SWFC_FAN

It does seem the case. It was a very risky move by both parties. Pearson and Hirst were Wednesday legends, without question. Now I don't think they'd get much of a reception if they came back to Wednesday. Which is incredibly sad. Do you think you guys will stay up now Pearson has got the boot? What would the consequences of relegation be?

When I saw him he was just a bit taller, not exceptionally quick- just quite gangly with long legs which travelled him far. Had a knack for scoring goals, decent finisher. But again this was at under 18/under 23 football. It is nothing compared to professional standard at any level. The competitive edge, the physicality, the pressure is just not there, which makes it incredibly hard to form opinions on how a player will fair in the professional game. I've seen plenty of kids with promise. From Hirst's age group, only two have established themselves as regulars in our first team squad. One young CB who I actually thought wouldn't make it and a young left back, who to be fair did stand out. My point is it's so hard to tell how these lads will fair when they make the step up. We had one lad who partnered Hirst upfront who was scoring on a similar level to George, he now looks set to be released to pursue a scholarship in America. For me I don't understand the move, it seems to me like it was just a way to stick two fingers up to Wednesday and screw us out of compensation money, genuinely. It was a huge gamble for a 19 year old to go to a Belgian 2nd League under a manager who lost the plot managerially quite some time ago. Did he think it would be easy and after 6 months Leicester will bring him back to England? I mean how does the partnership work? Why would Leicester buy him on his current form, what is he showing? A huge gamble from the Hist camp which so far looks to have backfired. He still has age on his side, hopefully he can find some kind of form over there- but your comments don't sound promising.

We were only gutted because his Dad is a hero to many and we had this dream that George would follow in his footsteps. What on earth is he doing struggling in the Belgian second tier? Is that even National League standard? We rejected a 2m pound bid from Leicester in August 2017. Hirst's advisors got upset by this, fell out with the club and chairman, demanded money which reflected that of a senior pro (Hirst had make 2 sub appearances for the first team, looked a boy against men in both), we quite rightly refused to let him play as he didn't have the clubs interests at heart. He spent a year not playing any football, apart from a couple of England youth appearances. That year can't have helped his development.

Bored on my day off and stumbled across this thread, was just curious to see how young Hirsty is getting on. Genuinely hope he makes a name for himself somewhere, but can't help but be slightly amused reading this. He left us on the back of some goals for our U'23s and a few for England youth. All of a sudden he demands more money and thinks he has made it. I watched him plenty of times for our youth teams, and never did I see him as the physical type. It's clear his year in the wilderness was spent bulking up in the gym. What I saw was a very raw, quite quick, young lad who was scoring goals at youth level. You see the type time and time again. Let me emphasise, like I kept reminding Wednesdayites who got their knickers in a twist when he left, development football is COMPLETELY different to professional football. Young Hirsty still had so much to prove and his advisors appear to have bigged him up way too early for his own good. I'm sure he's on a decent wedge at Leuven, which his advisors will no doubt be happy about. But I cannot help but feel the lad has been terribly advised. He should have stayed at Wednesday knuckled down and earned a move somewhere else. He hasn't proven anything, and it's quite sad how it's turned out for him. Genuinely as a person hope he can turn it around for his own sake. As for his advisors, HAHA.