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Hirsty.


Guest Iron Hunter

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He's 47 and out I shape, definitely lacking match fitness. A few seasons ago he could probably still have done a job for us, but he wouldn't get anywhere near the side.I don't think he has played a professional game for about 15 years.

Current market value. £0

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Time will be kind to Hirst if you're a Wednesday fan, he was probably the most talented striker we have ever have and is rightfully seen as a legend.

 

For football in general, he will sadly be seen as someone who was, for whatever reason, unable to properly function as a European class player at the highest level and allowed his career to peeter out at the woefully young age of 32.

 

Time and time again we say how injury crippled his potential, but other players have come back from, and thrived, more serious and even multiple injuries. In the same breath, players of the era with much less skill and flair as Hirst such as Cottee, Dixon and Clough are regarded for their longevity and goal scoring record.

 

For that reason I would say that he wouldn't be as expensive as people presume.

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Well the most successful manager in Premier League history made a British transfer record bid for Hirst so you could use that as your starting point.

At the time he was right up there bring compared to Alan Shearer, in fact in Alex Fergusson's book he states that Hirst was his first choice, Shearer was plan B.

A much better striker than Fernando Torres when he signed for Chelsea for £50m, I'd say a 22 year old David Hirst at peak form today would be worth somewhere in the region of £60m.

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Time will be kind to Hirst if you're a Wednesday fan, he was probably the most talented striker we have ever have and is rightfully seen as a legend.

For football in general, he will sadly be seen as someone who was, for whatever reason, unable to properly function as a European class player at the highest level and allowed his career to peeter out at the woefully young age of 32.

Time and time again we say how injury crippled his potential, but other players have come back from, and thrived, more serious and even multiple injuries. In the same breath, players of the era with much less skill and flair as Hirst such as Cottee, Dixon and Clough are regarded for their longevity and goal scoring record.

For that reason I would say that he wouldn't be as expensive as people presume.

To be honest I can't think of many other players who have thrived having the same number of injuries as hirsty. His injuries were constant for a number of years.

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You wouldn't be able to see into the future and work out that he'd get a load of injuries and fail to come back from them though, Arthur.

 

So as at about 21-24 he would be an extremely valuable prospect. The sort of money that is being banded about for the very top players now is ridiculous. He could be worth 25M+, maybe even double that in today's crazy market. As it turned out, he never quite lived up to his potential after Steve Bould savagely scythed him down. So anyone forking silly money would end up with terrible value. Saying that, the top players are protected a bit more than they were in the past. So maybe we would see the best out of him if he were playing today.

 

 

(p.s. I have no idea what tense to use when talking about a player from the past in a hypothetical future scenario assuming he's playing in the present, as such)  

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Injuries should always be seen as a factor and I wouldn't expect all players to return at the same rate and at the same level.

 

Hirst hit form in the second tier, and never found that kind of peak again. He had an impressive record upon promotion, but was it any better than anything Alan Shearer, Ian Wright or Teddy Sheringham were doing?

 

Was he actually the best striker in the top flight at any one point? Probably not and his record doesn't show as anything above and beyond the domestic talent at the time.

 

Without getting too much into a debate about his time at the club during such a 'successful' period you have to ask the question as to whether he really, really showed a true dedication to injury recovery and subsequent result to form.

 

It was a strange time because we had such talent at the club and found form as a team in the league, cups and Europe - a lot was done in spite of Hirst as opposed to being as a result of him. He also strangely found himself in the shadow of Warhurst that basically played the Hirst role by proxy for a time.

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You didn't have to be Alex Ferguson to know he was a top striker.

If United really wanted him, they would have got him.

Well they made a British transfer record bid for him and we turned it down.

I'm really struggling to see what else they could have done, can you think of anything?

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