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Lucky mum finds Man Utd ace’s lost dogs and gets tour of club’s training ground in return
A MUM got a tour of Manchester United’s training ground for finding Alejandro Garnacho’s dogs.
United supporter Leah Smith, 26, and her children also got matchday tickets from the grateful Argentina international.
Leah was driving with daughter Eliza, ten, when she saw two mutts on the loose near the star’s mansion.
She managed to get them in her car and recognised them from pics the winger posted on social media.
Leah then drove to United’s Carrington training ground where they let her and her daughter inside to watch the first team going through their paces.
An assistant told them the dogs were indeed Freko and Burrows, who live with the star, his partner Eva and their one-year-old son Enzo in Bowdon, Gtr Manchester.
Leah told The Sun: “Once they confirmed the dogs belonged to Garna, they politely asked if I could take them back to his home, which I did. His partner, Eva, was waiting and was very grateful.”
The following day the couple phoned Leah to thank her — and gave her tickets in the players’ family area at Old Trafford for their Premier League game against Southampton.
Leah, Eliza and her brother Jenson, seven, saw Prem strugglers United win 3-1 on January 16.
Leah said: “My children will never forget this day. Thank you Garna & Eva.”
Leah, who lives five minutes from Garnacho’s home, has since bumped into the footy ace while he was walking his dogs.
Fans praised Garnacho, 20, for his generous response but one joked: “Nobody should be made to sit and watch a United game.”
Garnacho joined United’s academy in 2020 from Spanish club Atletico Madrid and made his first-team debut in 2022.
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Delivery firm Evri reveals staggering number of packages that will be lost or stolen this year
PARCEL giant Evri admits it will lose eight million packages this year — 22,000 a day.
The delivery company, which estimates it will handle 800million parcels in 2025, predicts it will lose track of one per cent of them.
That equates to 153,846 lost parcels every week. Some will eventually reach their destination after a delay.
But others will not arrive at all thanks to being damaged or stolen. Evri last year delivered more than 730million parcels.
Thanks to an investment boost of £32million in operations and customer services, it claims to have a 99 per cent success rate.
Evri counts late or lost parcels under the same category — making up the one per cent.
The scale-up saw the firm deal with 12million customers per week last year.
And more than 7.3million parcels a year did not reach their destination on time or at all in 2024 — 20,000 a day.
Evri delivers 4,000 parcels to UK households every minute during peak delivery periods.
Now some are questioning whether the sudden scale-up has impacted on customer service.
Professor David Edmundson-Bird, of Manchester Metropolitan University, said: “When businesses expand too quickly without proper infrastructure and planning, customer service often becomes a significant casualty of growth.”
Evri said its couriers are rated 4.7 out of five by customers and it is “on track” to handle 800million parcels this financial year — with more than 99 per cent successfully delivered on time.
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Wetherspoons pulls key breakfast item from the menu due to shortage as fans rage ‘what’s happening to the world?’
WETHERSPOONS bosses have been hit with a free-range eggs shortage on their popular breakfasts.
But diners will get a hash brown instead of a yolker on their grub.
A notice at many of the chain’s 852 branches tells punters of the missing eggs.
A sign from a pub in Manchester said: “Free-range egg supply shortages.
“Because of free-range egg shortages, we will be replacing eggs with a hash brown on the following dishes: Large traditional breakfast, traditional breakfast, small breakfast large vegetarian breakfast, vegetarian breakfast, small vegetarian breakfast freedom breakfast.
“If you would like an alternative item, please order at the bar – and we will assist you with this. Apologies for any inconvenience which this may cause.”
One person said on a social media page dedicated to the chain: “What a clucking liberty.”
Another person in Somerset said they had to do without eggs on their breakfast as well.
Yet another added: “None in Brighton yesterday.”
And Andy said: “First a Guinness shortage and now no eggs. What’s happening to the world?”
Wetherspoons said: “We source some of our free range eggs from suppliers and farms based in Northern Ireland.
