Latest news with #RyanYates
Daily Mirror
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Nottingham Forest star names ambitious target after missing Champions League
Ryan Yates wants Nottingham Forest to target going all the way in next season's Conference League once Nuno's team have shaken off the disappointment of missing out on a top five finish because of last-day defeat to Chelsea Ryan Yates says it will take a couple of days for Nottingham Forest to shake off the disappointment from falling just short of a Champions League place. But the skipper admits he would have snapped the hand off of anyone offering European football last summer – when many pundits were tipping Nuno Espirito Santo's side for a relegation battle. Defeat to Chelsea on Sunday bumped Forest down to seventh spot and a place in the Conference League play-off round in late August, having spent most of the season in the top four. Yet Yates is sure that excitement will take over from deflation for a club that last appeared on the continental stage in 1995-96. 'When you've been up there for so long and you've got that chance to get something bigger, there's always that disappointment when you don't achieve it,' Yates said. 'But looking on reflection in a couple of weeks' time when it does settle, I think everyone will be extremely proud of what we've been able to achieve.' And he is already targeting a long run in the competition despite being aware that the squad must be strengthened to combat the rigours of Thursday-Sunday football. 'We were saying that in the dressing room, we have to always look at the positive,' he added. 'The teams aren't going to be as strong in that competition. It's another chance to win silverware. 'We'd like to think that we can go even further in that competition. Hopefully, it can be a blessing in disguise for us. And after hailing the club's 'incredible recruitment' this season, Yates added: 'I'm sure the people who sit upstairs will be doing their hard work now and getting us ready for a successful season next year.'
BBC News
25-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
From brink of relegation to Europe - the story of Forest's revival
From the brink of the Championship to the brink of the Champions Forest may have fallen short of the top table of European football after their final-day defeat by Chelsea but they have continued their revival. That Forest were even in contention for the Champions League seemed a fantasy after beating the drop on the final day a year ago. In reality, the foundations for success were laid last summer. In Murcia, Spain, Nuno Espirito Santo's plans which would take the club back to Europe for the first time since 1996 were initiated. The chaos and confusion at the end of last season - from four-point deductions to controversial social media posts and final-day survival - were forgotten. A team meal at the Odiseo restaurant in Murcia, with the squad and staff, quickly generated the unity which has catapulted Forest to the Uefa Conference League. Elliot Anderson's initiation song of Stand By Me, after his move from Newcastle, could be the anthem of the season. Pre-season is always important but, internally, there was a sense the summer was crucial given it was Nuno's first with the had already built relationships in the previous six months since replacing Steve Cooper in December 2023, but it was the opportunity to double down on that unity which Nuno puts so much emphasis on. "It started the moment Nuno walked through the door," captain Ryan Yates told BBC Sport. "He gave us that consistency. "He came in at an extremely difficult point in the season where relegation and the point deduction looked like it could happen. It was tough for us as a group but we got through that and we said to ourselves in pre-season it can never happen again."Once home, they lost one of their opening 10 games and the training-ground revamp, unveiled in October, with more catering staff, different meals and a new open-plan canteen allowed a more player-focused environment. A new gym, physio and rehabilitation rooms were all added in a multi-million pound investment. "It's all fillet steak," jokes Yates. "The small things that really do make a difference. That obviously comes from the owner's investment and where he sees the football club going. "Not only have the players bought into that, but also the staff. If the staff are happy, that's going to ultimately help the players as well."The outpouring of support for Taiwo Awoniyi after his freak intestinal injury this month, which left the striker in an induced coma, also highlighted the squad's togetherness. The players hoisted his shirt while celebrating Morgan Gibbs-White's goal in the win at West Ham, with the forward receiving a rapturous welcome before the game on Sunday when he emerged pitchside."We just knew the significance of the result for Taiwo," adds Yates. "What he's been through, you wouldn't wish that on anybody."We're just so happy he's just alive and well." A common bond and Nuno's comfort Double European Cup-winning captain John McGovern is a regular visitor to the training was something former boss Cooper initiated but Nuno has, sensibly, left the door open for the 75-year-old to watch training and integrate with the has often been an unofficial ball boy during sessions, fetching stray shots, while he enjoys a good relationship