Latest news with #JoshGriffiths
Daily Mirror
01-05-2025
- Climate
- Daily Mirror
Manchester Marathon: Temperatures soar as record number complete 26.2 mile course
It was an unseasonably warm day in the North West on Sunday as 36,000 people contributed to the largest day of marathon running in UK history Record numbers battled the heat as 90,000 people took to the streets in the largest day of marathon running in UK history on Sunday. The adidas Manchester Marathon saw 36,000 participants take on the flat and fast course in the North West with its new-look finish line, while in the capital, 54,000 pounded the roads in unseasonably warm conditions. The hot weather did prove a hit with spectators, as more than 140,000 people soaked up the Manchester sun to cheer on those brave enough to take on the 26.2 mile challenge. Of the elite runners, Josh Griffiths was first home in a staggering time of 02:16:56, while Tessa McCormick clocked a standout time of 02:34:53 to win the women's race. Second place was claimed by Olivia Tsim, just seven months after having a baby. One of those to cross the impressive new-look finish line on Oxford Road, was Kelsey Sheridan, 28, who overcame being wheelchair-bound due to CFS/ME, to take part alongside her assistance dog, Hamble. Heroic Harry Newton, 87, holds the title of being the event's oldest participant this year which saw more than £4million raised for hundreds of worthy causes, with The Alzheimer's Society, The British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and The Christie Charity the official charity partners. I was among the thousands of runners in the mass event, finishing in a more modest time of 02:59:24, taking two seconds off my personal best set in London 12 months ago. The pancake flat course with minimal elevation proved perfect for PB chasers, despite the soaring temperature, as the lively Mancunian crowd lined the streets to roar words of encouragement. After starting outside the iconic Old Trafford football stadium, the route made its way out of town towards Stretford and Altrincham before participants returned through Sale towards the finish. As well as those who turned out, another 110,000 people watched from afar via the marathon's live stream to get a glimpse of their loved ones crossing the line. More than 50 per cent of the participants were taking on their first-ever marathon, showing the growing popularity of the event. Andrew Smith, CEO of adidas Manchester Marathon organisers, A.S.O. UK, said: 'It has been nothing short of spectacular. Manchester has shown once again why it's one of the best cities to take on a marathon – welcoming, passionate and full of heart. "To see 36,000 people cross the finish line, many for the very first time, on the UK's biggest-ever day of marathon running, is incredibly special. "We're proud to celebrate this moment with the whole community – participants, volunteers, charities and supporters – who made this event so successful".
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is there any point to season-long loans?
For a stark reminder of the fragilities of operating in the loan market you need only look at how decisions made at Portman Road on deadline day resonated from the Premier League down through the divisions into the National League. The money Ipswich Town spent on West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Alex Palmer led the Baggies to recall Josh Griffiths from his loan at Bristol Rovers and, in turn, forced the League One club to bring Jed Ward back prematurely from his temporary stay at Forest Green Rovers. Three clubs lost their starting goalkeeper, all among their standout individuals of the season, with little room to manoeuvre and pivot to something else, because of one transfer at the top of the food chain. It maybe should not come as a surprise but does highlight a pretty significant fault line when working in such a market, albeit one where the English Football League and non-league clubs simply have no choice given the financial pressures and the comparative low cost to high return of loaning a player in - even with the sporting risks. The chain reaction of the Palmer deal was right at the end of the window - in the weeks leading up to that there were other such examples of regrettable recalls which could prove to have undeniable impact on those at the wrong end of it. Not falling in love with a loan player has never been easier. Leicester City's decision to recall Tom Cannon from Stoke City was different in that there was never any indication he was going start for the Foxes in the Premier League and his return to the King Power Stadium proved a brief one as he was sold to Sheffield United to aid PSR concerns. Stoke, now a striker short and having paid a significant fee and wage contribution to loan Cannon in the first place, turned to one of their own to fill the void in Nathan Lowe, who had found the target 15 times in 22 games for League Two leaders Walsall, bringing the 19-year-old back early from Bescot Stadium. In League One, Stockport County have been undoubted beneficiaries of Louie Barry's talents, scoring 25 goals in 47 appearances over two spells on hire from Aston Villa. But with his star rising, the Premier League club elected to exercise their clause and place him in the Championship at Hull City. In League Two, Cardiff City's Joel Colwill was Cheltenham Town's joint top scorer, finding the target six times as the Robins stablished themselves in mid-table for a second half of the season tilt towards the play-offs. Such an ambition may have to be slightly tempered as the 20-year-old was called back to Wales before being placed a division higher at Exeter City. As was the case for struggling Accrington Stanley, with Burnley electing to move Dara Costelloe from a relegation battle in the fourth tier to one a level up at Northampton Town. "There's no loyalty," Cheltenham director of football Gary Johnson tells BBC Sport with a knowing smirk. During his near 40-year career in the dugout with Cambridge United, Yeovil Town and Bristol City he struggles to calculate how many players he's loaned, but an estimate would be comfortably into triple figures. "It's tricky and you'll win some, and lose some," he said. "We got Colwill games, played