“The recent outbreak of Avian flu has put pressure on egg availability with measures put in place by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to restrict the spread. We are working with all of our egg suppliers to reduce disruption in pubs.”
How can I save money at Wetherspoons?
FREE refills - Buy a £1.50 tea, coffee or hot chocolate and you can get free refills. The deal is available all day, every day.
Check a map – Prices can vary from one location the next, even those close to each other.
So if you’re planning a pint at a Spoons, it’s worth popping in nearby pubs to see if you’re settling in at the cheapest.
Choose your day – Each night the pub chain runs certain food theme nights.
For instance, every Thursday night is curry club, where diners can get a main meal and a drink for a set price cheaper than usual.
Pick-up vouchers – Students can often pick up voucher books in their local near universities, which offer discounts on food and drink, so keep your eyes peeled.
Get appy – The Wetherspoons app allows you to order and pay for your drink and food from your table – but you don’t need to be in the pub to use it.
Taking full advantage of this, cheeky customers have used social media to ask their friends and family to order them drinks. The app is free to download on the App Store or Google Play.
Check the date – Every year, Spoons holds its Tax Equality Day to highlight the benefits of a permanently reduced tax bill for the pub industry.
It usually takes place in September, and last year it fell on Thursday, September 14.
As well as its 12-day Real Ale Festival every Autumn, Wetherspoons also holds a Spring Festival.
High street fashion chain ‘on the brink’ of administration launches closing down sale at shopping centre store
A HIGH street fashion chain “on the brink” of administration has shut one of its stores after launching a closing down sale.
Quiz Clothing shuttered its branch in the Queensgate Shopping Centre, Peterborough, today.
It comes just weeks after it was reported the fashion chain, which runs around 60 branches, was set to call in administrators.
Shoppers have been left distraught after finding out the Peterborough store will close for good.
Posting on Facebook, one said: “There’s nothing in Peterborough Shopping Centre now…might as well pull it down.”
Another commented: “Yet another nail in the coffin for Queensgate.”
Meanwhile, a third added: “So very sad, lovely shop and the staff are very helpful.”
Last month, it was reported struggling Quiz was set to call in administrators Teneo after its market capitalisation dwindled to £3.6million.
Market capitalisation represents the total value of a publicly traded company’s outstanding shares of stock – the lower it is the less markets value a business or company.
The move was expected to involve a “pre-pack administration” deal – an insolvency process for a business to sell its assets before appointing administrators.
Any restructuring through the pre-pack administration deal could see the company keep going but may include store closures and job losses.
It is not clear whether the Peterborough branch closing is part of the deal agreed with Teneo.
The issues facing Quiz come as a number of other retailers languish amid a challenging economic climate.
Poundland‘s parent company Pepco is currently exploring strategic options with advisors.
Meanwhile, Lakeland and The Original Factory Shop have been put up for sale in recent weeks.
Last month, WHSmith revealed it is looking to sell all 500 high street stores.
The retail group has been in negotiations with several prospective buyers of the high street division for several weeks.
What does going into administration mean?
WHEN a company enters into administration, all control is passed to an appointed administrator.
The administrator has to leverage the company’s assets and business to repay creditors any outstanding debts.
Once a company enters administration, a “moratorium” is put in place which means no legal action can be taken against it.
Administrators write to your creditors and Companies House to say they’ve been appointed.
They try to stop the company from being liquidated (closing down), and if it can’t it pays as much of a company’s debts from its remaining assets.
The administrator has eight weeks to write a statement explaining what they plan to do to move the business forward.
This must be sent to creditors, employees and Companies House and invite them to approve or amend the plans at a meeting.
A Notice of Intention is used to inform concerning parties that a company intends to enter administration.
It is a physical document which is submitted to court, usually by directors aiming to prevent a company from being liquidated.
Like with a standard administration process, a Notice of Intention stops creditors from taking out any legal action over a company while they try and rectify the business.
Which retailers went bust in 2024?
