Sargent 'coming for Sainz' in top goalscorer race
Norwich City forward Josh Sargent has joked that strike partner Borja Sainz is "getting a bit nervous" about being caught in the race to be the club's top goalscorer this season.Sargent scored in the 1-1 draw with Derby on Saturday to take his goal tally to eight for the season - seven behind Sainz, who leads the Championship's overall golden boot race with 15.The 24-year-old USA international has netted four goals in five games since returning to the side after missing 14 games following groin surgery."I think he's getting a bit nervous now... " Sargent told BBC Radio Norfolk."No, it's a good competition. I keep telling him every time I score, 'I'm coming for you' - but it's all good fun."If he's scoring or I'm scoring, it doesn't matter as long as we're winning games."Sainz has served a six-game suspension after admitting to spitting at Sunderland's Chris Mepham in December and is eligible to return to the squad for the clash with Preston on Tuesday night."He's been training with us and it's always nice playing with him," Sargent added. "We have a good relationship so it will be good to have him back for sure."
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Wales Online
38 minutes ago
- Wales Online
Wales rugby greats sing iconic song together to help famous Welsh club after historic season
Wales rugby greats sing iconic song together to help famous Welsh club after historic season The club are raising funds after a massive promotion A a dozen former Wales and British and Irish Lions players belted out a Beach Boys classic as part of a fundraising effort for London Welsh – and the heartwarming choral rendition has been caught on camera. Mike Phillips, Gareth Edwards, Robert Jones and Gerald Davies were just some of the names in attendance in the English capital as they belted out Sloop John B by the iconic American rock band. 1971 Lions choirmaster John Taylor conducted the rendition of the famous track, with the likes of Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel and Wales legend Ken Owens also in attendance and singing along. The event was put on to raise funds for Welsh to invest in their facilities following a landmark season. All former rugby stars, including Sir Ian McGeechan and former England hooker Brian Moore, looked immaculate in their smart clothes, with everyone getting stuck into the song, with arms raised and smiles across the board. It was held at The Brewery on Chiswell Street, with famous Welsh comedian Rob Brydon a guest speaker on the night. It celebrated the 120th year since the first of more than 50 of the club's players represented the Lions. It's been a joyous season for the iconic club, who recently secured promotion back to the National Leagues after being booted out of the Championship back in 2017. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby. After years of hard work by all those behind the scenes, like former Ospreys star Cai Griffiths, the club have climbed their way back to the upper echelons of English rugby and won the league title in the process. Article continues below Despite their ascent, director of rugby Griffiths assured WalesOnline back in March that the club have no intention of targeting a return to the Premiership, they simply want to retain their players and take it season by season. "We want to target top six next season. And then we will basically build on that. The biggest thing is sustainability," he said. "When you start thinking about Championship, Premiership, you start chasing it, that means stupid decisions: payments and costs spiral out of control. "For us, we've done well getting into this league, we want to get into that top six and build again the following year, then hopefully we can get more success. "Retaining 90% of the squad (is our goal), it's a key thing. If we do that, then they'll potentially be five players going to 100 caps next season. "These guys are still young. Seeing the areas we do need to bolster up, it's a big league, as in the players are bigger, there's more games. "You need that strength in depth. The quality is there, even in the second team now. There are a lot of players who have come from the seconds to the firsts. We want to keep on with that pipeline of players." Next season, Welsh will be competing in the National League Two division, which is the fourth tier of English rugby. Join our WalesOnline rugby WhatsApp community here. The project to get promoted was three years in the making, with Griffiths an Co initially focusing on developing young players, and now it's clear that approach has paid off. Article continues below "The group of players that we've got now, we've had them for four, five years. There's a couple of 70-cappers in there which is fantastic and also some players who haven't won anything, so it's fantastic for them to experience that," said Griffiths.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
How in-fighting and acrimony has led to Partick Thistle's spectacular summer meltdown
You might be familiar with the concept of the SPFL Statement League, a running joke that's sprung up on social media in recent years keeping track of which are the most easily offended or dysfunctional Scottish football clubs at any given time. In season 2025-26, though, there is no point in anyone outside Maryhill entering the competition. Partick Thistle surely have the title sewn up already, after releasing no less than five club statements between 10am last Monday and 2pm on Tuesday. The first was an angry response from the Championship outfit's board to an email which fan ownership group The Jags Foundation (TJF) had sent to their members outlining concerns around how the club is being run. The second, four hours later, announced that director Stuart Callison had resigned from the board, seemingly in protest at TJF's actions. The third then landed at 10pm, saying that a meeting had been held between the warring factions, and peace eventually broke out the following morning with a joint TJF/board statement stressing that 'key concerns were properly aired and understood' and insisting 'there remains much to be optimistic about at Partick Thistle'. Statement five, issued that afternoon, was the most shocking of the lot, revealing that sporting director Ian Baraclough had suffered serious injuries to his neck and back while swimming on his honeymoon in Mauritius. This last sad incident is of course no reflection on Thistle, but considered alongside everything that preceded it, it validated the notion that the fan-owned Jags are living through one of the most disastrous summers seen anywhere in recent Scottish football history. Or, as one scunnered fan eloquently put it on X: 'Have we p****d in God's Cornflakes or something?' Faced with a choice between casting the net wider or confirming the interim management team of veteran striker