Three Salford siblings are fighting to keep the memory of their late father alive by continuing with his life goal of helping Manchester’s homeless.
Alan Dolan spent much of his life on the streets of Manchester helping the city’s most vulnerable.
He was fondly known by family, friends, and those in the community as someone who would lend a hand to anyone he met, and was described as “caring too much for everyone”.
Even at times when he found himself without a job, technically homeless, and needing to crash with relatives, his years of “selfless” work to give back to the community were commended, and he was guided by his dream to build a shipping container village in the centre of Manchester to ensure that nobody was forced to sleep rough and would instead have access to food, clothing, shelter and a place to stay the night.
This was something he was so “passionate” about, and would often discuss with his three children.
But sadly, his vision never made it to reality.
On 26th November 2020, Alan suffered a heart attack whilst out helping some homeless friends, and was taken to hospital, where he sadly died at just 55-years-old.
Now, his three children – Robyn, Grant, and Jenna Dolan – are striving to continue his legacy by promoting the message that “love always wins” and #RealLoveMatters, and by carrying out his life-long goal of helping Manchester’s vulnerable when they truly need it most.
They are doing this through their newly-launched charity Humble Souls, alongside a JustGiving fundraiser, with the aim of raising £2,000 – a target they are so close to reaching.
Humble Souls – which has been created to “continue the work and legacy” of Alan Dolan – is being ran by Robyn, Jenna, Grant, his mother, and a family friend.
They have described him as “the best dad”.
“Anyone who knew him knows how passionate he was about [his shipping container village dream] and just helping people in general.” the Dolans said.
Grant Dolan, 29 – who has recently achieved his own personal goal of setting up a recruitment company, which was something he talked about with his father often – added that: “Even though my dad was going through so much of his own stuff, he’d always do the daftest things to make you laugh,
“He just felt for people, and his message was that all that matters when you go, is how you’ve helped people”.
He continued: “We’d been talking about my dreams to start my own recruitment company for years [and] around half an hour before he died, I got the call to say I’d received the funding I needed [to start the company], but I never got to tell him.”
Grant’s new company, Real Recruitment, will donate 10% of all profits to the Humble Souls project.
On the charity’s long-term aspirations, Grant said: “We are starting the project in Manchester, but want to make it UK-wide eventually. We’re looking to build the container village for the homeless in the city centre, and we also want to build a community centre [too]”.
There are also future plans to release an album featuring a series of Manchester-based artists, with all sales being donated to the Humble Souls project.
“We just want to do something positive in my dad’s memory,” Grant said.
The Dolans added: “He was a great dad and a great soul, [and] we just want people to know that if you cant donate any money [to the fundraiser], you can always donate your time, old clothes, food, and even just a smile to brighten someone’s day,
“Words of encouragement when someone needs it the most are what our dad was about,
“[He was] 100% real”.
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The Dolans’ fundraiser for the Humble Souls project has now raised £1,767 of its first £2,000 target, so if you able to spare a couple of pounds for this truly worthy local cause, then all donations are welcome.
Kalvin Phillips is reportedly set to be reintegrated into the Manchester City squad
Danny Jones
Long-exiled Manchester City player Kalvin Phillips is reportedly on the verge of being reintegrated into Pep Guardiola’s squad this season.
The ex-Leeds United star, who signed for the Blues back in 2022, has still only made just 16 appearances for the club, but could now be eyeing up a potential renaissance.
Man City have made plenty of signings this year, but with a number of outgoings and several injuries in key positions, it looks like there could be an avenue for the one-time England international to fight his way back into the team.
As per Telegraph Sport‘s Mike McGrath, Kalvin Phillips is set to be reintroduced to City’s 25-man Premier League selection; the question is, can he make it into a first-team XI?
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Kalvin Phillips has chance to resurrect career at the Etihad Stadium after failed loan spells with Ipswich and West Ham
According to McGrath, Phillips will be “given a chance to resurrect his career at the Etihad Stadium” with the meat and potatoes of the 2025/26 campaign still yet to get properly underway.
Now 29, the Yorkshireman is well and truly within the crucial ‘prime’ years as an athlete, and after such an extended period on the sidelines, he’ll be more motivated than anyone to get his career back on track.
