Luton re-sign Naismith on loan from Bristol City
Luton Town have re-signed defender Kal Naismith on loan from Bristol City for the rest of the season.
The 32-year-old made 68 appearances for the Hatters before leaving at the end of the 2021-22 season.
His final games were the two legs of the Championship play-off semi-final against Huddersfield Town, which Luton lost 2-1 on aggregate.
"I'm delighted and excited to be back and grateful to get this opportunity. It's not often people get second chances, but I'm back to try and have a positive impact on the team between now and the end of the season," Naismith said.
Luton are 23rd in the Championship, having won only seven of their 29 league games - and have lost the past 11 away from home.
Naismith has made seven appearances for Bristol City this season, but none since a 2-1 home defeat by Sheffield United on 5 November.
"Kal is looking for regular minutes and this move will allow him to do that," said Robins technical director Brian Tinnion.
"He has been an excellent professional since joining the club and heads out on loan with our best wishes."
Luton are back in action on Saturday when they take on Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough - with new manager Matt Bloomfield looking for his first victory in his fourth game since arriving from Wycombe.
"He's a player I've admired from afar for a number of years. I played against him when he was a wide player, then he went to centre-back and did so well here in his first spell," Bloomfield said of Naismith.
"He's a dominant defender, a leader and a character, but he can also play with the ball and gives us good balance with his left foot."
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
31 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
'Craziest' reversal of fortune puts Mavs on path to Flagg after all the Doncic drama
DALLAS (AP) — Dallas Mavericks CEO Rick Welts wasn't thinking even for a second about Cooper Flagg when he started a staff meeting before the draft lottery by saying the club was entering the most important offseason in franchise history. The longtime NBA executive and relatively new leader on the business side of the Mavs was thinking about the lingering fallout of the widely reviled Luka Doncic trade, not the club turning a 1.8% chance into winning the rights to draft the teenaged star from Duke. Dallas is set to make that pick Wednesday night. 'Never, ever did anybody in our organization ever even say what would happen if we win. That's a waste of time,' Welts told The Associated Press recently. 'Like, it's unbelievable. It was hard to even get your head around.' The self-inflicted wounds were numerous after general manager Nico Harrison's stunning decision to send Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis in early February. Fans were incensed. Season-ticket holders were canceling. Potential new sponsors were telling Welts they'd have to think about it. Just like that, the Mavs had a vision to sell of a potential superstar who could someday be the face of the franchise — as Doncic was, and fellow European superstar Dirk Nowitzki before him. Just like that, despair turned to hope for plenty of people, including those under Welts who had spent weeks dealing with the wrath of a spurned fan base. 'It's got to be the craziest reversal of fortune,' Welts said. 'It would match any in the league's history.' Before the Doncic trade, Welts had already made a decision to raise season-ticket prices. He told the AP he had to back off on the size of the increase as he watched the visceral reaction unfold. Welts has seen plenty in nearly 50 years with the NBA, including time in the league office and stints with Phoenix and Golden State. Magic Johnson's HIV announcement. Accusations of widespread drug use in the early 1980s, when he says there was a widespread belief that the league would fail. That's not to say the Doncic fallout didn't have a profound impact on the 72-year-old Welts, who had come out of retirement to replace Cynt Marshall just a month and a half earlier. It just means he has weathered a few storms. And now the Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer isn't so sure he's ever seen the sun come back out so quickly. 'The thing that I learned through all of this experience was what I knew was like this amazing emotional tie between this team and these fans was even stronger than I think anybody who hadn't lived here and been a part of it could ever imagine,' Welts said. 'Just the outpouring of pure joy and the idea of a generational player that could change our fortunes for the next 15 years would land with us by pure luck.' Harrison's widely panned decision on Doncic was compounded by an injury to Davis in his Dallas debut, followed by Kyrie Irving's season-ending knee injury a month later. The Mavs made the play-in tournament and won at Sacramento before their season — mercifully, perhaps — ended in a loss at Memphis with the No. 8 seed at stake. Part of what made the Doncic deal so hard to believe was unloading a 25-year-old superstar in his prime nine months after leading Dallas to the NBA Finals for the first time in 13 years. The Mavs lost to Boston in five games last June. Harrison's reasoning was prioritizing defense, and his belief that Davis and Irving were a good enough tandem to keep Dallas as a championship contender. Flagg's potential gave that notion a boost. 'I feel like I'm a broken record, but the team that we intended to put on the floor, which you guys saw for 2 1/2 quarters, that's a championship-caliber team,' Harrison said. 'And so you might not like it, but that's the fact, it is.' Welts, who believes the Mavs have work to do to bring their basketball and business sides together, will spend plenty of time during the early days of the Flagg era sharing his vision for a new arena. It's a big reason Welts took the job, after spending seven years with Golden State on an arena plan that moved the Warriors across the bay to San Francisco from Oakland. He says all the talks are focused on keeping the team in Dallas. While the casino-centered Adelson and Dumont families of Las Vegas, in the middle of their second full year as owners of the Mavs, wanted gambling to be part of the formula for a new arena, the political realities in Texas have shifted the focus away from that idea for now. There's a new focus for Welts in what seems certain will be the final stop in an eventful NBA career: building everything around another potentially generational star after the Mavs jettisoned the one they had. 'Don't make this sound like I'm suggesting that everyone is forgiven,' Welts said. 'Luka will always be a big part of what this organization is. But for a large number of fans, it is a pathway — it's not a pathway, it's like a four-lane highway into being able to care about the Mavericks the way they cared about the Mavericks before.'