Brian Graham and Under-18s boss Mark Wilson — who had steered the team to the semi-finals of the Premiership play-offs after taking charge in February — Thistle tried to have their cake and eat it. The club spoke to a number of external candidates (including, controversially, Dougie Imrie, boss of bitter rivals Greenock Morton) then decided to offer it to Graham after all — only to be rebuffed and left with little choice but to appoint Wilson. Chairman Richard Beastall's ill-advised comments about Wilson being the 'brains of the operation' and Graham the 'alpha male' were then followed by Thistle's goalscoring centurion cutting ties with the club completely and being snapped up by Championship winners Falkirk, where he will look to take his prolific form on to the Premiership stage. Meanwhile, Thistle's kit launch has been delayed, an advert has gone out seeking a 'volunteer' finance director and a long-awaited squad update revealed a bloated group still containing 19 contracted players. And if that wasn't enough, the club are also facing SPFL sanctions over a pitch invasion and the use of pyrotechnics in their play-off win over Ayr at Somerset Park last month. You can just picture the documentary crew who spent last season filming behind the scenes at Firhill greetin' in the edit suite and wondering aloud why they didn't do it this season instead. But, first of all, let's spare a thought for ordinary fans like Matt Greer. 'It's just been bizarre,' sighs Greer, host of the Thistle fan podcast Draw, Lose or Draw. 'Obviously, what concerns me most is the wellbeing of Ian Baraclough, all the best to him in his recovery. But a couple of the club's statements on Monday were very poor. And one of the biggest things that came out of it was that the budget for next season still hadn't been finalised as of earlier this week. 'It was emphasised that this hasn't prevented any activity — but since we haven't actually signed anyone, it certainly hasn't helped. 'It feels like we're already playing catch-up with the other Championship clubs, despite having a sporting director in place since April. We've got a decent core of players signed up for next season, but at this stage it certainly doesn't look like we'll be any closer to promotion. 'I don't think Mark Wilson is a bad appointment, but he wasn't my first choice and he wasn't the board's either, so I'm not sure why we're pretending he was. I'm glad we haven't ended up with Dougie Imrie, but being knocked back by Brian Graham after he had just about pleaded for the job on national TV isn't a great look.' The ructions on Firhill Road have came at an interesting juncture for the wider fan ownership movement within Scottish football. Plenty of fan-owned clubs are prospering; look at St Mirren's regular top-six finishes, or at Falkirk's double promotion. But the counter-argument to that is provided by troubled outfits like Partick Thistle and Morton — who almost lost the popular Imrie to Thistle after accidentally incurring a FIFA transfer ban and not telling their supporters about it until a month and a half later. In truth, fan ownership has been a bumpy journey for Thistle from the start, from the sudden death of EuroMillions winner Colin Weir in 2019, only a month after he bought the club with the intention of gifting control to the fans, to the fraught back-and-forth between the previous board, the Jags Foundation and the PTFC Trust (the body which controversially usurped the Foundation as the chosen recipient of the shares). With the Trust and the Foundation vowing to work together constructively, the shares were officially transferred in the summer of 2023. Since then, despite frequent cash flow issues, Thistle have managed to consistently push for promotion via the play-offs, whilst off the pitch they have hired a new general manager, commercial manager, head of media, sporting director and head of recruitment. But if these appointments were designed to make the club a sleeker and more professional operation, so far at least, they appear to have had the opposite effect. 'There are certain things they've done in recent months that haven't made a lot of sense, then others where you think, 'OK, I wouldn't have made that decision, but fair enough',' a former Firhill insider tells Mail Sport. 'But right now, they don't seem to have a clue. 'I would have gone in private to TJF and said, 'OK, that's not helpful, we need to think about what channels of communication we have'. But to put out a statement… God almighty, Scottish football could do with a lot less statements! 'Brian and Mark did a good job, the team had positive momentum, and then you lose one of them because you p****d him off, and bring in the other one. It's like having an open goal in front of you and turning round, running the length of the pitch and scoring past your own keeper. 'Previously, the plan was very clear about getting to the Premiership and staying there in a sustainable way, but I don't feel there is any inspiration, or that vision is realistic now. It's not clear, beyond some warm words, what they are they doing about the youth academy, about a proper training ground or about the long-term development of Firhill. 'These are the things you want to be hearing about as a fan and they're not making statements about them, yet every two minutes they're making statements about this other stuff. I really can't see how this situation continues and how this board continues.' Thistle are one of the biggest clubs currently playing below the top flight, with a pronounced community feel and a track record of fan activism (dating back to the Save the Jags campaign in the late '90s) few others can claim. So if they can't make fan ownership work, it would be a worrying precedent, at a time when the number of fan-owned SPFL clubs is almost into double figures. But, despite recent events, Greer remains convinced that it's the way forward for the Jags long-term. 'I'm still pro-fan ownership, I don't think it's fair to blame an entire model on a sticky few months,' he says. 'But I think it's pretty clear that we could be using some help off the pitch as well as on it, in terms of financial expertise and also in the communications department.' 'With fan ownership, it's easy to look at it from the outside and say it's a mess, but that doesn't mean it can't work,' concludes the former insider. 'I give a lot of credit to the Foundation, they've increased the numbers going to games, they've done an awful lot of good stuff and should take an enormous amount of credit for that. 'The problem is that it only works well when a club is fan-owned rather than fan-run, and at the moment Thistle are verging on being fan-run. 'You have to accept you need professionals in football, at any level — a proper chairman/chief executive/finance director/manager etc. Because if you haven't got them, you're doomed to failure.'
