Burnsy joked about "hopefully seeing some new arrivals before August 31st". Adkins immediately deflected and rushed to speak about the current crop of players and bigged them up. Adkins is full of positivity, but he'd make a crap poker player. He couldn't have made his response any more obvious than if he'd actually responded "don't expect anything before the deadline, if at all."
Make sure that you get to The Blue Anchor in Helston. Cracking pub. Their beer, brewed on the premises, is outstanding.
Sounds like a better performance than Villa, and that it was a dubious penalty, Forestieri spends most of his time diving so no surprise there. Really pleased for Marshall who seems to have had a good game, it will do his confidence the world of good. Also pleased Campbell got his goal, hopefully, will bag a few more this season. On the whole, a point away is not to be sniffed at, onwards and upwards.
It was but I have taken on another year, so had 2 weeks off at home, and just came back. At the moment the only thing I miss being away is the children and watching City, but until the Allam's go I have decided to boycott, so coming here especially with winter coming on suits me fine.
How disgusting is this. I'm sure the usual ones without morals will give it the short career yada yadda yadda. But it's so ****ing wrong. Owls’ anguish over George Hirst could spread far and wide Signing of Sheffield Wednesday’s brightest prospect by Srivaddhanaprabha-owned OH Leuven says much about the relationships that exist in modern football please log in to view this image George Hirst at OH Leuven’s Den Dreef Stadium after his move to the Belgian second-tier club. Photograph: Plumb Images/Getty Images No doubt there are more than a few of us who feel a twinge of nostalgia when the mind goes back to the days when David Hirst was one of the more dynamic strikers in the country and, as unimaginable as it may seem in today’s game, the times when it wasn’t so easy for the elite clubs to snaffle up all the best players. Hirst once held the record for the fastest recorded shot in history, hitting the bar at 114 mph in a game against Arsenal at Highbury in September 1996. His 128 goals for Sheffield Wednesday brought him England caps, the devotion of their supporters and an unsuccessful attempt from Alex Ferguson to arrange a transfer to Manchester United. That didn’t work out too badly for Ferguson, who had to make do with some fellow by the name of Eric Cantona, but it is easy to understand why Hirst is revered at Hillsborough as one of the most popular players ever to wear the club’s colours. Ferguson’s autobiography sums up what he thought of the player. “I was even keener on Hirst than on [Alan] Shearer,” he writes. Some of that precious magic also appears to have rubbed off on Hirst’s son, George, judging by the reports from those who have seen the teenager greedily accumulating goals at the various age levels. Hirst Jr was described in the Sheffield Star recently as “arguably the most exciting, talented youngster to emerge from the club’s academy in decades”. He made his first-team debut at 17 and, for the football romanticists among us, there was something rather delightful about seeing that surname on the back of a blue-and-white striped shirt again. He also gave the impression he would wear it with distinction, scoring 40 times across the different age levels two seasons ago and finishing as the joint leading scorer in the Toulon Tournament won by England Under-20s. Manchester United and Everton were reputedly among the clubs monitoring him but it was Leicester who showed the strongest interest. City made three separate bids last August and the final offer, with add-ons included, was reported to be around £2m. Which isn’t bad money for someone whose first-team career at that stage amounted to two substitute appearances totalling 41 minutes. All of which makes it perplexing, a year on, that Hirst is now preparing for Oud-Heverlee Leuven’s latest assignment in Belgium’s B division, with a relatively unknown club that get on average 5,000 supporters for home games. Until, perhaps, you dig a little deeper and examine why Den Dreef, their 10,020-capacity stadium, has been renamed to incorporate King Power into its title, why the same sponsor now adorns the players’ shirts and all the other links between OH Leuven and a certain club from the east Midlands. please log in to view this image George Hirst climbs high against Mechelen this month. Photograph: Plumb Images/Getty Images The background here is that Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, Leicester’s owner, launched his takeover of OH Leuven in June last year. The two clubs have worked in tandem ever since and, when it comes to Hirst, here’s the thing: there is a considerable difference between how much a foreign club has to pay in compensation for an out-of-contract player from England and the amount that Leicester would need to fork out. For OH Leuven, it will be no more than £150,000. And Leicester? Hirst has been at Hillsborough since the age of 12 and if you were to look through the other tribunals arranged by the Professional Football Compensation Committee – one example being Ethan Ampadu going from Exeter to Chelsea for £2.5m – the fee could easily have been 20 times more than Leicester’s sister club had to pay. Ever had the feeling you’ve been had? Let’s be clear here that no rules have been broken and, however fishy you or I might think it is, others might consider it