O’Brien played 16 times for Swansea after joining on loan in the mid-season window, and played a key role as they pulled clear of relegation danger to finish 11th.
He also had loan spells at Los Angeles FC, Middlesbrough and DC United after falling out of favour at Forest.
O’Brien’s signing would be another statement of intent by Wrexham, who are owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, as they prepare for life in the Championship after three successive promotions.
The north Wales club have already brought in goalkeeper Danny Ward from Leicester City, forward Ryan Hardie from Plymouth Argyle, left-back Liberato Cacace for a club-record fee from Empoli, midfielder George Thomason from Bolton Wanderers and forward Josh Windass, who was a free agent after leaving financially troubled Sheffield Wednesday.
Cropped shot of a woman holding a basket while shopping at a grocery storeCredit: Getty
But there are ways to drive down the cost of your weekly shop, starting with help through the Household Support Fund (HSF).
The £742million fund has been shared between councils in England who then decide how to allocate their share.
Some are directing cash payments to residents in need while others are distributing supermarket vouchers to cover the summerholidays.
We’ve rounded up what some local authorities are offering below.
We won’t have covered all the councils offering help, so if your local authority isn’t included it’s worth checking with it to see what you are eligible for.
Most councils have pages on their websites dedicated to the Household Support Fund where you’ll find details on who is eligible and what you’re in line for.
You can find what local council area you fall under by visiting www.gov.uk/find-local-council.
That said, below are some of the councils offering qualifying households supermarket vouchers.
Bracknell Forest Council
Schools in Bracknell are automatically distributing supermarket vouchers to children registered for free school meals.
These vouchers have been paid for through Bracknell Forest Council’s allotment of the Household Support Fund.
Families can get FREE washing machines, fridges and kids’ beds or £200 payments this summer – and you can apply now
The council has not confirmed how much the vouchers are worth.
Wakefield Metropolitan District Counci
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council is issuing supermarket vouchers worth £50 to families receiving council tax support.
The vouchers are being issued via letters on July 21 and take up to seven days to arrive.
Full instructions on how to redeem the vouchers will be included in the letters.
Once the voucher has been redeemed, it doesn’t have to be used all at once and can be used several times until it is spent.
Nottingham City Council
Nottingham City Council is distributing £75 supermarket vouchers to households each month until March 2026.
There is a limit on the number of vouchers being shared each month meaning you have to act fast to claim one.
Applications for this month’s vouchers opened on July 7 so may all have been allocated for July.
Nottingham City Council has said the dates applications for vouchers will open between August and next March will be confirmed “later in July”.
The vouchers are worth £90 per child meaning you could get £180 if you have two kids.
You don’t need to apply for the vouchers as they are being sent automatically to emails or as letters.
The council’s partner, Blackhawk, is issuing a 16-digit personalised code and instructions on how to redeem the vouchers on the Blackhawk website – ealingcouncil.select-your-reward.co.uk.
Devon County Council
Devon County Council has issued supermarket vouchers worth more than £90 to 22,000 families with children on free school meals.
The £90 is equivalent to £15 per week for the six week school holiday.
The council has said the vouchers can be redeemed in major supermarkets but hasn’t said which ones.
Portsmouth City Council
Portsmouth City Council is issuing £50 supermarket vouchers to children on benefits-related free school meals.
You might also be eligible if your child is not on free school meals and you’re on a low income, and can apply for the vouchers from the end of the school term.
You can also forward your email address to the council and will be contacted when the application window opens.
More details can be found via www.portsmouth.gov.uk/services/benefits-and-money-advice/help-and-support/money-advice/household-support-fund.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council
Families on free school meals are eligible for supermarket food vouchers being distributed by schools in the area.
You do not need to apply as they are being issued automatically.
Food vouchers may also be available for children under five years if certain criteria is met.
To receive a voucher, children must be living in Bournemouth, Christchurch, or Poole and meet one of the following criteria:
currently claiming 2 year old early education funding at an early years setting in Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole during the term
currently claiming Early Years Pupil Premium funding for 3 and 4 year olds at an early years setting in Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole during the term (this is different to the early education funding available to all 3 and 4 year olds)
currently have an open case with a social worker or Early Help family support worker and are of pre-school age
Food vouchers for this group of families have to be applied for, with more details on the BCP Council website.
Household Support Fund explained
Sun Savers EditorLana Clementsexplains what you need to know about the Household Support Fund.
Sun Savers Editor Lana Clements explains what you need to know about the Household Support Fund.
If you’re battling to afford energy and water bills, food or other essential items and services, the Household Support Fund can act as a vital lifeline.