During 2024, 27 retailers of all sizes went bust, affecting 886 shops and 17,939 employees, according to the Centre for Retail Research.
The number of casualties is more than half the previous year’s rate of retail collapses when 61 chains failed and 971 shops were impacted.
Here, we explain some of the biggest retailers that found themselves in trouble in 2024.
Sook
Sook was one of the first retail casualties of 2024 and was particularly depressing as it was meant to be the answer to empty high street stores.
The business operated 12 pop-up shops across the country in London, Birmingham, Southampton, Liverpool, Newcastle and Leeds and made high street space available for online brands like TikTok.
Tile Choice
Tile Choice, a Midlands-based flooring retailer with 18 shops, went into administration in January 2024.
Nine stores were snapped up by rival Tile Giant but the rest were not saved.
The business had 116 staff and £16million turnover in the last financial year, but had struggled with a slowdown in spending.
LloydsPharmacy
LloydsPharmacy, once the UK’s second biggest community pharmacy chain, went into liquidation in late January with debts of £293million.
The previous year it had closed all of its pharmacies inside Sainsbury’s and divided its 1,000 pharmacy estate into packages of hundreds of stores that it then sold to rivals in smaller deals.
There are now no more LloydsPharmacy-branded sites on the high street.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April 2025, will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
The Body Shop
The Body Shop filed for shock administration in February, just four months after being taken over by restructuring firm Aurelius.
Administrators immediately closed 75 of its 198 UK stores and made cuts to its head office while its international divisions were also declared bankrupt.
It took seven months for a rescue to be sealed with British cosmetics tycoon Mike Jatania in a deal that has kept 113 shops trading.
Matches Fashion
Matches Fashion, the designer clothing online retailer, was put into administration in March, less than three months after it was bought by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group.
Frasers Group bought the business for £52million but said it was too heavily loss-making to turn around and closed it down.
The firm was founded 30 years ago by husband and wife team Tom and Ruth Chapman, who made £400million when selling the business to private equity firm Apax in 2017.
Ted Baker
Designer clothing and accessories brand Ted Baker initially filed for administration in April after the company that ran the brand in the UK also went bust.
At the time, Ted Baker had 46 shops in the UK employing around 975 people.
The business had been taken private by US firm Authentic Brands Group in a £211million deal.
The last stores shut in August after failing to secure a full rescue.
It was relaunched as an online brand in the UK and Europe after a partnership with United Legwear & Apparel Co.
Muji
Japanese brand Muji, which had six stores in the UK including five in London’s busiest shopping streets, went into administration at the end of March.
The retailer had been popular with shoppers who liked its minimalistic stationery and homewares.
It was saved after a rescue deal with its parent company.
Carpetright
Flooring retailer Carpetright filed for administration in July after efforts to turnaround the struggling firm were derailed by a cyber attack.
The business had 1,800 staff and 273 shops across the country before going bust.
Around 54 stores were snapped up by its arch-rival Tapi Carpets & Floors, which also bought its brand name and continues to run the brand online.
The Floor Room
The Floor Room was owned by the same parent company behind Carpetright, Nestware Holdings.
The business traded out of 34 John Lewis concessions and employed 201 people.
The firm also relied on Carpetright for a number of its essential customer support services and could not survive on its own.
Homebase
DIY chain Homebase collapsed in November after years of struggles.
The business had around 130 shops across the UK and had been owned by restructuring firm Hilco, which bought the business for a single £1 in 2018.
Australia’s Wesfarmers had briefly owned Homebase in a disastrous attempt to break into the UK market.
Westfarmers bought Homebase in 2016 after Sainsbury’s £1 billion purchase of Argos triggered a break-up of Home Retail Group.
The brand and some stores have been partially rescued by billionaire Chris Dawson, the owner of The Range and Wilko.
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I felt utterly helpless after losing our precious son – it made me a control freak before breakdown, says Ben Fogle
WE know him as the tough-guy adventurer who is either climbing Mount Everest, racing to the South Pole or running a marathon through the desert.