him every week when he was available, and he did very well and we were sorry to lose him but Cardiff decided to bring him back and send him to Exeter. "We're just pleased we were able to help Cardiff show he was a decent player - he helped up get a lot of points, some good wins and helped put us in a position where we're not having to panic at this stage of the season." As Johnson well knows, there is something far more calculated to the entire process now; every Premier League club has a loans manager or at least a committee whose job is to ensure academy talent or senior players not playing can be relocated to either aid their development or help ease numbers in the first team. Whereas recalls previously tended to happen, and the vast majority still do, when a player isn't receiving sufficient game time, the very specific plan around each individual is such that the clubs who take them on essentially become victims of their own success. "It's changed a lot. It's gone from getting players out who aren't playing for certain periods of time - one month, three months, six months - to something more strategic," said Rob Newman, the former head of recruitment at West Ham who also spent 12 years in Manchester City's international scouting department. "If they're playing well in the under-21s and they're 18, 19, you come to the conclusion that they need men's football. Is it suitable for the lad to go out? "Because if he's going to crumble under it, then it's pointless, so you're looking at putting him into an environment where he's going to adapt well, so clubs are naturally careful. "Clubs, say, in League One and League Two, will come in with presentations to showcase how they're going to play, how they'd fit a player into that, what they want him to do etc. "Don't get me wrong, there are still some out there who may have personal connections at Premier League clubs and will ring to ask, 'have you got a striker?' just to get a body in. "But, for the most part, there's quite an extensive due diligence process from both the loaning club and those receiving the player." Beyond the concept of player development there is also a financial consideration as loans departments have financial goals, which drives such moves as Cannon and George Edmundson's Middlesbrough move, with Leicester and Ipswich ultimately able to make profits on players not part of the first-team picture. "A player will accrue more value playing in the Championship, League One or League Two than they will in the under-21s – that's just a fact," Newman adds. In the cases of Barry and Colwill, the decision to move them up does seem to be rooted in challenging them at higher levels and answering a question for their parent clubs - can they cut it? Should Barry perform in the Championship, he starts to enter the first-team conversation at Villa or, next-best case scenario, becomes more an appealing asset in the summer transfer market. It's not solely the clubs driving it, though, as Johnson adds: "If you've got a good relationship with the club, they know they're being looked after, getting good training, good advice, good welfare, you've put them in a nice place to live and they're happy, there's every chance they will stay. "But then you get the other part, with the agent, and they might want him to move on because he's doing well and they start contacting other clubs with January coming up. "This is the difference - the agents now have a big say whether they want the player to go to a certain club or not. It's changed a little bit who decides." Portsmouth have been afforded consistency in terms of midfielder Freddie Potts, who has started 24 league games since signing from West Ham and will finish the campaign at Fratton Park. "We'd have been disappointed if West Ham had turned around late in the day and said, 'we are going to recall Freddie' but we have a really good relationship with them and spoke to them about the likelihood of that," manager John Mousinho said. "You can't properly plan for it. You do have to take a view. "We're looking constantly at how a player's doing and whether they're going to be recalled for a number of factors; some of them do take you by surprise. "We would actually only ever plan for a player to be here until January and then have some contingency under that but once the deadline passes you plan for the rest of the year." Despite the pitfalls and the inability to plan sufficiently beyond January, EFL clubs have little option but to continue to mine the loan market and play the game. Ultimately, not doing so makes life so much harder. There is also a wider picture to consider, sometimes a loan of a player can be a stepping stone to an even better one further down the line, should trust be sufficiently built. Money still talks in many ways, when it comes to the Championship attracting the best Premier League Under-21 talent with the need to pay a substantial loan fee, but so do previous relationships. For Walsall, who since Lowe left have won just one of five games, there is an understandable licking of wounds but ultimately he helped put them in the position they now occupy and long-term has helped create and enhance boss Mat Sadler and the club's reputation as somewhere clubs can send their players for development. As has been proven with Manchester United sending striker Ethan Wheatley to Bescot Stadium, and Stoke loaning them a second player in midfielder Darius Lipsiuc. "In any shape or form, that was a fantastic loan for us; 30 games, and the productivity of that was brilliant," Sadler said of Lowe. "Now we have to find the next one – that's football, that's life. I've got no problem with that. I love the fact that we have a part of Nathan's journey and, as a football club, that's how we work and operate. "What we'll try to do now is be a place where people want to send their players, which I don't think has been the case always. "I don't see it as an evil, I see it as brilliant – he's done well, now we have to get on with the next one." Additional reporting by Michael Beardmore and Andrew Moon. Listen to the latest Football Daily podcast Get football news sent straight to your phone
BBC News
09-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Is there any point to season-long loans?
