaches. What does this all add up to? I'm saying a fifth place finish. 4 - Sheffield United We'll start on Sheffield United with this: I really like Ruben Selles and Hull's decision to sack him will be another decision from their eccentric owner that doesn't age well. The Blades already have a strong squad, albeit one which struggled to get over the line when it mattered at the business end of last season. They have quality all over the pitch and in Michael Cooper and Gus Hamer, they have two of the division's best players in their respective positions. Anel Ahmedhodzic would have been pooled similarly and his departure to Feyenoord is a significant blow. But Sheffield United have too much quality to not be in the mix for a top-two finish - even if I'm tipping them to fall short again. 3 - Coventry City Coventry made the top-six last term and while I think they will miss out on going one better, I reckon Frank Lampard and Co will get another crack at the play-offs this time around. They've added to what is already a quality squad and will be all the better for their failed play-off campaign last season. Goals are no concern with only the two promoted sides and Norwich bettering Coventry's tally of 64 strikes last term and in Carl Rushworth they have a quality operator in between their own sticks. Yes, Lampard had the benefit of inheriting a squad with quality all over the pitch when replacing Mark Robins last season but players like Jack Rudoni have flourished under him. And there should be more to come from Coventry, Rudoni and their manager this season. 2 - Southampton Southampton have way too much firepower to not be in the promotion mix and in Will Still, they have one of the most promising young coaches in football. Does that translate to promotion? Yeah, basically. I don't really see any other outcome: the Saints' squad is absolutely stacked and they will overpower plenty of teams in their bid to make an instant return to the Premier League led by Still, whose CV is impressive and varied enough to outweigh the caveat of him being an unknown quantity in the Championship. Sometimes football is simple. The best players, in this case those of Southampton, will win lots of matches and subsequently promotion. 1 - Ipswich Town They blitzed their way to successive promotions two years ago and Ipswich should be all the stronger for last season's unsuccessful crack at attempting to stay in the Premier League. The fact that Kieran McKenna's stock remains largely intact following relegation should tell you everything you need to know about the Ipswich Town manager and the swashbuckling style that took them to promotion two years ago should translate well with how the division is shaping up this year. Liam Delap may be gone but Ipswich have more options in attack than a Swiss Army knife: Jack Clarke and Jaden Philogene have torn up the Championship before, as has Sammie Szmodics. Omari Hutchinson is also still around at the time of writing, and that's before you even factor in the likes of Chiedozie Ogbene, George Hirst and Conor Chaplin. The most important thing about Ipswich is that they don't feel like damaged goods after succumbing to relegation last term. They will start the season as red-hot favourites for the title and it's not hard to see why. Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Daily Mirror
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Jonathan Edwards' triple jump world record 30 years on - 'I still pinch myself'
Thirty years ago today Jonathan Edwards jumped 18.29m, a distance that no one else has been able to match, though he insists he is at peace with Britain's only world record being beaten soon Jonathan Edwards will never tire of being called a world record holder. But 30 years on from his greatest hop, skip and jump in Gothenburg, he no longer watches the latest generation of pretenders from between his fingers. With a 'quantum leap' in shoe technology that has seen records tumble across the track and in the field, Edwards has made peace with the fact his mark will eventually be beaten. Equally he admits: "I'd be upset... It would be pretty cool to be on my deathbed and still a world record holder.' And yet heading towards another World Championships in Tokyo, there seems little chance of the only global record still in British hands being broken. 'It's an amazing thing, I still have to pinch myself,' Edwards says. 'I'll still be out walking with my wife and go 'I've jumped farther than anyone else in the world.' It's just an amazing feeling and I never get tired of it. But I'm at the stage now where, if you go back 10 years I'd have been really nervous.' Those who worked next to Edwards during his time as an analyst on TV remember entire studios falling silent when the likes of Christian Taylor were gearing up for an attempt at eclipsing his 18.29m. American Taylor came within eight centimetres a decade ago, while Spain's Jordan Diaz Fortun posted the third best distance on record, 18.18m, in Rome last summer. Except Edwards insists stepping away from being on screen helped him to be more at peace with the moniker being taken - even if the wait goes on into a fourth decade. 'When I was still working in the sport, doing the media stuff, I felt a much closer connection to it and it was almost as if everyone was looking for my reaction, a schadenfreude type thing,' he recalls. 'That was always a bit bizarre. But now I feel a sense it's been an incredible bit of time and it's not diminished if it goes now. I'd like to hold on to it for as long as possible but I'm resigned to the fact it will be broken some time soon. That's fine.' With the passing of time it can easily be forgotten that Edwards entered the 1995 Worlds as the record holder, jumping 17.98m three weeks before in Spain, and with his first jump became the first man to break 18m, with 16cm in change. Then came the second, unbeatable attempt, elevating triple jump into a new stratosphere. Between leaps Edwards remembers: "I kind of had no control over my emotional state in the sense I was still ready to jump and I had a big smile on my face." As for the celebrations, they were muted and he almost went to bed hungry. "I was in drug control for a long time did various interviews and didn't leave until midnight," he recalls. "I got out of the stadium and there was a McDonald's that looked open but people were finishing off their meals. They wouldn't let me in. There was a coach inside, Leif Alnes, who is Karsten Warholm's coach now, trying to explain who I was to let me in. But they wouldn't." Eventually he went back to his main sponsor Puma's hotel - with whom he has recently released a long-form podcast detailing his career - and tucked in to whatever food they had left. And while he harbours no real envy towards the current generation of athletes, the physics graduate would have loved to have experimented with the technology that is propelling the latest crop to performances never seen before. 'I understand the biomechanics and it would have been a really interesting challenge. It's amazing that the sport hasn't had the technological advances compared to other sports. 'It really has stayed a little bit in the dark ages. There have only been incremental changes up until recently. But these spikes and shoes have been a quantum leap,' he says, though he feels the impact is more pronounced for those on the track than in the field. 'It's much more difficult in the jumps than it is in hurdles. There isn't the same force going through the plate and cushion. 'My thing was running very fast and maintaining that speed through the jumps. My jumping ability per se wasn't outstanding but I could marry it with speed.' 'I loved a hard feeling, an immediate response off the ground. Finding the right frequency to give you something back would have been tricky. But at least I've got an out when someone breaks my record.'