with the is part of the culture and the desire to ensure everyone feels involved at the City he first moved to England with Wolves, Nuno was adamant he wanted to work with 22 players to let all of them feel they had a chance of playing, therefore raising the intensity and quality in training. That unity was quickly evident during last season's fight against relegation, with Nuno replacing Cooper as the club sat 17th in the Premier League. Sources have told BBC Sport players were almost surprised at how the spirit was compared with other teams they had played for, especially those who had experienced a relegation battle. It has only become stronger while Nuno's ability to remain level-headed is also crucial. He will not pick or turn on individual players after a poor performance, and he placed faith in his players, allowing them to grow in confidence. Goalkeeper Matz Sels arrived with little fanfare from Strasbourg in February 2024 to become the team's third goalkeeper last season, but was immediately given the No.1 spot and Nuno's backing. The 33-year-old has since excelled this season and has shared the Premier League's Golden Glove with Arsenal's David Raya after 13 clean Aina is one of the biggest characters of the dressing room, with Gibbs-White and Callum Hudson-Odoi also driving the squad off the pitch. There is also a common bond with the players, in that many of them have experienced setbacks in their careers and arrived at Forest with similar journeys. Behind it, as Yates alludes, is Nuno. He can be a stoic figure in media conferences but there is a marked improvement from his demeanor at Wolves. He could be surly with the media at Molineux, but at the City Ground is more relaxed and, even if he avoids a question, it is done with much more grace and understanding of what the journalist was asking. There has been more depth to Nuno this season, publicly at least, and he has been known to play his handpan - a steel drum - in his office at the training ground, and demonstrated his diving abilities during a mid-season trip to Dubai in February. One source described Nuno as "comfortable" at the club, and while there has been speculation about his future, there is a desire for Nuno to build a dynasty - regardless of any on-pitch discussions with the owner. "Look at what he's achieved in his short period at the club," says Yates. "If anything, it should be exciting to see what we can build further." Transfer plans years in the making Nuno was given the faith to build, but there was no talk of Europe before this season. The plan was to take a step forward and avoid a relegation battle, because you cannot become an established or growing Premier League side while fighting the drop. Pushing into the top half was in mind, not becoming a European contender. Forest knew they had good players, and sources have dismissed suggestions this season has been a surprise, labelling it as - understandably - pleasing instead. The clear and precise summer transfer plan was in contrast to when they returned to the Premier League in 2022 - after a 23-year absence - and signed 23 players. This season against Crystal Palace - a 1-0 win in October - only one of those players started the game - Dean Henderson, who was in goal for Palace. It may have appeared outrageous, but it worked and gave Forest the platform for the success of this season. Of those players, Gibbs-White and Neco Williams have played key roles this season while Danilo could have, had he not suffered a broken ankle on the opening Boly, Harry Toffolo, Awoniyi and Wayne Hennessey also remain at the club though are on the periphery, with Boly, Toffolo and Hennessy's deals expiring next month. Last summer Forest were surgical in their approach. They were clear with what they wanted, with a plan to lower the age bracket but also build on the character already at the club. Defender Nikola Milenkovic joined for £10m from Fiorentina - there was no release clause and it has proved a bargain in the current market - and he has formed a crucial partnership with Murillo at the back. The centre-back had been tracked for a number of years and Forest made their move with the Serbia international impressing at Euro 2024. Anderson joined from Newcastle with goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos going the other way in a separate deal, which will have helped with keeping the club compliant with profit and sustainability rules (PSR). This year it will be the same - Liam Delap and James McAtee are of interest but there is an expectation Ipswich striker Delap will join Manchester United. The Champions League would have added extra revenue and therefore more financial wriggle room, but Forest's transfer plans do not hinge on joining the elite. Nuno was clear in the profile of player he wanted, and had total belief in his methods. It brought a mutual trust between the Portuguese and the hierarchy, allowing him to deliver the club's best season in 30 years. The club have not played in Europe since a Uefa Cup quarter-final defeat by Bayern Munich in March 1996, and will return in September for the Conference has been unexpected, but after years in the wilderness Forest, two-time European Cup winners, have returned to a stage they used to call home. "It took us a couple of years to find that stability, and when this club gets momentum it's unstoppable," smiles Yates.