The financial support is a little-known way for struggling families to get extra help with the cost of living.
Every council in England has been given a share of £421million cash by the government to distribute to local low income households.
Each local authority chooses how to pass on the support. Some offer vouchers whereas others give direct cash payments.
In many instances, the value of support is worth hundreds of pounds to individual families.
Just as the support varies between councils, so does the criteria for qualifying.
Many councils offer the help to households on selected benefits or they may base help on the level of household income.
The key is to get in touch with your local authority to see exactly what support is on offer.
The last round ran until the end of March 2025, but was extended.
The most current round is running between April 2025 and March 2026.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
AFTER nearly three decades of trading, a popular House of Fraser store is set to close.
The department store in Victoria Centre, Nottingham, which first opened in 1997, will roll down the shutters in October this year.
1
House of Fraser has been struggling since 2022Credit: Getty
It’s bittersweet news for shoppers, who have been treated to a 20 percent off sale inside the store.
The once-thriving shopping hub was nearly shut in 2022 after Fraser Group chief exec Michael Murray described the brand as a “broken business”.
At the time, he said: “House of Fraser was a broken business when we bought it.
“We’ve completely changed the operating model. It was mostly concession, the stores were way too big, they were under‑invested.
“Our future vision is that House of Fraser will diminish and Frasers will grow.”
Once boasting more than 60 stores across the UK, the department store has steadily shuttered locations since its 2018 acquisition by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group.
Between 2022 and 2025 alone, over a dozen sites—including flagship locations like Oxford Street and regional mainstays in Cardiff, Cheltenham, and Nottingham—have closed their doors.
The closures reflect a deeper failure to adapt to a rapidly evolving retail landscape.
Many of its stores were oversized and heavily reliant on concessions—third-party brands renting space—which offered little control over stock or customer experience.
Frasers Group is now repositioning itself around a new retail vision, investing in smaller-format “Frasers” stores and upmarket lifestyle hubs, with sport and luxury offerings as its focus.
The Sun has approached House of Fraser representatives for comment.
House of Fraser is just one brand struggling against recent economic pressures and changes in consumer habits.
A combination of rising inflation, energy costs, and interest rates has squeezed both household spending and business margins, creating a perfect storm for retail operators.
For many consumers, essentials have taken priority over discretionary purchases, leading to a noticeable decline in footfall and in-store spending.
Even major players with established reputations have found themselves forced to close stores, reduce staff, or pivot entirely toward e-commerce.
This comes as Poundland bosses implemented a series of closures this year after the business was hit by spiraling operating costs and weakening footfall.
In Cornwall, one Poundland was evicted from one of its locations – leaving staff locked out of work overnight.
A bizarre notice was also posted in the window of the popular store.
It read: “We as authorised agents acting on behalf of the above-named landlord have today re-entered these premises and any lease or licence is hereby determined.
“Any attempt to enter these premises without the written authority of the above-named landlord will result in criminal/civil proceedings being taken.”
APoundlandspokesperson confirmed that the locks were changed overnight without notice.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
Wales goalkeeping great Wayne Hennessey has retired from playing.
The 38-year-old’s career lasted almost two decades, during which he played 109 times for Wales – a national record in his position – and was part of the side that reached the semi-finals of Euro 2016.
Hennessey made his professional club debut in 2006 for Wolverhampton Wanderers, playing on loan for clubs including Bristol City, Stockport County and Yeovil Town, before permanent moves to Crystal Palace, Burnley and his final club Nottingham Forest.
“I have decided to bring my playing career to an end, I look back with gratitude and forward with optimism as I take the next steps on my footballing journey,” Hennessey said on social media.
Newcastle United have agreed a £55m fee with Nottingham Forest for Sweden winger Anthony Elanga.
Newcastle are seeking to strengthen their attacking options as they prepare for their return to the Champions League following a fifth-placed Premier League finish last season.
The 23-year-old scored six goals and produced 11 assists for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side during their successful 2024-25 Premier League season.
Newcastle have yet to pay a fee for a player this summer, with 18-year-old Spanish winger Antonio Cordero the only new arrival on a free transfer from Malaga.
Forest are believed to have paid £15m to sign Elanga from Manchester United on a five-year-deal in 2023.
He had arrived at Old Trafford at the age of 12 and made 55 appearances before moving to the City Ground.
She feels her body, which allowed her to achieve so much in netball, “failed” her when she needed it most.
“I was like, ‘OK, my body allowed me to achieve everything there was to achieve in the sense of netball, but it hasn’t allowed me to achieve the one thing that I really wanted’,” she says.
One miscarriage came on England duty, shortly before Covid-19 triggered lockdowns.