Fox Sports
42 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
'Craziest' reversal of fortune puts Mavs on path to Flagg after all the Doncic drama
Associated Press DALLAS (AP) — Dallas Mavericks CEO Rick Welts wasn't thinking even for a second about Cooper Flagg when he started a staff meeting before the draft lottery by saying the club was entering the most important offseason in franchise history. The longtime NBA executive and relatively new leader on the business side of the Mavs was thinking about the lingering fallout of the widely reviled Luka Doncic trade, not the club turning a 1.8% chance into winning the rights to draft the teenaged star from Duke. Dallas is set to make that pick Wednesday night. 'Never, ever did anybody in our organization ever even say what would happen if we win. That's a waste of time,' Welts told The Associated Press recently. 'Like, it's unbelievable. It was hard to even get your head around.' The self-inflicted wounds were numerous after general manager Nico Harrison's stunning decision to send Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis in early February. Fans were incensed. Season-ticket holders were canceling. Potential new sponsors were telling Welts they'd have to think about it. Just like that, the Mavs had a vision to sell of a potential superstar who could someday be the face of the franchise — as Doncic was, and fellow European superstar Dirk Nowitzki before him. Just like that, despair turned to hope for plenty of people, including those under Welts who had spent weeks dealing with the wrath of a spurned fan base. 'It's got to be the craziest reversal of fortune,' Welts said. 'It would match any in the league's history.' Before the Doncic trade, Welts had already made a decision to raise season-ticket prices. He told the AP he had to back off on the size of the increase as he watched the visceral reaction unfold. Welts has seen plenty in nearly 50 years with the NBA, including time in the league office and stints with Phoenix and Golden State. Magic Johnson's HIV announcement. Accusations of widespread drug use in the early 1980s, when he says there was a widespread belief that the league would fail. That's not to say the Doncic fallout didn't have a profound impact on the 72-year-old Welts, who had come out of retirement to replace Cynt Marshall just a month and a half earlier. It just means he has weathered a few storms. And now the Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer isn't so sure he's ever seen the sun come back out so quickly. 'The thing that I learned through all of this experience was what I knew was like this amazing emotional tie between this team and these fans was even stronger than I think anybody who hadn't lived here and been a part of it could ever imagine,' Welts said. 'Just the outpouring of pure joy and the idea of a generational player that could change our fortunes for the next 15 years would land with us by pure luck.' Harrison's widely panned decision on Doncic was compounded by an injury to Davis in his Dallas debut, followed by Kyrie Irving's season-ending knee injury a month later. The Mavs made the play-in tournament and won at Sacramento before their season — mercifully, perhaps — ended in a loss at Memphis with the No. 8 seed at stake. Part of what made the Doncic deal so hard to believe was unloading a 25-year-old superstar in his prime nine months after leading Dallas to the NBA Finals for the first time in 13 years. The Mavs lost to Boston in five games last June. Harrison's reasoning was prioritizing defense, and his belief that Davis and Irving were a good enough tandem to keep Dallas as a championship contender. Flagg's potential gave that notion a boost. 'I feel like I'm a broken record, but the team that we intended to put on the floor, which you guys saw for 2 1/2 quarters, that's a championship-caliber team,' Harrison said. 'And so you might not like it, but that's the fact, it is.' Welts, who believes the Mavs have work to do to bring their basketball and business sides together, will spend plenty of time during the early days of the Flagg era sharing his vision for a new arena. It's a big reason Welts took the job, after spending seven years with Golden State on an arena plan that moved the Warriors across the bay to San Francisco from Oakland. He says all the talks are focused on keeping the team in Dallas. While the casino-centered Adelson and Dumont families of Las Vegas, in the middle of their second full year as owners of the Mavs, wanted gambling to be part of the formula for a new arena, the political realities in Texas have shifted the focus away from that idea for now. There's a new focus for Welts in what seems certain will be the final stop in an eventful NBA career: building everything around another potentially generational star after the Mavs jettisoned the one they had. 'Don't make this sound like I'm suggesting that everyone is forgiven,' Welts said. 'Luka will always be a big part of what this organization is. But for a large number of fans, it is a pathway — it's not a pathway, it's like a four-lane highway into being able to care about the Mavericks the way they cared about the Mavericks before.' ___ AP NBA: recommended
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
Liverpool's Nat Phillips having West Brom medical ahead of permanent transfer
Liverpool defender Nat Phillips is undergoing a medical today ahead of completing a permanent transfer to West Bromwich Albion. The 28-year-old centre-back, who had one year remaining on his contract at Anfield, had attracted interest from several Championship clubs following a productive loan spell at Derby County last season. Advertisement However, new West Brom head coach Ryan Mason has won the race to secure his services. Phillips will link up with his new team-mates for the start of pre-season testing later this week. It brings to an end Phillips' long association with Liverpool, dating back to 2016 when he was signed from Bolton Wanderers' academy. Handed his debut by Jurgen Klopp against Everton in an FA Cup tie in January 2020, he went on to make 29 senior appearances for the club. Phillips endeared himself to Liverpool supporters with his performances alongside fellow rookie Rhys Williams as Klopp's side salvaged Champions League qualification during a defensive injury crisis in 2020-21. He has previously had loan spells at Stuttgart, Bournemouth, Celtic, Cardiff City and Derby County. His final appearance for Liverpool was against Wolverhampton Wanderers in January 2023. (Ben)
