We’re going to start this off by confessing that we’ve never been the most die-hard darts fans, only occasionally watching the odd game when it’s on in the pub and not knowing much beyond the big names — but there’s one name that everyone’s tipping to join them: Luke Littler.
For a lot of people who’ve recently gotten into the arrows, the famous nine-dart finish from the 2023 World Darts Champion Michael Smith against Michael van Gerwen — which went down as ‘the greatest leg ever‘ — will have likely been their way into the sport. It certainly caught our attention.
However, despite last year’s thrilling winner and crowd favourite crashing out, young Luke Littler isn’t just exciting his fair share of fans, players and pundits alike with his senior debut but he could genuinely go on and win the lot and is rapidly attracting a raft of new viewers who suddenly have someone to support.
Oh yeah, and did you know he’s still only 16?
Sit back and enjoy the best bits from Luke Littler's win over Brendan Dolan 🎯 pic.twitter.com/qQmdaFDUBb
Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler doesn’t look nervous standing up there in front of all those people. Not one bit.
On a serious note, the constant reminder of his age may have become a bit of a meme, especially given the whole looking a bit older than a teenager thing (insert tired Wolfy from The Inbetweeners joke here), but, at the root, it’s simply because it’s so hard to believe he’s already that good.
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That’s not to say that the youngster born just down the road in Runcorn and based even closer in Warrington is new to the game though; the 16-year-old told Sky Sports that he’s had a set of darts in his hand since he was “18 months old” and grew up idolising his sporting hero, Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor.
Littler also became the first two-time Junior Darts Corporation world champion in history back in November 2023, making it consecutive wins barely a fortnight before entering his first-ever senior World Championship as an unseeded teen who is now being considered as the genuine favourite to win it.
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Other players have won the WDC on debut in the past, his upcoming semi-final opponent Rob Cross being one of them back in 2018, but very few have ever arrived at the oche looking so at home and so supremely confident as such a young age.
Luke Littler is the youngest player in history to reach the PDC World Championship semi-finals 👏
Having secured his spot in the final four on New Year’s Day after beating seasoned pro and infamous big game pest, Brendan Dolan, the local phenomenon became the youngest player in history to reach the semi-finals, taking home a cool £100,000 in the process. Not bad for being basically fresh off his GCSEs.
The chants of ‘he’s got school in the morning!’ have been ringing around Alexandra Palace ever since he stepped foot in the place but it can’t be overstated just how true that is. The local lad and avid Manchester United fan only just finished secondary school this past summer and is now being discussed in the same breath as the game’s very best. Again, he’s 16.
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What’s more is that it’s not just the obvious natural talent which he’s apparently boasted since the age of four that’s earning him so many fast fans and new eyes to the sport, in general: it’s his whole demeanour. He struts around the stage like he’s been there as long as any other player, rarely so much as a set and doesn’t just brush off the age jokes, he seems to almost thrive on the noise and the hype.
From conducting the Ally Pally crowd to the PDC’s famous ‘Chase The Sun’ theme song, winking, grinning and showboating at all the right moments; joking with interviewers about his post-match victory kebab and a coke, snapping selfies with famous footballers already enamoured with his meteoric rise and more — he really does look to have it all.
16 and Premier League footballer are already fanboying over him. Mad. (Credit: Luke Littler via Instagram/Live Darts via X)
Everyone’s new favourite 16 year old is now just two games away not just from greatness, he’s already well and truly on that road, but a seriously immense bit of darts and sporting history full stop.
While van Gerwen became the youngest player to ever win a PDC major at 23 back in 2012, the youngest World Champion was Adrian Lewis at the age of 25. If Luke ‘The Nuke’ does goes on to lift that trophy, he’ll be comfortably in the history books before his career has even really started.
Moreover, the fact that he literally looks like half of the blokes most people went to school with (only with much better beard coverage than most of us had at that age) means that it’s been easy for fans and newcomers to latch on to him and a sport that’s viewership jumped 33% from 2022 to 2023 alone.
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It was only after Christmas chats with nine-year-old nephews, hearing our nans talk about ‘that brilliant young darts lad’ and watching a packed out Mulligans full of people from all walks erupt in cheers and pure limbs after his previous win that it hit home just how massive a prospect he is for the future of darts.
He isn’t just the bookes’ favourite, he’s Ally Pally’s too.
With MvG now out and only former champ Cross, fellow unseeded underdog Scott Williams and another heavy favourite in Luke Humphries left standing in his way, he admitted he really is “starting to dream” that he can do it and, more importantly, he believes he can.
Luke Littler is looking like a truly generational talent who is already on the brink of history in what is sure to be a blockbuster all-English final two rounds and could truly change the game for decades to come.
No pressure — not that he’d feel it anyway.
It’s absolute fairytale stuff and we can’t wait to see how this chapter pans out. If you’re not into darts yet, we’d bet a fair few of you are about to be.
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"𝙄'𝙢 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙣𝙤𝙬."
Luke Littler reflects on reaching the Semi-Finals to continue his historic debut run and responds to Premier League speculation ☢️🗣️
Featured Images — Luke Littler (via Instagram)/Sky Sports
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‘Nothing is eternal’: Is Pep Guardiola hinting at the end of Manchester City’s supremacy?