But Ben Fogle has revealed how the stillbirth of his son Willem in 2014 turned him into a control freak — and eventually led to the mental health breakdown he suffered last year.
The 51-year-old TV presenter, whose shows include Countryfile and New Lives In The Wild, said: “A number of years ago, my wife and I lost a son, who was stillborn.
“And it’s amazing how you deal with a loss like that.
“My wife Marina was very raw with her emotions.
“Mine were much more measured.
“It doesn’t mean I felt it any less, but I probably kept them within.
“And one of the big things that happened to me was that I became obsessed about control, because I’d lost control there.
“I was actually in Canada when it happened, and I had to take a flight to get back.
“I didn’t know if my wife was going to survive.
“It was like one of the periods in my life, I’ve had a few, when I had lost all control.
“And what my brain, this amazing thing, did was it made me absolutely obsessed about control.
“And I wanted to control everything.
Ben, who has son Ludo, 15, and daughter Iona, 13, added: “I wanted to control how happy my children were.
“I couldn’t bear it if they weren’t happy.
“But you can’t. You can give hugs and kisses.
“But if a child is sad, you can’t just magic happiness.
“And I think when you try to control things when you are in the public eye and in modern life, that’s really, really difficult.
“And that for me was also one of the problems. It was like a clash.
“A perfect storm of circumstances that all culminated together. I think it was a perfect storm.
“I think what happened in 2023 is that I overdid it.
“I was being over-stimulated, I was absorbing too much, I was doing too much, I was expecting too much of myself.
“It was losing control of my emotions.
“It was that lack of control that eventually led to a point where I had to press the pause button.”
‘DOOM SCROLLING’
Ben, whose symptoms included crippling paranoia and anxiety, was then diagnosed with ADHD, and said that one of his first remedies was to delete social media apps from all his devices
Speaking for a forthcoming episode of the High Performance podcast, he added: “It was definitely a chaotic period that I haven’t completely got over.”
Asked what the first warning signs of him not being well were, Ben, who first found fame on 2000 BBC One reality show Castaway, said it was when he was about to head to Antarctica for a month recreating the journeys of explorers Captain Scott and Ernest Shackleton.
He said: “On the lead-up to that — it was over the Christmas period, I left on Boxing Day — I was agitated.
“A bit like if you have a dog and you see the dog walking in circles.
“I felt restless and sick. I didn’t want to go and I couldn’t really put my finger on why I was feeling that way.
“Now in hindsight I realise it was probably what is sometimes described as a panic attack.
“I probably should have not done it. I did it. I loved it.
“It was an amazing, amazing experience. I then came back and I was almost over-elated.
“My emotions were see-sawing up and down. There was almost too much elation.
“That was the point of these sort of yo-yoing emotions that in hindsight I realise were my body saying, ‘Do you know what, you just need to slow down, stop being hard on yourself’.”
Explaining what made him seek help, he added: “It was lots of tiny little alarm bells. It was a period of moments.
“I just realised I needed to do something and to ask someone who perhaps was more knowledgeable in this field.
“I saw a psychiatrist to kind of explain what I was feeling, how I was struggling a little bit.
“I think the whole thing probably lasted in its kind of storm-like period a couple of weeks.
“And then I’d say it took quite a while to kind of clear that up — a couple of months probably. It’s probably an ongoing thing.
“I deleted social media apps from all my devices.
“Like everyone, I was doom scrolling.
“I think there’s an assumption — because of what I do, I’m constantly out in the wilderness, I’m constantly extolling the virtues of living in an analogue world, of switching off — that I am somehow completely immune to that.
“But I spend an hour coming into London on the train, scrolling and looking and looking at the news.”
Now he tries to avoid his phone on trains and leaves it behind when he is running or walking the dog.
He has also cut back on work, turning down offers he would previously have accepted.
And he spends an astonishing ten hours every day outside, even when the weather is freezing.
He said: “I live in the countryside.
