EFL players - Nine short stories: The player who PTs on the side and training under Glenn Hoddle in Spain

The player who PTs on the side and training under Glenn Hoddle in Spain; here, we pick out some stories from the EFL; Sky Sports+ brings you 34 live games from across the Championship, League One and League Two live on New Year's Day

Simeon Gholam

EFL Editor @simgholam

Wednesday 1 January 2025 07:50, UK

Goals or assists? The ultimate question with Finn Azaz

Finn Azaz has been the creative force in Middlesbrough's fiercesome attack this season.

But does he prefer scoring or creating goals?

"It sometimes depends, but I've got to say goals," he says with a smile.

"Like an assist when you just pass it to someone and they run through five players and score. Not those ones.

"But the assist against like Sheffield United. I was really proud of that because that was the moment that unlocked the game. Those are the best ones."

Azaz has been in exceptional form this campaign, but he tends not to dwell on his output.

"I'm not watching the goals or assists back too much," he adds. "Maybe I used to! But not now."

Harry Souttar's big-man battle with team-mate Moore

It must be some task defending Sheffield United set-pieces this season, with the towering presences of Harry Souttar and Kieffer Moore both attacking the ball.

Souttar smiles when asked who is the bigger of the two.

"I'm definitely taller than him," he says. He is 6ft 7in, with striker Moore being 6ft 5in.

But have they gone back-to-back yet?

"Not yet!" Souttar adds. "I think the lads have tried to get us, but not yet."

The defender, on loan from Leicester, is pleased to be on Moore's team, rather than having to mark him.

"I remember playing against him when he was at Cardiff and such. He's certainly a handful so I'm very glad we're on the same team," he jokes.

Championship: Fixtures | Highlights | Table

Myles Peart-Harris on growing up at Chelsea

There are Cobham graduates sprinkled across every corner of football in this country.

One is currently impressing at Swansea, on loan from Brentford, in Myles-Peart Harris. The 22-year-old left Chelsea for the Bees in 2021.

"Obviously Chelsea is probably the best academy to grow up at," he says. "To learn there, study there and go to school there, and to be around top coaches and professionals is every kid's dream.

"They've given me the footsteps and path to be where I am now, and I'm very grateful for that."

Peart-Harris had some band of team-mates there as well.

"Levi Colwill, Tino Livramento, Jamal Musiala - until he was 16," he recalls. "It was like playing with friends but you could see their talent to this day now. You see how it's panned out for them, but everyone has different paths. I look at them but you can't compare.

"It does give me the confidence and belief in myself that one day I can be where they are."

Jordan Rhodes: I have no regrets over lack of PL games

Jordan Rhodes has played 386 times in the Sky Bet Championship, 173 times in League One and 19 times in League Two.

His deadly natural instinct has gained him a reputation as one of the EFL's most prolific goalscorers, with the Blackpool frontman having hit 222 goals in League football alone to date.

However, he has only played six times in the Premier League, with each of those appearances coming during the 2016/17 season with Middlesbrough.

The striker's top-flight journey was fleeting, yet he is not the slightest bit bitter about it.

"I've been very fortunate to have the career I've had, to have scored the goals and had the memories now to look back," he told Sky Sports.

"Throughout all my life and my career, I've had my critics, so to have been able to achieve what I feel like I've been able to achieve in this game, I'm very fortunate and grateful that I have done.

"I can see why you'd look at it, but on the flip side, I feel very grateful to have made six appearances in the Premier League. I look at it as a glass half full scenario. It's one of the proudest moments to look back and say I have played in the Premier League."

Was there ever a chance to make a return?

"I guess, maybe, when I went on loan to Norwich," he added.

"Teemu Pukki was doing ever so well and there was potentially a chance of making that switch from Sheffield Wednesday if the stars had aligned, but they didn't."
By Dan Long

Joe Hugill: Rooney, Ronaldo my heroes - but I get compared to Vardy!

Joe Hugill's chance to train under Ruud van Nistelrooy at Manchester United in the summer was a thrill for him, even if the Dutchman's Old Trafford prime was a little before his time.

"Rooney was my era. Ronaldo. Other ones like Drogba. People a little bit after Ruud," Hugill - currently on loan from Man Utd at Wigan - says.

A more recent Premier League legend is someone, at least in terms of style, that Hugill can relate to more.

"I always get a little bit of a comparison with (Jamie) Vardy," he says. "The runs in behind, quite quick, the six-yard box type of finishing. Poachers goals.

"He had a different story in how he came through non-League. But quite similar in terms of the style."

Does Hugill also have a similar style to Vardy in terms of drinking a famous energy drink before games?

"No!" he laughs. "I'm slightly different to him there."

League One: Fixtures | Highlights | Table

Toby Mullarkey: Pro player and PT

When Toby Mullarkey was released by Crewe in 2017, he needed to find a way to keep himself going while he tried to work his way back into the professional game.