Danny Jones
Pep Guardiola looks to have suggested that more than a decade of Manchester City’s supremacy and Premier League dominance at the very least might be coming to an end.
Speaking in his post-match press interviews after City were knocked out of the Champions League by serial European Cup winners Real Madrid, Guardiola cut a somewhat more deflated figure than usual following the 3-1 defeat.
A Kylian Mbappe hattrick which was closed out within an hour of play was enough to stretch the aggregate score to 6-3 over the two legs and Madrid doubling their lead across the tie proved yet again why, not unlike City domestically over the last decade, they’re the kings of the continental competition.
In contrast, however, Pep seemed to accept the loss much more easily than perhaps we’ve seen in the past and rather than appearing familiarly frustrated or defiant in the press conference; instead, he seemed rather reflective, responding to one reporter: “Nothing is eternal”.
🗣️ "Nothing is eternal" – Pep Guardiola.
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Insisting that they have to decide whether a significant rebuild is needed to keep competing at the very top level consistently as they have done since the 54-year-old arrived back in 2016, he argued that it is only with that they’ll be able to determine what comes next.
As for the result itself, he made no bones about Carlo Ancelotti’s side having “deserved it”, stating simply that “the best team won” and that fans and players alike have to “accept the reality: they were better.”
Having been a familiar foe for Pep long before he arrived in Manchester, both at Barcelona and Bayern Munich – not to mention City having faced Los Blancos a dozen times before Tuesday night since 2012 – there have been less surprising outcomes for supporters to come to terms with.
“With time, the club and everyone is going to accept what it is but for now we have 30/40 games for the Premier League next season to try and be here [in the Champions League] and to improve. Nothing is eternal”, said the Catalan coaching genius.
On the other hand, he also went on to add that it was merely a reflection on the night itself and not what his team have achieved in recent years.
He went on to remark that “when we were playing outstanding it hurt more” to be knocked out of the UCL when he felt they deserved to stay in it, but still insisted: “We have been unbelievable and we have to try step by step to get better from today.” Tonight just wasn’t the night.
Who knows? Perhaps it was just some more melodrama from a manager with an undeniable flare for pageantry and playing into/in the face of narratives when he doesn’t come out on top – which hasn’t happened all that often until their dip in form this season.
Plus, there’s certainly still plenty for him and the fans to be positive about; not only has the arrival of their ‘Egyptian Prince’ and the media’s Mo Salah successor, Omar Marmoush, got plenty of people excited – especially after that first-half hattrick against Newcastle – but so too have the other January signings.
In fact, for all of his downplaying in this particular presser (which you can hear in full HERE), it felt like there were only upsides after their victory over Newcastle, even going so far as to dub new signing Nico Gonzalez a ‘mini-Rodri‘.
You can watch the highlights from the game down below:
Pep is right, nothing is eternal – but sometimes you just come up against talents like Mbappe and there’s very little anyone can do about it.
Sale Sharks sign highly-rated Harlequins hooker, Nathan Jibulu
Danny Jones
Sale Sharks are investing in youth with their latest bit of transfer business after signing one of the Harlequins’ hottest prospects, Nathan Jibulu.
The highly-rated hooker, who has already nine appearances this season, including more than half a dozen in the Gallagher Premiership, has been exciting plenty of scouts throughout rugby union and is already firmly in national team plans.
Having already been part of the England Under-20 and A squads, not to mention impressing at club level in a relatively short space of time, it’s a big coup for Sale.
From the Quins academy to the right side of Shark-infested waters.
Jibulu joined the Twickenham-based outfit back in 2022 just a year after they won their second English championship (a full decade since their first) after previously attending Seaford College and representing nearby Wimbledon Warriors.
However, now the six-foot and seriously strong forward will be swapping the life near the capital for the North and Greater Manchester, specifically.
Set to join Sale Sharks for the 2025/26 season – scheduled to kick off in September – he’s looking like a really strong addition to their front row and a future squads to come.
Speaking to the club in an official statement, he said: “When I was younger, whenever someone asked me, ‘what team would you want to play for?’ I’d always say Sale…
“I’ve scrummed a lot with Asher [Opoku-Fordjour] and I got to know him pretty well. I always tell him how special and different he is, and I can’t wait to play with him.
“The way the club has developed him and nurtured him to become an established Premiership and England player speaks volumes about the coaching and the support that he’s getting at Sale.
“The entire front row is in the England squad, with the Curry boys too, so that tells you that someone at the club is doing something right. I looked at that and I said, ‘why would you not want to be there?’”
Still just 22 years old and having made just as many appearances for his soon-to-be former club, Sale weren’t the only ones chasing his signature.
Jibulu went on to add: “I love those games where you go toe-to-toe physically, so all of that attracted me straight away, and then speaking to people who are there already, they said all the stuff that I really like so it was a no brainer when the opportunity came about.”
As for his impending coach, Director of Rugby Alex Sanderson said: “Nathan is really driven, he understands what he wants from his life and his career, and he knows how he’s going to get it.
“He’s a young lad but he’s incredibly mature and he’s got the game and the physical attributes to match. I’ve got no doubt he’ll play for England in the future and we’re really excited to bring him to the club.”
Currently sat seventh in the table after another at times promising but somewhat frustrating start to the year, the summer can’t come soon enough for Sale.
Danny Jones -
2nd January 2024 