a smart piece of business, operating in a ruthless industry, if a loophole is being exploited so Leicester, very much the big sister of this relationship, can take the player off OH Leuven and circumnavigate the usual compensation. All the same, it is also fair to say Hirst’s previous club could be forgiven for feeling aggrieved if, as strongly suspected, he eventually ends up 70 miles or so down the M1. There are already a couple of Leicester players on loan with OH Leuven. The Leicester chief executive, Susan Whelan, and the director of football, Jon Rudkin, were appointed to OH Leuven’s board at the time of the takeover and the Premier League club have even sent over a groundsman to improve the Belgians’ playing surface. Heck, Nigel Pearson is the OH Leuven first-team manager. Pearson, of course, is the former Leicester manager. He is also an old teammate of David Hirst at Hillsborough and a long-time family friend. It is a cosy arrangement but not one, you will have to appreciate, that appeals to many Wednesday supporters, judging by the email I received from one describing it as “a sleazy way of prying young English talent away from the club that developed him”. Owls Talk, one of their internet messageboards, has 126 pages devoted to the subject. All that can be said with certainty is that Wednesday could have done with the money, particularly as the club have been under a transfer embargo since April. In hindsight, maybe they will reflect they should have accepted Leicester’s offer and, if we are taking sides, they lose a certain amount of sympathy because of the contract dispute that concluded with Hirst, in effect, being frozen out during his final year with the club. But there is a principle here as well and if Hirst does turn up at Leicester, whenever that may be, it will tell us a lot about the politics and relationships that exist in modern football, the vagaries of the feeder-club system and a loophole that should probably be closed. Plus it could be your club that gets hurt next time. Imagine, for example, if Chelsea had decided not to go after Ampadu in the orthodox fashion and left it to Vitesse Arnhem, their feeder club, to offer the player a contract, give him a year in the Netherlands and then quietly move him to Stamford Bridge. Next time, maybe Chelsea will do exactly that and save themselves a few quid in the process. Exeter were already unhappy with the tribunal’s verdict, believing the player to be worth substantially more, but Chelsea could have signed Ampadu, in theory, for only a fraction of that amount if they had juggled everything around. Or maybe it will be Manchester City exploiting this loophole by bringing Girona, one of their feeder clubs, into the equation. Why pay through the nose when another club can get the same player for peanuts and hand him over at a later date? The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email. Not that it is just the smaller clubs who might feel vulnerable. In 2012 Tottenham were so keen on Zeki Fryers, who was approaching the end of his contract at Manchester United, they arranged a trial and took him on a club tour to Portugal. United wanted up to £6m from a tribunal but Spurs suddenly backed away, leaving Standard Liège to pick up the player for only £250,000 because of the different compensation process abroad. The following January, Fryers moved to White Hart Lane for around £900,000, prompting one of those press conferences with Ferguson when it was tempting to think the then United manager might spontaneously combust. It was, he blazed, a “blatant manipulation of the system”. Ferguson wanted an inquiry and his relationship with the Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, was never the same again. “The Premier League should look into it and I think they should stop the registration until they examine it. There will be a trail, mobile phone [records] or something. It is obvious to me. It’s a Daniel Levy deal … it’s his fingerprints all over it. It’s the kind of thing we expected he was going to do.” Spurs, who had no official link to the Belgian club, vehemently denied it being a carve-up. Their explanation was that Fryers was homesick and had dropped out of the first-team plans in Liège. Is the Hirst case a blatant manipulation of the system? Leicester have chosen not to comment. OH Leuven have taken the same policy. The feedback I get, though, is that they understand how it looks and appreciate that questions will be asked. We will have to see how it turns out but it is a shame, more than anything, that one Hirst will be remembered at Wednesday so differently to the other. Dad has been advising son and, in that process, his relationship with the club has also been damaged. Hirst Sr is said to have quit his hospitality role at Hillsborough. Everyone appears to be blaming one another and the bottom line is that it would not be a huge surprise to see the player in question, now 19, in Leicester’s colours one day. Sometimes, as Gareth Southgate once said, it is easy to love this game without necessarily liking it.
He’s a youth player who’s played a grand total of 13 minutes of Championship football, if Leicester had wanted him, he’d have cost them peanuts. And Chelsea haven’t paid £2.5m for Ethan Ampadu, the compensation was set at £850k, with £250k payable after five first team appearances, with it potentially rising to £2.5m after he becomes a first team player (he was also starting for Exeter and was a full International for Wales).
