Since youth clubs started popping up across Britain in the 19th century, their shared aim has always been the same: Keep kids out of trouble.
Even as far back as the 1870s, when Manchester crime rates were four times higher than London, youth centres and social clubs were credited with helping to resolve the ‘scuttler’ problem in the city – offering violent, angry and bored young men an alternative to fighting on the streets.
But the idea on which these societies were originally built is beginning to change.
In the digital era, where young people are having their heads turned by more voices than ever before, it isn’t enough for youth clubs to simply exist. To connect with kids and teenagers today, societies need to provide incentive, opportunity and stimulation. In other words, they need to be places that young people actually want to go.
HideOut is flying the flag for this new breed of youth centre.
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Launched in Gorton – one of Manchester’s most deprived areas – in 2020, the £6.6 million facility has quickly earned a reputation as a sought-after safe space for local youngsters; many of whom rush to the centre right after they’re done with school.
Dan, one of HideOut’s young people, says he keeps coming back because the Youth Zone is one of the rare places where he’s given independence.
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“You can book onto whatever you want – you have your own freedom,” he explains.
“In school it’s just math, English, science, your standard. Whereas here you’ve got cooking, the gym, boxing, football. You can do everything! Even a bit of yoga to relax yourself after a nice footy session.
“Every Friday we come here and play football with all my mates from the local estate, we grew up together.
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“We come here, get along with the staff and we have a game.”
HideOut cut the ribbon to their facility right in the middle of a pandemic – which initially seemed like bad timing.
The centre was forced to delay its opening by several months, and even now staff are operating under strict COVID protocols.
But in truth, HideOut came to Gorton when the area needed it most.
The Youth Zone has created a support network for the neighbourhood at a challenging time – offering local youngsters somewhere to go, something to do, and someone to talk to.
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According to another member, Marley, having HideOut on hand has been vital in the current climate.
“The pandemic has affected me because I’ve not been able to see most of my friends and family and just because it’s been really boring,” Marley tells us.
“But at HideOut they’ve invited me to sessions I love doing and all the adults are really nice and so are the children.”
The activities at the Youth Zone aren’t just limited exercise and games either. Staff have encouraged youngsters to broaden their horizons and get stuck into local projects – connecting with the wider community as a result.
Some examples of these unique activities include spray painting an underpass with local street artist Wilf Dissent, and shooting a video about their aims and ambitions in 2021 – getting to grips with media tech in the process.
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Fred Done – one of HideOut’s capital funders – said he had “immense pride” in what the centre had achieved in such a short space of time.
“It started as a dream, and now it’s a dream come true,” he stated.
One year on since HideOut arrived, it’s clear to see the hard work of staff – and philanthropy of supporters – has been worth it.
Not only has Gorton’s young community quickly come to understand and appreciate the difference the Youth Zone has made to Manchester – they’re also proud to wear their HideOut badges on their sleeves.
“This estate in West Gorton… there’s nothing around here,” Dan tells us.
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“This used to be a few rocks; a bit of a ditch. Now look at it, mate. Beautiful!
“It cheers you up to see it. Walk down the side of the park there’s an astro here there’s cooking, gym, everything that you need.
Staff are always happy to answer any questions. You can contact HideOut online.
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HideOut Youth Zone currently have a family of Founder Patrons that offer support for up to 4 years through ideas, introductions, time, financial grants and partnering opportunities.
HideOut still needs Founder Patrons to meet its annual income targets this year and would welcome anyone interested in getting involved to contact [email protected].
Some current supporters include include Godel Technologies, Bruntwood, BeautyWorks, The JD Foundation, Lendlease, Open Money, Theo Paphitis Retail Group, Beyond Corporate, This is Manchester Awards, AO World and GCA Altium.
Feature
Football fans are debating whether Manchester City made a mistake selling Cole Palmer
Danny Jones
Football clubs are always going to have to roll the dice on players as we all know promising players who went on to become stars: Kevin de Bruyne, Gerard Pique, Mo Salah and so on just to name a few from the Premier League – but is that what Manchester City have done with Cole Palmer?
The 21-year-old from Wythenshawe was sold to Chelsea back in September 2023, having only managed to make a few scattered but impressive appearances for Man City, scoring crucial goals in the Community Shield and the UEFA Super Cup, but was still ultimately deemed surplus to requirements.
Shown the exit through nothing other than the sheer quality of Pep Guardiola‘s starting XI, not to mention plenty of strength in depth and quality off the bench already, the West London club paid what looked to be a handsome £42.5 million for the still relatively unproven youngster at the time.
However, with another hattrick to his name – a perfect one scored all inside half an hour, no less – and a fourth for good measure thanks to a penalty against Everton, he’s quickly become by far and away Chelsea‘s star man.