Pitman was close to the three-month pregnancy stage at which point many people share their news with friends and family.
“It was really tough,” she recalls.
A cruel twist of fate meant Pitman, who knew she was miscarrying, was selected by UK Anti-Doping for a post-match urine test.
“For people that don’t know, you need to pee in a cup, and when you’re miscarrying, obviously things are happening as well. I just remember looking at the team doctor, going, ‘this is the worst week of my life’,” she says.
Pitman urges anyone going through pregnancy loss to “lean on the ones that you love” rather than delay conversations.
She elected to “just put it somewhere and then deal with it later”.
Eventually she told her story on social media and also spoke to BBC Sport about the toll of the lost pregnancies.
Pitman found she was not alone. A wave of support followed.
“I was like, ‘why do we keep this quiet?'” she says.
“The amount of women that were like, ‘oh my gosh, this has made me want to open up to my family and stuff’. It’s sad, because it is quite a lonely place if you do what I did and just keep it in.”
A UK airport has closed for good after 95 years to make may for thousands of homes – despite fears the area is “contaminated”.
The privately-run airport shut on June 6 after a developer served notice on the operator of the site.
1
Nottingham City Airport also provides a landing zone for the air ambulance
The Vistry Group, which owns Tollerton Airfield In Nottingham, plans to build 1,600 homes and a school at the site.
Home to Nottingham City Airport and a number of other businesses, the site also provides a landing zone for the air ambulance.
Vistry served notice on operator Truman Aviation to vacate the site, but said it would continue to provide a landing zone for the air ambulance during the initial phase of development.
The site’s closure follows a year-long battle from campaigners against Vistry.
Campaigners believe that more than 1,200 aircraft containing radioactive materials were burnt and buried at the ex-RAF base leading to contamination.
Concerns were raised after campaigners found evidence that theex-RAFbase in Nottinghamshire had been used after the Second World War to dismantle hundreds of Lancaster Bombers and other aircraft that contained glow-in-the-dark dials made out of radium -226.
Site owner Brian Wells, who was sent notice to vacate the area in March, previously said developers were “determined to have everywhere shut down for when they came to planning”.
“We agreed we’d have two to five years here before they would take over,” he told NottinghamshireLive. “They even suggested they could keep one runway open for us.
“But the main board of developers say they’ve had enough of all these people protesting and decided to shut it down sooner rather than later.”
David Lammy confirms first batch of Brits have left Tel Aviv by RAF plane amid boiling tensions in the Middle East
He added that “it’s very sad” how things have developed much quicker than hoped for, and said the closure will mean “numerous redundancies”.
The airfield dates back to the 20th century, when it was home to several flying clubs, and then as a commercial airport until the late 1940s.
During World War 2 it was acquired by the Air Ministry and became RAF Tollerton.
What would happen if the site is contaminated?
Campaigners for the airport have referred to other cases where ex-RAF airfields like Tollerton were used as “burn, bash, and bury” sites and then deemed potentially hazardous.
If the grounds were disturbed, an extensive clean-up process would have to be done.
An example of this is Dalgety Bay, Fife, Scotland, a stretch of coastline used for the same purposes as Tollerton AIrfield.
Traces of radium-226 found in the ground required a two-year clean-up project at the site. Other examples include RAF Newton, RAF Carlisle and RAF Kinloss.
A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “Our Environment Agency officers advised Rushcliffe Borough Council (the planning authority) in May 2024 that a condition of planning permission is that developers have a plan in place to identify and deal with the risks associated with potential contaminants.
“In addition, we have advised that the site will need to be assessed for potential contaminants at routine stages as the development progresses.”
Rushcliffe Borough Council has confirmed applications for the site include initial land contamination assessments.
A spokesperson for Rushcliffe Borough Council said: “We are aware of the previous uses of the wider site, including the airfield and the potential for land contamination associated with these uses.
“Both current applications for the site include initial land contamination assessments”.
Forest were last season’s surprise package as they challenged for the Champions League spots and sat in the top four for the majority of the campaign.
They dropped out of contention after two wins in their final seven games but qualified for the Europa Conference League play-off stage.
Former Wolves and Tottenham head coach Nuno also took them to the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time since 1991, where they lost 2-0 to Manchester City.
Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis said: “Nuno has made a great impact and performed very well during his time with us so far.
“He has demonstrated that he maximises player performance and is an expert at developing players, whilst also embedding our young talent into the first team set-up.
“We enjoy a strong and solid relationship together and, above all, we share the same dream and ambition of writing a new history for Nottingham Forest, competing in the Premier League and in Europe and winning trophies for our great club.”