The Sun
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
‘Like walking into a luxury spa' – Nuno Espirito Santo plays handpan in his office, reveals Nottingham Forest star
NOTTINGHAM FOREST manager Nuno Espirito Santo has adopted a very unusual hobby during his time in charge at City Ground. Nuno, 51, joined Forest in December 2023 and has taken the club by storm by leading them to their first European qualification in 30 years after a turbulent debut season that saw him barely escaping relegation. 2 2 According to The Athletic, however, it's not just the performances on the pitch that have left everyone at Nottingham fascinated with the Portuguese tactician. But it's also the fact that the ex-Wolves boss has proven to be a very multi-layered person. The former Tottenham boss is well-known as a composed, disciplined and soft-spoken person when he speaks in front of the cameras. But behind the scenes he shows various different attributes as former team-mates remember him as a daredevil, who loves deep-sea diving, as well as a dressing room joker. Forest captain Ryan Yates also revealed Nuno has become famous for his love of music. One of the first things the ex-Porto star did when he signed with Forest was locating a music shop in Nottingham that could find him a percussion instrument known as a handpan. The handpan produces soothing sounds when tapping or drumming against its steel edges as it perches on the knee and looks like a huge metallic shell. And it has become quite common for people to hear these melodic sounds from the manager's office. Yates told The Athletic: "Is that [handpan] what it's called? 'I went for a chat with him and I just sat there while he was playing it for five, 10 minutes. Taiwo Awoniyi health update with Nottingham Forest star recovering in hospital after emergency abdominal surgery "It was incredible — like walking into a luxury spa or a five-star hotel. I thought I was going to fall asleep!' Yates insists this is just one of many things that show what a "very special man" Nuno is. The midfielder also praised the former goalkeeper's stunning job at Forest as he led them to the FA Cup semi-finals as well this season. Yates added: "He's a very special man. He's very different to anyone I've come across before. But, more than anything, he's obviously incredible at his job. "It's incredible for the club to orchestrate Forest to their first European success in 30 years. It speaks for itself. Incredible.' Nuno is now gearing up for Sunday's crunch home clash with Chelsea in the final fixture of the 2024-25 Premier League season needing a victory and other results to go his way in order to secure Champions League qualification. drew 2-2 with Leicester at City Ground. The game made headlines after Taiwo Awoniyi's horror injury which led to owner Evangelos Marinakis having an intense talk with Nuno in front of the cameras at full-time as the Greek supremo was very unhappy with the way that incident was handled by the medical team.
The Independent
23-05-2025
- The Independent
British men have been volunteering for chemical castration for years – is there a case to make it work?
Ryan Yates was 30 years old when a judge told him that he may never be released from prison. He was jailed more than 15 years ago, in April 2010, at the High Court in Glasgow, where Judge Lord Pentland ordered him to serve at least 10 years, and imposed a life-long restriction order on Yates: he was 'an exceptionally high level of danger to women and society', the judge said. Six months earlier, in October 2009, in a tree-lined park in Aberdeen, Yates had tried to murder a 60-year-old woman during an attempt to abduct and rape her two granddaughters, aged eight and two. As part of his sentence, Yates agreed to be chemically castrated. It was voluntary: after the judgement was passed, the serial offender – who carried out his attack just days after he was released from custody for an assault with a sexual element – was administered leuprorelin, a testosterone suppressant which reduces sexual drive and arousal. At the time, public response to the decision was positive – the 'twisted paedophile' would face something that looked more like 'real justice', then, many said. Did it work? Difficult to say: in December, Yates died in custody at HMP Glenochil, aged 44. Yates was the last publicly reported person in the UK to undergo chemical castration – the use of anaphrodisiac drugs to reduce libido and sexual activity – yet the practice remains a topic of hot debate. This week, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans to expand the use of chemical castration for serious sex offenders, including a proposal for mandatory treatment, as part of a broader sentencing reform aimed at reducing prison overcrowding. The practice – not to be confused with surgical castration – has been legally available on a limited, voluntary basis since 2009, when a pilot at HMP Whatton in Nottinghamshire began. Within just a few years, around 100 prisoners had participated in the programme, which a spokesperson at the Ministry of Justice said at the time was being 'used in conjunction with other approaches to managing the risk of sexual offending'. Now, as a result of the independent sentencing review published this week, the government is set to roll out the pilot for sex offenders in 20 prisons across the country. Mahmood said she is 'not squeamish' about the decision to use 'medication to manage problematic sexual arousal', adding that she is 'exploring whether mandating the approach is possible'. What was once a rare, voluntary treatment may soon become a formalised tool of sentencing reform, aimed not only at rehabilitation but also at reducing the strain on a chronically overcrowded prison system. In theory, it could mean that men like Yates – sexual predators deemed a 'menace' to