“I’ve got lots of dogs, we’ve got horses, and I am probably outside, let’s say, of a 12-hour conventional day when I’m home, we and the family are outside probably ten hours of that — even in the winter with torches out.”
- Ben Fogle’s full interview can be heard on the High Performance podcast on Monday on all major platforms.
- Ben is touring the country in March and April speaking about his life and travels in his show called ‘Wild’.
Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme – Sun Club.
TV star couple to host new BBC One series on mental health and therapy after success of Netflix show
MATT and Emma Willis have been open about having therapy during bumpy times in their 16-year marriage – and now they are dropping in on stranger’s counselling sessions.
The couple, who co-host Netflix dating show Love Is Blind, will go behind the scenes of real-life therapy in a new series for the BBC.
The four-parter will see the duo joined by individuals looking to improve their lives in what will be the first time cameras capture therapy in action for British TV.
From the makers of Channel 4’s First Dates, Inside Therapy will also feature some of Britain’s leading counsellors.
An insider told me: “Matt and Emma are really digging deep into what it looks like to go through therapy with unprecedented access to some of the leading mental health experts.
“What happens inside therapy sessions must normally stay within those sessions, but some brave individuals have agreed to showcase what it’s really like. The clinic will capture their breakthroughs in real time.
“It will cover topics from grief and anxiety to relationship struggles and crippling phobias.
“Matt and Emma make the perfect hosts for this, as both of them have been very open about their own transformative experiences with therapy, including marriage counselling.”
Matt and Emma added: “Therapy has played a huge role in our lives. It’s given us the tools to understand ourselves and each other better.
“With this series we’ll hear from experts and see what really happens in therapy, to help break down the stigma and start conversations.
“We know therapy isn’t always easy to access, so by bringing it to TV, we hope to give people a window into the process and share tools that could help them navigate their own challenges.
The series, which is currently in the works, will air on BBC One.
It follows Matt’s BBC documentary Fighting Addiction, in which the Busted star discussed his struggle with drugs and alcohol addiction.
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Asda slashes price of winter gadget for drying laundry without heating and it’s the cheapest around
SHOPPERS are rushing to Asda to get their hands on a must-have winter gadget.
The supermarket has slashed the price of the smart laundry airer that promises to dry clothes without using radiators.
The Silver Heated Winged Clothes Airer was originally £40 but is now just £28.97.
Made from Aluminium and foldable for easy storage, the airer can be purchased in-store or online with delivery starting from £3.75.
Users simply plug the drier into the mains which heats up each rail – resulting in less laundry clutter around the home.
Customers were over the moon with the product, with one writing: “Absolutely fantastic would definitely recommend,” wrote one customer.
“Needed extra drying space for jumpers. This is ideal,” said a second.
“This has been a life saver. Plenty of room, the clothes dry quickly once the heat is on,” echoed a third.
Another added: “Had this for several months, best thing ever, works best if you dry things flat and rotate often but a saviour when the weather’s wet and cold.”
With Spring just around the corner, shoppers have been hitting the store to stock up on gardening essentials – with prices starting as little as £2.
Jemma Heathfield took to TikTok to show off some of the new-in goodies, but you’ll have to act fast if you want to snap them up.
If you’re a disco fan, why not carry on the trend with a stunning disco ball plants for just £16.
The large pink planter is perfect to add some shimmer to your garden, and it’s available in-store and online too.
But if you want all the glamour of the disco planter on a smaller scale, the mini disco balls are perfect for sticking in your houseplants and catching the sunlight – and you can’t go wrong for £2.
Next, Jemma showed off a pink Polaroid Camera Planter for £12, and a slightly larger green Boombox Planter for £15.
The pastel-toned planters are perfect for spring, along with the adorable cherry Gardening Tools set, £16, which comes with a fork, trowel and pruner.
Don’t worry if the pink cherry design isn’t your thing though, it also comes in a cute green lead print, and a gnome design too.
And if you’re terrible at remembering to water your plants, don’t worry, Asda is also selling water globes for £5 each.