For a stark reminder of the fragilities of operating in the loan market you need only look at how decisions made at Portman Road on deadline day resonated from the Premier League down through the divisions into the National money Ipswich Town spent on West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Alex Palmer led the Baggies to recall Josh Griffiths from his loan at Bristol Rovers and, in turn, forced the League One club to bring Jed Ward back prematurely from his temporary stay at Forest Green clubs lost their starting goalkeeper, all among their standout individuals of the season, with little room to manoeuvre and pivot to something else due to one solitary transfer at the top of the food maybe should not come as a surprise but does highlight a pretty significant fault line when working in such a market, albeit one where English Football League and non-league clubs simply have no choice given financial pressures and the comparative low cost to high return of loaning a player in – even with the sporting chain reaction of the Palmer deal was right at the end of the window - in the weeks leading up to that there were other such examples of regrettable recalls which could prove to have undeniable impact on those at the wrong end of it. Not falling in love with a loan player has never been easier. Leicester City's decision to recall Tom Cannon from Stoke City was different in that there was never any indication he was going start for the Foxes in the Premier League and his return to the King Power Stadium proved a brief one as he was sold to Sheffield United to aid PSR now a striker short and having paid a significant fee and wage contribution to loan Cannon in the first place, turned to one of their own to fill the void in Nathan Lowe, who had found the target 15 times in 22 games for League Two leaders Walsall, bringing the 19-year-old back early from Bescot League One, Stockport County have been undoubted beneficiaries of Louie Barry's talents, scoring 25 goals in 47 appearances over two spells on hire from Aston with his star in rising, the Premier League club elected to exercise their clause and place him in the Championship at Hull League Two, Cardiff City's Joel Colwill was Cheltenham Town's joint top scorer, finding the target six times as the Robins stablished themselves in mid-table for a second-half of the season tilt towards the play-offs. Such an ambition may have to be slightly tempered as the 20-year-old was called back to Wales before being placed a division higher at Exeter City. As was the case for struggling Accrington Stanley with Burnley electing to move Dara Costelloe from a relegation battle in the fourth tier to one a level up at Northampton Town."There's no loyalty," Cheltenham director of football Gary Johnson tells BBC Sport with a knowing smirk. During his near 40-year career in the dugout with Cambridge United, Yeovil Town and Bristol City he struggles to calculate how many players he's loaned, but an estimate would be comfortably into triple figures."It's tricky and you'll win some, and lose some," he said. "We got Colwill games, played him every week when he was available, and he did very well and we were sorry to lose him but Cardiff decided to bring him back and send him to Exeter."We're just pleased we were able to help Cardiff show he was a decent player – he helped up get a lot of points, some good wins and helped put us in a position where we're not having to panic at this stage of the season." 'It's changed a lot' As Johnson well knows, there is something far more calculated to the entire process now; every Premier League club has a loans manager or at least a committee whose job is to ensure academy talent or senior players not playing can be relocated to either aid their development or help ease numbers in the recalls have tended to happen, and the vast majority still do, when a player isn't receiving sufficient game time, the very specific plan around each individual is such that the clubs who take them on essentially become victims of their own success."It's changed a lot. It's gone from getting players out who aren't playing for certain periods of time – one month, three months, six months – to something more strategic," said Rob Newman, former head of recruitment at West Ham who also spent 12 years in Manchester City's international scouting department."If they're playing well in the under-21s and they're 18, 19, you come to the conclusion that they need men's football. Is it suitable for the lad to go out? "Because he's going to crumble under it, then it's pointless, so you're looking at putting him into an environment where he's going to adapt well, so clubs are naturally careful."Clubs, say, in League One and League Two, will come in with presentations to showcase how they're going to play, how they'd fit a player into that, what they want him to do etc."Don't get me wrong, there are still some out there who may have personal connections at Premier League clubs and will ring to ask, 'have you got a striker?' just to get a body in. "But, for the most part, there's quite an extensive due diligence process from both the loaning club and those receiving the player." 