Luke Littler should follow Sir Alex Ferguson advice to avoid Emma Raducanu repeat

Ex-professional golfer Andrew Chandler has warned Luke Littler to remove himself from the media spotlight as his rapid rise in darts continues.

Littler recently produced a nine-darter on his way to winning the Belgium Open and is quickly becoming the face of the sport after his heroics at the 2024 World Darts Championship.

The teenager has quickly been snapped up for brand deals and interviews on television and in newspapers on the back of his success and appears to be open to opportunities of this nature. Warning the 17-year-old to be careful of taking such a route in his career, the former agent of golf superstar Rory McIlroy has spoken from his experience as to what could easily go wrong.

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"For a week, two weeks after the World Darts Championship he was at Anfield, he was at Old Trafford, he was meeting Fergie. He was living the dream and that’s tough on a kid like that to stay grounded," said Chandler of Littler.

"I remember going to Cheltenham Races in a helicopter with Sir Alex, and I asked him, I said ‘I’ve got this lad, Rory McIlroy, you’ve had Cristiano Ronaldo, how did you treat him and what should I be looking at for Rory?’.

"And it was all about hangers-on, he said he wouldn’t allow Ronaldo to have any hangers-on whatsoever, and he made sure he didn’t do much media because at that age he can only say the wrong thing. I listened, Sir Alex is Sir Alex, he has got the trophies. It was very interesting and it is very obvious that Luke Littler is talking too much and is behaving like a