The central defensive midfielder – who was formerly considered a key cog in the middle of the park for Leeds – has spent two loan spells away from the Etihad, but neither really worked out for the undeniably talented footballer.
Having joined West Ham for the latter portion of the 23/24 term and spending the last 12 months on loan at struggling Ipswich Town, his time at both clubs was pretty forgettable, punctuated by little more than a couple of unfortunate red cards and more time on the bench.
Speaking to Sky Sports fairly recently, he confessed that the last couple of years have been very difficult and was visibly emotional discussing his struggles since moving to Man City.
It’s also worth noting that Guardiola himself has admitted to feeling “so bad” for Kalvin Phillips’ situation – perhaps why he now looks like he could be given a second chance.
CDM-wise, Rodri and Nico González are considered the go-to options, but Stockport-born Rico Lewis and Mateo Kovačić have also been used in the role.
Once again, although Man City face somewhat of an injury crisis ahead of the Manchester derby this weekend, any prolonged absences could at least see an opportunity arise for the forgotten man.
What do you make of Kalvin Phillips’ chances of being restored to the Manchester City squad and maybe even putting himself back into national team contention ahead of the World Cup?
Featured Images — Sky Sports (screenshot via YouTube)/pantkiewicz (via Flickr)
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Manchester United are now investigating the curious case of… the missing boots?
Danny Jones
Manchester United Women have been left with work to do in their Champions League qualifier and might need to have a word with kit staff too, as the administration is now said to be investigating how a bag of boots went missing ahead of the crucial match.
Now this is the sort of stuff you really couldn’t write…
Yes, unbelievably, global footballing giants Man United had to quite literally pop to the shops to buy new football boots after a reported 13-15 pairs were lost before their first leg against Norwegian side, SK Brann Kvinner.
As per the likes of The Athletic and The Guardian‘s women’s football writer, Tom Garry, the majority of the players were left without anything to play in, resulting in the travelling squad having to go and buy replacements.
Manchester United were defeated 1-0 by Brann in the Women’s Champions League third qualifying round on Thursday after some of the squad’s football boots were lost on the way to Norway.
During the side's journey to the city of Bergen, where Brann are based, for the first leg of… pic.twitter.com/NjyaalHinJ
Citing Reuters as his primary source, Garry detailed how a bag containing several players’ boots disappeared during the journey to the game in Bergen on Thursday evening.
As a result, United are now investigating exactly how the boots went missing.
Marc Skinner’s side went on to lose the game by a single goal scored a quarter of an hour from the end in the third qualifying round, but remain confident they can turn the tide in the decisive knockout tie upon returning home to Leigh Sports Village on 18 September.
They are said to have arrived at a local shop, Torshov Sport, around three hours before kick-off (4:30pm local time), grabbing 15 pairs of boots and 20 sets of shin pads in total. Speaking to BBC Sport, owner Andre Gullord said they paid nearly £4,000 for the last-minute kit haul.
“We are a big store, but they were very lucky we had enough boots in stock that were the right size”, he said, adding that “they paid between £200 and £230 for each pair of boots and £30 for the shin guards.”
Quipping that they catered to the odd native player in the past but never a full team, he went on to joke: “Maybe we should have told them we only had boots with no studs to help the local team!”
It does give frantic pre-match Sunday league antics, doesn’t it?
city not getting bunnys visa, our plane catching on fire and united boots going missing oh i love the chaos of wsl in the uwcl https://t.co/mNTh83p0av
Many supporters have found it hard to believe how a sporting organisation as huge as the Red Devils can find itself in such unlikely circumstances.
Then again, unexpected and as yet inexplicable stuff like this can happen to anyone – even a sporting franchise as established and well-staffed as Manchester United.
It wasn’t all chaos and frustration, though; not only was it a record-breaking night in terms of attendance, but another plus was the midfield play from new signing Jess Park, who joined in a sensational swap deal with rivals Man City on deadline day. You can see the highlights from the game HERE.
🙌 16,019 at Brann Stadion 🇳🇴
A new attendance record for women’s football in Norway and for any UEFA women’s club qualifier 🤩#UWCLpic.twitter.com/YtlScWXewt