women and children in society – would automatically be subjected to chemical castration in an attempt to control the population of sex offenders in England and Wales. Some say it's a necessary evolution. Physical punishment like this, or like corporal punishment in prisons, is the antidote to a soft justice system too preoccupied with the human rights of those it deals with for its own good. When public figures like Nigel Farage make inflammatory calls to reignite debate on the use of the death sentence in the UK, you can usually find conversation about compulsory castration not far behind. When it comes to dealing with serious offenders – especially when faced with the despair of their victims – there's a tendency to be very simplistic: we want an eye for an eye. But there are also studies that show success rates of chemical castration. One trial of a drug named degarelix in Stockholm, Sweden, reported on by Sky News, found that just two weeks after the first injection, men living in the community had a significantly reduced risk of committing child sexual abuse. However, how this was measured exactly is not fully clear – and the study was conducted on just 52 men, a tiny pool to pin decisions with such high potential repercussions on. Others say that chemical castration offers rehabilitation and support to long-term psychological therapies and, when undertaken in the correct way, voluntary castration even 'empowers' perpetrators to take responsibility for their own behaviour. It is, these advocates say, a way of allowing offenders back into society with 'less risk' when offered as a condition of early release. And – crucially, let's not forget – it's much cheaper than rehabilitating them in prison. Yet, there's something instinctively troublingly intimate about the state altering a person's body chemistry – even with their consent; critics of the practice question how 'voluntary' consent really is inside a prison. It's not a new concept, of course – during a particularly dark period in the mid-20th century it was used as a form of punishment for homosexual acts, notoriously in the case of Alan Turing, a pioneering codebreaker during the Second World War who was convicted of 'gross indecency' due to his homosexuality in 1952. He took his own life two years after choosing the option of imprisonment or chemical castration – the science around it is still shaky. Violence and harm can't be attributed to a simple hormonal imbalance; misogyny and an impulse to control women can't be medicalised A lot of the studies are lacking in long-term follow-ups and don't account for important variables like the natural decline of libido with age, or even what other tools – like therapy – are being used alongside the medication, which generally consist of two drugs: anti-androgens, that reduce testosterone, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs – such as Prozac, citalopram and sertraline; common antidepressants). They're taken alongside psychiatric work that reportedly targets other causes of sexual offending – like the desire for power and control. And it's the latter that really feels like the point. Libido alone is rarely, if ever, the cause of sexual offending – not all crimes are driven by desire. Violence and harm can't be attributed to a simple hormonal imbalance; misogyny and an impulse to control women can't be medicalised. Sexual violence in society isn't contained in science – it's in deeply embedded attitudes. To suggest otherwise could be the beginning of a dangerously slippery slope. Similarly, formalising chemical castration puts other forms of medical intervention into the frame too, potentially leaving doors open to tiptoe towards ideas like forced sterilisation for those with severe mental illnesses, or medicine as a punishment. In the long term, this type of castration causes many side effects like weight gain, increased cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis – what's more, the effects of some of these drugs, particularly SSRIs, can induce depression and suicidal ideation. Though it's deemed 'reversible', it can leave lasting damage to fertility. Britain is hardly the first to wrestle with this dilemma. In parts of the United States, chemical castration is either encouraged or required for repeat offenders. In California, it's a condition for parole. Poland introduced mandatory chemical castration for child sex offenders in 2009, prompting criticism from the European Union, while Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Norway take a more therapeutic approach. Chemical castration is available, but only as part of comprehensive therapy, and never mandated. Human dignity, they argue, must come before public retribution. Chemical castration is no longer a footnote or a quietly ongoing trial in Britain, but a political statement. As the proposal is debated, uncomfortable questions are likely to be raised. Yates – who told police that he had gone out that day 'looking to find some children to have sex with' – was 'prepared to try anything to overcome his problems, which have blighted his life,' his barrister told the court, 15 years ago. Was it chemical castration that could have prevented his heinous crimes? Shabana Mahmood wants us to think about that and the answer may be more complicated than first thought.
BBC News
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
🎧 One to go: They couldn't - could they?
A new episode of the Shut Up And Show More Football podcast is now available to listen to and download on BBC Radio Nottingham's David Jackson and Colin Fray discuss Forest's chances of qualifying for the Champions League before Sunday's pivotal showdown with Chelsea. The panel also break down Taiwo Awoniyi's serious injury and hear from captain Ryan Yates and midfielder Morgan to the full episode on BBC Sounds