'You can't properly plan for it' Beyond the concept of player development there is also a financial consideration as loans departments have financial goals, which drives such moves as Cannon and George Edmundson's Middlesbrough move, with Leicester and Ipswich ultimately able to make profits on players not part of the first-team picture."A player will accrue more value playing in the Championship, League One or League Two than they will in the under-21s – that's just a fact," Newman the cases of Barry and Colwill, the decision to move them up does seem to be rooted in challenging them at higher levels and answering a question for their parent clubs - can they cut it? Should Barry perform in the Championship, he starts to enter the first-team conversation at Villa or, next-best case scenario, becomes more an appealing asset in the summer transfer not solely the clubs driving it, though, as Johnson adds: "If you've got a good relationship with the club, they know they're being looked after, getting good training, good advice, good welfare, you've put them in a nice place to live and they're happy, there's every chance they will stay."But then you get the other part, with the agent, and they might want him to move on because he's doing well and they start contacting other clubs with January coming up."This is the difference - the agents now have a big say whether they want the player to go to a certain club or not. It's changed a little bit who decides." Portsmouth have been afforded consistency in terms of midfielder Freddie Potts, who has started 24 league games since signing from West Ham and will finish the campaign at Fratton Park."We'd have been disappointed if West Ham had turned around late in the day and said, 'we are going to recall Freddie' but we have a really good relationship with them and spoke to them about the likelihood of that," manager John Mousinho said."You can't properly plan for it. You do have to take a view. "We're looking constantly at how a player's doing and whether they're going to be recalled for a number of factors; some of them do take you by surprise."We would actually only ever plan for a player to be here until January and then have some contingency under that but once the deadline passes you plan for the rest of the year." Despite the pitfalls and the inability to plan sufficiently beyond January, EFL clubs have little option but to continue to mine the loan market and play the game. Ultimately, not doing so makes life so much is also a wider picture to consider, sometimes a loan of a player can be a stepping stone to an even better one further down the line, should trust be sufficiently still talks in many ways, when it comes to the Championship attracting the best Premier League Under-21 talent with the need to pay a substantial loan fee, but so do previous Walsall, who since Lowe left have won just one of five games, there is an understandable licking of wounds but ultimately he helped put them in the position they now occupy and long-term has helped create and enhance boss Mat Sadler and the club's reputation as somewhere clubs can send their players for has been proven with Manchester United sending striker Ethan Wheatley to Bescot Stadium, and Stoke loaning them a second player in midfielder Darius Lipsiuc."In any shape or form, that was a fantastic loan for us; 30 games, and the productivity of that was brilliant," Sadler said of Lowe."Now we have to find the next one – that's football, that's life. I've got no problem with that. I love the fact that we have a part of Nathan's journey and, as a football club, that's how we work and operate."What we'll try to do now is be a place where people want to send their players, which I don't think has been the case always."I don't see it as an evil, I see it as brilliant – he's done well, now we have to get on with the next one."Additional reporting by Michael Beardmore and Andrew Moon.
BBC News
07-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Mowbray looks to answer West Brom goalkeeper debate
West Bromwich Albion's remaining two goalkeepers have 'good pedigree' to fill the place left by Alex Palmer, says boss Tony Baggies sold Palmer to Premier League strugglers Ipswich Town on transfer deadline day before recalling Josh Griffiths from his loan at Bristol Rovers to compete with Joe Wildsmith for the number one spot."The goalkeepers left at this club have got some good pedigree in them," Mowbray told BBC Radio WM"Josh Griffiths is very highly thought of and been on an exceptional loan at Bristol Rovers and Joe won the golden gloves in League One (with Derby) last season and I see him on the training ground here every day and he keeps the ball out of the net."We shouldn't overly concern ourselves too much because there is genuine competition and let's see who manages to grab that number one shirt at the start of next season."Wildsmith has served as back-up to Palmer in the Championship this season but is yet to make a league appearance while Griffiths featured in 29 games during his loan at Bristol Rovers, keeping eight clean sheets."I've got fond memories of playing for Bristol Rovers and a massive opportunity now to show what I can do so it's worked out well for me personally but I'm gutted to leave," Griffiths told BBC Radio Bristol."I had no idea (I was being recalled) until Monday morning on deadline day but pretty much got told for definite in the evening waiting for Alex to complete his move to Ipswich."The 23-year-old has not played a first-team game for West Brom since an FA Cup defeat by Wolves in January 2024 but feels he is ready to stake a claim to become the club's first-choice goalkeeper"I'd love to be the starting goalkeeper here and who knows that could come soon or I might have to wait but I feel like I'm ready to take my chance if and when I get it," he Brom host Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship on Saturday looking to cement their place in the play-off places but Mowbray is yet to reveal who will start in goal at The Hawthorns."Whoever gets the start tomorrow, they've got the chance to grab hold of it - hopefully not make too many saves but do the basics well and there's a chance to keep rolling," added Mowbray."If that doesn't happen somebody else who is chomping at the bit to play could get an opportunity as well so I'm happy for them to compete against each other but it is healthy to have competition in that department."