In the same breath, many are now naturally wondering why he was sold in the first place. It’s no secret that City are spoilt for choice when it comes to talent amongst their ranks and certainly didn’t need the money from his sale; it was simply a case that Palmer wanted more minutes that Pep couldn’t promise.
Shouldering the responsibility for the decision at the time, Guardiola said he completely understood the Manchester-born and bred star’s drive and ambition, admitting that “[With] young players, we always want them to stay but this is normal.
“After one season it is nice, and the second season, but the third season it is, ‘Oh guys, I want to play, I don’t want to sit on the bench’. It’s normal. We understand as a club. We got an offer from an incredible top club like Chelsea and I’m really happy for him. In all clubs these types of things happen.”
However, we dare say that if you were to tell the Catalan coach that same hungry prospect would end up being joint top-scorer with his Erling Haaland the following season and being, we think it’s fair to say he might at least hesitate before green-lighting his departure – and there are plenty more stats to boot.
Now, it’s impossible to know whether or not having the knowledge he has now would have made Pep second-guess his decision and take a chance on integrating Cole Palmer into City’s first team more regularly but put it this way, 25 goals and 13 assists in all competitions is hard to ignore.
Cole Palmer's 20th Premier League goal brings him level with Erling Haaland in the race for the Golden Boot 🤝 pic.twitter.com/8Nq2Bn5bLH
That’s all inside what is for all intents and purposes his full debut season as a first-team starter (which isn’t even over yet), let’s not forget, and while they’ve had similar situations play out with the likes of Jadon Sancho in the past, it must be a little frustrating to see him playing this well in the same only league only in a darker shade of blue.
On the other hand, it’s still early days Palmer could also follow that same narrative even further and see that huge momentum trickle out depending on how his sophomore season goes. He’s also a boyhood Man United fan and not that we’re saying we can see him make that move down the line, but we all know how that switch sadly ended up for Sancho.
For many fans, City or otherwise, the logic seems to be that letting him go was the right decision for everyone, as it’s allowed him to get that crucial playing time and shine like he has this season, which may not have happened while waiting to grab his opportunity off the bench at the Etihad.
Moreover, it’s not like the treble-winners aren’t still looking like they could defend all three of their trophies this year – although it would be interesting to see what impact Palmer has when he comes up against his former club in the FA Cup semi-final this weekend.
What do you think, were City right to sell Cole Palmer or should they have held on to him and given him the minutes he was clearly more than ready for?
Remember when the Manchester Marathon used to be too short?
Danny Jones
One of the most popular runs in the UK returns this weekend as the 2024 Adidas Manchester Marathon gets underway on Sunday morning, but did you know the famous race was once too short to count as the full shebang?
Yes, it may very be one of the flattest and most accessible races anywhere in Europe but once upon a time the Manchester Marathon was technically a marathon, as those in charge of measuring the thing up didn’t quite nail it.
One job, guys. You had one job…
Here’s the story of for three whole years, tens of thousands of runners sadly didn’t technically complete the Manchester Marathon.
The 2024 Manchester Marathon boasts a record 32k racers.A 2013 finisher. We’ve got some bad news for you, mate…Manchester Marathon now and then (Credit: Supplied/Wikimedia Commons)
Manchester Marathon: The ‘ish’ years
As was widely publicised at the time, in 2016 it was found that roughly the three previous years of the race course that runs throughout Manchester city centre, into the likes of Trafford, Chorlton, Altrincham and beyond didn’t actually fulfil the complete distance needed to qualify as a marathon.
While the race route has to stretch for 26.2 miles, or approximately 42.195 kilometres if you prefer metric (always one that splits the crowd) to count as an official marathon, it turned out that in 2013, ’14 and ’15, Manchester’s biggest running event fell just short of that mark.
Due to a measuring error – for which blame was placed on the Association of UK Course Measurers (AUKCM), who said an accredited measurer had ridden the course in 2013 but fell foul to an error in the calibration of the bicycle wheel – those three years ended up being 380m too short.
As a result, roughly 24,000 runners who ran the Manchester Marathon during this three-year period essentially had their races voided, including plenty of elite athletes, as the official UK Athletics governing body simply could not recognise their times. How fuming would you be?
Speaking in an official statement at the time, AUKCM said they regretted the mistake, confessing: “Significant errors in measurement are rare – our procedures are designed to find them at the reporting or checking stages”.
Xtra Mile Events, who were still the organisers of the event at the time, went on to add: “We all understand the anguish and huge disappointment this creates and want to assure our runners that we share the upset and emotion from the AUKCM news regarding the race distance.”
Thankfully, such mistakes haven’t been suffered since and now under the umbrella of sporting giants Adidas, you won’t catch them making the same slips-ups.
Best of luck to all of you racing this Sunday and rest easy in the knowledge that while you might be absolutely dying by those last few miles, at least you can be sure those every one of those final yards is going to count. Now go and smash it!
The Manc -
1st April 2021 
