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Where did it all go wrong for George Hirst at Sheffield Wednesday?


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Last time I saw Hirst Snr he was sulking around the south stand concourse tryna get to front of the beer que without been seen 

 

Kept a very low profile hasn’t he since he left whatever role he had with the academy 

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3 minutes ago, Grandad said:

 

Lets say it was £10k (I understand it wasn't even half that - the problem was the lengthy contract term with no improvement allowed for achievements - breaking into the first team/goals scored etc).... Even if it was £5k for 4 years its still a £1m contract - but sadly thats peanuts in football as we know it.

 

But lets say it was £10k for the benefit of this thread. With a deal of £2m offered - its still not even the value of a transfer fee already tabled for a youngster. Developing youngsters is always a gamble - for every one that makes it to the Premier League there are probably 50 that don't. So you're not paying for service - you're paying for potential. The amount of games played is entirely irrelevant. You're backing a horse, with a striker a thoroughbred, and this particular thoroughbred was already being courted by clubs at the top level (Everton too were also interested)

 

If we'd decided we couldn't develop further then (as you yourself has already said) we should have cashed in. That we didnt in itself is woefully incompetent.

 

To then condemn a young prospect to train alone for a whole season would set back not just the player - but our whole youth programme. Would you want to bring your son into a setup like that - when you might see your son treated exactly the same way? It was vindictive and petty.

 

And I'm removing myself at this stage. Done the argument to death too many times..

 

Absolutely you are paying for potential, the decision not to sell at £2M was a mistake on this basis, especially given that he has still not made a first team appearance at any level 2 years after leaving us.

The way it was dealt with by us was clearly not right and I have stated my opinion on our youth development already in this thread.

 

However, how do you judge the potential that is worth paying £10K a week for at that age? There is yet to be any evidence that Hirst will make it at the top level our indeed our current level and as has been said, some who watched the junior teams regularly pointed at others with just as much potential, do we pay them all £10K a week for potential? It's simply not feasible because as you say the vast majority wont make it and it is hard to judge at that age which ones will. There have been plenty of players who have ripped it up in junior football but not fulfilled that potential at senior level. 

 

Aslo. what if we had wanted to keep him and see how he develops for us for 2 or 3 years rather than sell him immediately? You can't offer them £10K a week at that stage if you want to keep them and give them the opportunity to earn a 1st team chance. Premier League clubs can pay these kinds of salaries to kids at the drop of a hat, Chelsea have had a youth team squad that haven't had a look in for the first team for many years but were getting paid more than our top earners. Leicester have a striker the same age as Hirst with an almost identical academy scoring record this season - he has gone out on loan in League Two but few will have heard of him here because his name is not Hirst. 

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Guest Grandad
9 minutes ago, Royal_D said:

Just goes round and round in circles this topic 

 

End of the day there’s things went off that nobody knows about fully, vindictive and petty from DC ?  To an extent I agree ,  but there’s a side of the story to be told by Mr Hirst that I suspect wouldn’t leave him in a great light with the support base that adores him 

 

Still going to the matches then

 

If he was sulking (I assume you meant skulking) - it was probably down to turning up to watch us and having idiots moaning at him for supporting his son in this situation 

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Just now, Grandad said:

 

Still going to the matches then

 

If he was sulking (I assume you meant skulking) - it was probably down to turning up to watch us and having idiots moaning at him for supporting his son in this situation 


Yeah, skulking 

 

to be honest I don’t hold nowt against him in supporting his boy and don’t know why anyone would,  and I genuinely think the kid will push on at Leicester and be a good player after maybe a loan spell or two 

 

Doesn’t take Einstein to figure out Hirst Snr and Chansiri had a row, I’m just a bit uncomfortable with thinking it was all down to the chairman and there wasn’t a bit of teddy throwing by the Hirst family 

 

But back to my original point, it just goes round and round in circles because nobody knows the full sketch , well .. people do but they arnt putting it out there 

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16 minutes ago, Royal_D said:


Yeah, skulking 

 

to be honest I don’t hold nowt against him in supporting his boy and don’t know why anyone would,  and I genuinely think the kid will push on at Leicester and be a good player after maybe a loan spell or two 

 

Doesn’t take Einstein to figure out Hirst Snr and Chansiri had a row, I’m just a bit uncomfortable with thinking it was all down to the chairman and there wasn’t a bit of teddy throwing by the Hirst family 

 

But back to my original point, it just goes round and round in circles because nobody knows the full sketch , well .. people do but they arnt putting it out there 

 

Support your child and do the best by him, absolutely. Was a move to the Belgian 2nd division doing the best by him though? It was basically a move manufactured to enable Leicester to avoid any tribunal fee for him. 

