logo
A season to forget for Leicester as they look for a new era

A season to forget for Leicester as they look for a new era

BBC News2 days ago

The season will hardly be remembered fondly. Relegation, a record-equalling run of defeats, division between the fans and the club, a change of manager, the departure of a legend and a season-ending profit and sustainability charge. Ruud Van Nistelrooy replaced Steve Cooper in November and the change did not work. The Dutchman has carried himself extremely well - as you would expect for someone of his experience in the game - but failed to get results. He lost 19 of his 27 games, winning five - with two of those coming in the last four matches when the Foxes had already been relegated.Under him Leicester became the first Premier League team to lose eight games in a row without scoring during a run of defeats between February and April, which also equalled the club's record losing streak. It leaves Van Nistelrooy in a fragile position, with the expectation he will leave while Russell Martin is a leading contender to replace him. Fans called for the departure of director of football Jon Rudkin, who they view as key in their decline following two relegations in three years yet there seems to be no appetite to change at the top. Leicester are entering a new era - one post Jamie Vardy - with the striker leaving at the end of his contract next month. He is the last of the 2016 title winners left and the Foxes must find a new direction in the Championship next season, even as they look to avoid a points deduction.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Man arrested after alleged hit and run on police sergeant in Manchester
Man arrested after alleged hit and run on police sergeant in Manchester

Sky News

timean hour ago

  • Sky News

Man arrested after alleged hit and run on police sergeant in Manchester

A man has been arrested after an police officer was reversed into several times during an alleged hit and run. Greater Manchester Police said the collision happened on Frodsham Street, Rusholme, at 6pm on Friday. A car was reported to have reversed into a sergeant several times, crushing his legs between two vehicles, before leaving the scene. Police said a 41-year-old man was later arrested on suspicion of Section 18 assault, dangerous driving, and failure to stop. He remains in custody. The sergeant has been taken to hospital for treatment of injuries to his legs. They are not thought to be life-threatening or life-changing. Assistant Chief Constable Steph Parker said: "Assaults on officers are wholly unacceptable and take them away from being able to serve and protect the public, which is what they come to work each shift to do." She added an investigation is under way, and thanked "those who have already come forward with information about the incident". She said: "Our priority is the wellbeing of the injured officer, and I wish him a speedy recovery as we look to pursue justice."

Arrest after policeman injured by car in Rusholme Manchester
Arrest after policeman injured by car in Rusholme Manchester

BBC News

time2 hours ago

  • BBC News

Arrest after policeman injured by car in Rusholme Manchester

Greater Manchester Police have arrested a man after a police sergeant was injured in an alleged officer, who has not been named, was hurt when his legs were crushed between two vehicles, the force said.A car "reversed into the officer several times" on Frodsham Street, Rusholme, at approximately 18:00 on Friday. The driver then fled the scene, the force said.A 41-year-old man is in custody and has been arrested on suspicion of assault, dangerous driving and failure to stop, GMP added. Wishing her colleague a "speedy recovery", Assistant Chief Constable Steph Parker condemned any assault on an officer as "wholly unacceptable".These assaults take officers "away from being able to serve and protect the public, which is what they come to work each shift to do", she said in a statement released by Chief Constable Parker added: "This incident is a reminder of the risks that our frontline officers face daily as they go about their duties to keep communities safe and respond to incidents."The GMP sergeant involved in the alleged hit-and-run is being treated in hospital and is not believed to have life-threatening or life-altering injuries. An investigation into the incident is now under people who had already come forward with information, the assistant chief constable asked anyone who had relevant CCTV or dashcam footage to call police on 101.

What It Feels Like For A Girl: Trans teen drama based on Paris Lees memoir pulls no punches
What It Feels Like For A Girl: Trans teen drama based on Paris Lees memoir pulls no punches

BBC News

time3 hours ago

  • BBC News

What It Feels Like For A Girl: Trans teen drama based on Paris Lees memoir pulls no punches