Daily Record
4 hours ago
- Daily Record
I see cracks in Celtic with transfer fears over four starters so maybe this Rangers claim is a myth –Hugh Keevins
I have a friend who sits in the rear section of the Copland Road stand at Ibrox. The view he got from there in the season now ended – once he got his seat back after the temporary residency at Hampden caused by a building plan malfunction – was distorted by disaster on the park. None greater than the Scottish Cup humiliation at the hands of Queen's Park. That day Rangers recorded what was arguably the worst result in the club's history by losing to the only goal of the game against the Championship side. That embarrassing elimination was among a series of home truths delivered about the state of the team under Philippe Clement's management, eventually resulting in the Belgian's inevitable dismissal. Random disappointments followed while my season-ticket holding friend's team was under the temporary charge of Barry Ferguson. Losing at home to what might be described as lesser opposition continued to be a destructive problem for Rangers in the Premiership. But hope springs eternal in football, so when it came time to renew his season ticket, or reject the offer, my friend didn't buy one. He bought two of them. Even though the cost had gone up from £500 a pop to £600. Hard-working guy. His disposable income. None of my business. But only in football can a club inflict such misery on their paying customers – then charge them even more than before to come back, on the basis that things might be better in the season that follows. There was a 17-point gap between Rangers and their greatest rivals, Celtic, on the final day of the league season. It suggests the presence of a gap which will take some time to fill in. But, in reality, is that actually the case? The way Celtic lost the Scottish Cup Final to Aberdeen in May suggested to me that cracks have started to appear in Brendan Rodgers' squad,. The manager's activity on the transfer front since then has not fully addressed the problem. Only time will tell if the addition of Kieran Tierney on a free transfer from Arsenal – and the awaited loss of Greg Taylor, now out of contract at Celtic Park – will ultimately enhance or reduce the quality of Rodgers' squad. Ross Doohan might have been first pick for Scotland against Liechtenstein on Monday afternoon but he'll be third choice if the keeper completes his move from Pittodrie to the league champions. And Fulham youngster Callum Osmand comes into the category of one for the future and not one from the off once the training compensation fee has been paid for him. The fixture list for the new season will be out on Friday morning. Then, if you listen carefully, you'll be able to hear the sound of Celtic fans impatiently drumming their fingers while waiting for the bank to be broken on some summer signings. Taylor is, presumably, on the move. Meanwhile, Jota is sadly lost to the game for the foreseeable future due to injury. And there arequestion marks against the names of players such as Auston Trusty, Nicolas Kuhn, Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate where their short-term future is concerned. All of this comes before we get round to what becomes of the enigmas Adam Idah and Paulo Bernardo as well. Rangers won more points than Celtic in the four Old Firm derbies last season. There was a time when that fact alone would have guaranteed them a league title win. And those days could return if the newly-upholstered Rangers, financed by the recently-installed 49ers Enterprises, give Russell Martin the kind of financial backing he's going to need to tip the balance of power in Glasgow. If they do, and the manager still fails to remove Celtic from their perch at the top of the table, then he'll be out the door quicker than you can say 'unfit for purpose'. But these are the days when everyone, on both sides of the divide, gets the benefit of the doubt. A state of affairs which traditionally lasts until game one of the new season is played. After that, you're on your own. And those Celtic and Rangers supporters now paying a significantly higher rate for their season books will reserve the right to exercise an upgraded degree of scrutiny where their team is concerned.