 

In hindsight we should have accepted their initial £2M offer but should we just accept every 1st offer that comes along? Maybe we thought that we would be better off keeping him and even when negotiations broke down and became irrecoverable we thought we might get more than £2M at tribunal. Leicester City, a club with a turnover of 100's of millions, found an underhand way of circumventing this through links with Hirst & Pearson. Whilst our club were wrong to prevent him from playing for a prolonged period, effectively burning our own bridges with him, the move was pretty poor in my opinion. 

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13 minutes ago, hirstyboywonder said:

 

Support your child and do the best by him, absolutely. Was a move to the Belgian 2nd division doing the best by him though? It was basically a move manufactured to enable Leicester to avoid any tribunal fee for him. 

 

In hindsight we should have accepted their initial £2M offer but should we just accept every 1st offer that comes along? Maybe we thought that we would be better off keeping him and even when negotiations broke down and became irrecoverable we thought we might get more than £2M at tribunal. Leicester City, a club with a turnover of 100's of millions, found an underhand way of circumventing this through links with Hirst & Pearson. Whilst our club were wrong to prevent him from playing for a prolonged period, effectively burning our own bridges with him, the move was pretty poor in my opinion. 


Of course it was a manufactured move, if it was in George’s best interests or not is an issue for those who made it really 

 

I agree with the majority of what your saying, at the end of the day it all happened off the back of a breakdown in relationship between DC and Hirst Snr 

 

The Hirst side of the story hasn’t been told , and most probably won’t be , but the relationship became that untenable it led to George been unable to train or play

 

Should we believe all that carry on about DC banning him just because he wouldn’t sign a deal ?  Am not so sure , I THINK they basically threatened to do the deal with Leicester unless X amount of money was on the table 

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Overheard Hirst senior discussing this at the point Hirst junior was frozen out but still on our books. He said the issue was George's 'education' and also insisted the decision was George's and nothing to do with him (I realise he would say that regardless). I also heard from someone within the youth set up that when George signed his previous contract, everything was agreed but then when George received the contract, the terms had been changed and he was told to take it or leave  it. Maybe that's when the bad blood started but as Grandad says, this just goes round in circles and no-one comes out of it with any credit, although the Hirsts will feel justified if George does make it. 

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7 hours ago, Grandad said:

 

Still going to the matches then

 

If he was sulking (I assume you meant skulking) - it was probably down to turning up to watch us and having idiots moaning at him for supporting his son in this situation 

I used to have to go down to Hillsborough for work after the Man Utd move didn't happen. There was no sulking from Hirsty then - he was approachable, friendly and a delight to deal with. One of the better ones in fact. 

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On 31/05/2020 at 12:51, Grandad said:

 

Still going to the matches then

 

If he was sulking (I assume you meant skulking) - it was probably down to turning up to watch us and having idiots moaning at him for supporting his son in this situation 

Give it a rest for once in your life

 

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12 minutes ago, owlsdreamer said:

It went wrong with all the shitt advice he got from his agent and his dad who before this I thought was a legend

No sympathy what so ever

 

 

Why was it poo advice ? He went to club higher up the league with better infrastructure, better coaches on better contract ?! If I could change my line of work on similar terms I would thought I did quite well for myself.

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Came across Dean Hammond's interview couple of days ago.

 

He is a loan manager at Leicester and talked about how much work goes into sending their youngsters out on loan to right club where they will be looked after and where they will develop.

 

Light years from how we are handling things.

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Guest Grandad
On 01/06/2020 at 21:53, owlsdreamer said:

Give it a rest for once in your life

 

Blimey!!

 

Bit strong mate 😂

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11 hours ago, malek said:

Came across Dean Hammond's interview couple of days ago.

 

He is a loan manager at Leicester and talked about how much work goes into sending their youngsters out on loan to right club where they will be looked after and where they will develop.

 

Light years from how we are handling things.

Absolutely that's what £200 million a season premiership money does for you

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