What It Feels Like For A Girl. A fairly innocuous title for a teen TV series, right? But the stars of BBC Three's new drama say it's taken on a deeper resonance since the show was filmed last because it's a coming-of-age story about a gender-questioning teenager growing up in a working class town near Nottingham. And it's hitting our screens just a few weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that the terms "woman" and "sex" in the 2010 Equality Act "refer to a biological woman and biological sex".While some groups have celebrated the decision, some trans campaigners have expressed the court's ruling, even the title of the drama is divisive. Some will take issue with it as it is inspired by the autobiography of the same name from trans writer, journalist and trans rights campaigner Paris Lees. And that's because they believe that Lees isn't a woman - and that the Supreme Court judgement supports Jones, who plays sharp-tongued trans sex worker Sasha in the series, acknowledges the timing: "The title of our show changed overnight. You know, the whole meaning of it is exactly what is going on in the news right now. What does it feel like for a girl? The trans narrative is so different for so many people."Maya Forstater, who set up the campaign group Sex Matters, has told the BBC she strongly opposes the drama's narrative: "Presenting the idea of an effeminate boy 'becoming a girl' as an edgy coming-of-age story is presenting delusion as self-discovery."The series is a raw, hedonistic, brutal - but often hilarious - tale of Byron (Ellis Howard), a 15-year-old boy who is trying to find his identity and is desperate to escape the small-mindedness of his home the heady days of the early 2000s, the teen (based on Lees) is taken under the wing of "The Fallen Divas" while clubbing in Nottingham, a group of hedonistic, anarchic outsiders who soon become a second family. But beyond the hardcore party lifestyle, the dark underbelly of an exploitative sex work industry lures Byron in. Local drug dealer Liam - played by Jake Dunn - is an intoxicating influence on Byron, embarking on an underage relationship with this young wannabee while also enticing the youngster into selling sex. Grooming and child abuse are a constant backdrop."Essentially, he's Byron's pimp," explains can be the case in such instances, Byron is attracted to what he sees as someone with power, his own flat and independence - something he wants himself. "He [Liam] is very enigmatic," explains Dunn."They [he and Byron] actually share a very similar back story. They sort of become magnetised to each other. [It's like] watching an unstoppable force meet an immovable object."Part of Liam's obsession and desire towards Byron is because Byron reminds Liam of Liam at that age."Dunn, who hails from Nottingham himself, based Liam "off of two people I knew from Nottingham and a lad from Derby who really stuck in my head when I was a teenager, their voices and the way they acted". He adds: "At times Liam does feel very vulnerable in a strange way, and then he's also really hardened. And I think when you're working class from a place with no prospects, you're a survivalist and you'll do anything."He looks out for himself in a way that is really scary and coercive."The drama also doesn't shy away from a serious crime committed by Liam and Byron (which led to serious consequences for Lees in real life as a teenager). Lees has previously said that, "for me, personally, the much more interesting journey of this book is the class transition", having become middle class in later life, after growing up working class."I was living in a different city, I had a different accent, I had a different way of making money, shall we say, a different set of friends. I can't connect that with my life today. And a lot of it is the class thing," Lees told the Guardian in says of the drama: "The most exciting intersectionality of it is with the working class. What is that experience going to be for you if you are trans... and you are poor? What is the survivalist mechanism that exists for those people?"It's a hard watch but at no point did the humour leave, at no point did the heart leave. And that's a testament to Paris's life."In a Huffington Post interview in 2019, Lees acknowledged things were easier for her in later life."I'm probably one of the most privileged trans women in Britain. If you're a LGBTQ kid in a council estate in Manchester and you're getting bullied every time you leave the house, you feel like it's not safe to go to school, and you're seeing all of this horrible stuff in the press – how is that going to make you feel?" Ellis Howard concurs, and says of the book: "I feel like it's a real cry from the council estate."So you come out swinging as an actor because of how authentic the book is in terms of Paris's experience."Byron lives a very split existence, navigating a difficult home life with a macho father alongside a dangerous, illegal lifestyle on the get more challenging when, as an older teenager, Byron begins to transition. There is one stalwart ally in the family though, Byron's beloved granny played by Hannah Walters, who co-produced hit show Adolescence alongside husband Stephen Graham."We spoke a lot about code switching," Howard tells me. Code switching is the act of changing one's environment to fit in in certain environments."I think it really highlights the pockets of Byron's life, where Byron is allowed to be who they are and where they aren't, or where they feel comfortable and safe enough to be," Howard says."You can't do that if you just see all of the the glam and the chaos... we all have to come home, and what does that look like, and how does that feel? And I think it's incredibly pertinent for when someone is trying to figure out who they are. "When you taste authenticity, or when you collide into yourself - once you feel like that, you don't want to ever let it go."He adds that he has experienced this himself."I feel like that as a queer person. Once you've felt liberation, one never wants to walk backwards, and so to be forced to is such an awful and really draining experience, but I think one that is really important to show on television, because it then begs the question of why our society forces people to do that." The trans teen drama comes in the wake of the UK Supreme Court ruling in April this year, that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities campaign group For Women Scotland had brought a case against the Scottish government arguing that sex-based protections should only apply to people who are born female. The Scottish government had argued in court that transgender people with a gender recognition certificate were entitled to the same sex-based protections as biological women - but it was the decision, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has issued interim guidance for England, Scotland and Wales for places such as hospitals, shops and restaurants, that says "trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the women's facilities". However, part of the Supreme Court judgement stressed that the law still gives protection against discrimination to transgender people. The EHRC also states that trans people should not be left without any facilities to the Supreme Court ruling, Sex Matters' Maya Forstater, said: "I think every organisation is going to have to tear up their policies and start again. It's much simpler than people have thought. There are men, there are women, there are spaces and services that are for men and women - most spaces and services. "And then there are things that are single sex – and when things are single sex, it's not the start of a negotiation."Laquarn Lewis, who plays the indefatigable Fallen Diva Lady Die in What If Feels Like For a Girl, says the show's characters are "just rebelling against how society is telling them they should be". "And that's exactly what we have to do with the recent law that's just been announced, we have to just rebel. Human rights must exist. The last thing we need to do is focus on such a small demographic who are a minority and just ostracise them and make them feel targeted and become victims."Howard is hopeful the show will be something of a beacon."It's a really scary time in our culture, politically, and so hopefully what the show does is provides relief, but also community. Because I think we need community. We need structure and safety now more than ever."What It Feels Like For A Girl will be on BBC iPlayer and BBC Three from 3 June.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store