"I always had an interest in the gym and keeping fit," the Crawley defender says. "So that's when I got my Personal Training qualification and the more I worked in the gym the better my football became. So I could speak about that on my page."

Mullarkey, now 29, and back in the Football League after stints at Rochdale, Grimsby and currently Crawley has maintained his role as a fitness influence and online coach throughout.

"It would've been easy to part ways from it when I went pro again," he adds. "But it keeps me busy away from football which is good.

"It's my profession, but it's still a job and you need that. It's really important to switch off from it, to get that mental breather and physical reset.

"Hopefully it'll give me a career path as well once my playing career is over."

Jack Shorrock: Vale's teenage star on his wondergoal

It came to Jack Shorrock on the edge of the box. He caught it perfectly on the volley and the cameras loved it.

Some moment for the 17-year-old Port Vale defender. It won him the Sky Bet League Two Goal of the Month for November.

"There were loads of emotions," Shorrock says of his brilliant strike against Crewe. "I was more shocked than anything. It was a big game and it was so early on. I was buzzing."

Not a bad effort considering it was just his second goal for the club, and the first while live on Sky. Not something that crossed his mind at the time.

"After the game it did when everyone was messaging me," he says. "You realised loads of people had watched it. It's not something I'd thought about before.

"I was just in the moment. Running about. My family come to every game. My grandma and my girlfriend are there. So to see them after was a nice feeling as well."

Mickey Demetriou's continental path into the EFL

There are so many unique paths into the EFL. Mickey Demetriou took a continental route.

The Glenn Hoddle Academy, when the football legend took players who had been released from professional clubs to train in Spain and try to get them back into the game, was the start of Demetriou's path.

Out there he played for Jerez Industrial, the fourth-tier Spanish side in Andalusia that was filled with members of the academy during a brief spell from 2010-11. Demetriou ended up there by chance.

"I was quite lucky because I never came through an academy," Demetriou, now playing for Crewe after more than a decade in the EFL, says. "I was playing at Bognor at the time and they came to watch a striker playing for Worthing against us in a pre-season game.

"I must have had a good game because they invited me for a trial. Then I got accepted and we flew to Spain, which was incredible.

"Glenn was there a lot when I was there. So to learn under him was brilliant. You were just listening as much as you can, trying to take on all the knowledge they can pass to us.

"They pushed me into the central role after going there as a left-back. When I came back I could play both."

League Two: Fixtures | Highlights | Table

The tweak that made Alex Gilbey flourish at MK Dons

In over 350 appearances in all competitions, Alex Gilbey had scored 28 goals when he signed for MK Dons for a second time in July 2023.

Three promotions - two from League Two and one from the National League - proved he was a dependable central midfielder, but he knew he was capable of more - as did former MK boss Mike Williamson.

One day, Williamson - now in charge at Carlisle - pushed Gilbey into a more advanced midfield position, with Jack Payne dropping back. He took the opportunity, ran with it, and had 23 goals and 10 assists in his last 71 games up to Christmas.

"The big question mark over my name my whole career was that I didn't score enough goals, didn't set up enough goals, especially when I was at the club the first time round. It's nice to see the goals starting to go in because I always knew I was capable of doing it, it was just about proving the point.

"I've always had the legs to run into the box, but being in a higher position, closer to the goal. It's a mad one that it's taken me so long maybe to find my position.

"I've worked really hard on my finishing, especially last season. This year, Carl Laraman has come to the club and he's given me loads of tips, helping me, and I've just listened to the strikers.

"Ellis Harrison and Scotty Hogan have been massive for me. I try and mirror their runs, so if the ball does miss them, I'm there. Listening to people who've scored goals their whole career has helped and I've just got to continue doing it."
By Dan Long

New Year's Day EFL fixtures on Sky Sports+

All 3pm kick-off unless stated (games in bold also on Sky Sports Football)

CH: Plymouth vs Bristol City (12.30pm), QPR vs Watford (12.30pm), Millwall vs Oxford (1pm), Burnley vs Stoke, Cardiff vs Coventry, Leeds vs Blackburn, Luton vs Norwich, Portsmouth vs Swansea, Sheff Wed vs Derby, West Brom vs Preston Hull vs Middlesbrough (5.30pm), Sunderland vs Sheff Utd (8pm)
L1: Barnsley vs Wrexham, Blackpool vs Shrewsbury, Bristol Rovers vs Leyton Orient, Burton vs Peterborough, Cambridge vs Reading, Crawley vs Charlton, Lincoln vs Rotherham, Mansfield vs Bolton, Northampton vs Stevenage, Stockport vs Birmingham, Wigan vs Huddersfield, Wycombe vs Exeter
L2: Accrington vs Grimsby, Barrow vs Bradford, Chesterfield vs MK Dons, Crewe vs Carlisle, Doncaster vs Fleetwood, Harrogate vs Salford, Morecambe vs Tranmere, Notts County vs Walsall, Port Vale vs Cheltenham, Swindon vs Colchester

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