If I don't go to a game or watch it I usually read the match day thread to get some idea of what has gone on I'm glad Marshall had a better game , did anybody actually go and want to give us a bit more insight ?
No, I don't think we did. Of course, Wednesday put us under pressure immediately after their goal and at that point looked like we might cave in, but thought we actually finished the match quite solidly, and the substitutions were well timed.
Marshall did well - made a couple of crucial saves. Back four bit of a mixed bag. Lichaj looks like a wise head, defensively much better positioning than Aina. Thought generally Burke looked quite composed, though not seen the penalty back yet. Felt an unnecessary challenge from our end. De Wijs still looks a bit naïve. Kingsley looked less solid than Lichaj Thought Batty was the more influential of the two central midfield players than Henriksen. Looks a very good prospect. Have to admit I just don't get it with Henriksen although he actually took a bit more responsibility when Batty went off. Bowen played well ,always a threat, Kane I like as a player and good attitude but oddly positioned at left side midfield. Evandro started well but then anonymous, much as against Villa. Feel he actually needs to drop in a bit to link the play more. Campbell big improvement on last season - looks fitter and sharper, and creating things for others too. If we can keep him fit, he could do much better this season. And Jackson looked well up for it when he came on.
'They’ll always be a third division club to me.' Oh really? To me SWFC will always be that massive club we utterly outclassed at Wembley.
Breathtaking. So if Leicester wanted him why didn't they just pay peanuts? Big clubs just getting round the rules again. Especially those bent ****s Leicester If you can't see it's a disgrace there's something wrong.
If that article was about Max Clark going to Vitesse Arnhem so Chelsea could get him on the cheap, you’d be pissing yourself.
Like **** I would. There's no comparison between the two. The greed is unbelievable, that he would sit on the sidelines for a year because of it. The Owls say they opened contract talks with Hirst, the son of Owls great David, and his management team, Doyen Global, who have since rebranded and are now known as KIN Partners, over 18 months ago. So they gave themselves plenty of time to thrash out a deal. Despite lots of toing and froing with Doyen, no agreement was reached. Hirst, who notched 40 goals for club and country during the 2016/17 season, rejected a new long-term contract which would have made him the best-paid player of his age group in Wednesday’s history. Chairman Dejphon Chansiri said: “The reason we broke our structure was based on appreciation of the promising signs that George was showing and in recognition of his hard work and achievements for the under-23s and England team at youth level. “Our policy is based on basic salary but, as with all development players, is enhanced with bonuses subject to the player participating in first-team matches. “Our offer to George was declined by the player’s advisors and when we asked them to submit a proposal to us, we found they were requesting the basic salary of an established first-team player at our club, plus completely unrealistic bonuses, clauses and add-ons. “We therefore had no choice but to decline this proposal, not because of the money, but in the interests of fairness and squad morale.” Hirst’s scoring prowess won him many admirers. He had a string of suitors, led by Leicester City. Wednesday snubbed advances from Leicester and Everton. Leicester, the 2016 Premier League champions, were knocked back three times last August. Their final bid was thought to be around £2 million. At that stage, the Owls had still not given up hope of tying Hirst down to a new contract. Hindsight, of course, is a wonderful thing but perhaps, after eight months of no breakthrough in negotiations, Wednesday should have cashed in on Hirst in the August transfer window. However, if there is one thing we have learned about Chansiri, he is a proud and principled person. He did not close the door on sorting out Hirst’s future. Talks continued to take place between all parties. The ideal scenario for the Owls was that Hirst would pen a new deal and then go out on loan to a lower-league club to enhance his football education. Fleetwood Town and Mansfield Town expressed an interest in his services last August. Wednesday were prepared to subsidise all of Hirst’s wages. But Hirst failed to agree fresh terms with the Owls and he stayed put. Chansiri criticised Hirst’s advisors, accusing them of being “disruptive”. He said: “As a club, we respect every player’s right to choose his own career path, but I have to question the advice George has received from his agents and other advisors. I am not pleased with how they have conducted themselves throughout this process.” Wednesday argued Doyen kept moving the goalposts. No common ground could be found and talks broke down. Again. There appeared no way back. But Hirst Junior approached Chansiri in February and asked him if he could play U-23s football again. Chansiri granted his request and Hirst made a scoring return to action, finding the net in the development squad’s 3-2 defeat at Leeds United. Hirst also trained regularly with the first team. “I respect him because he asked me to play,” said Chansiri. “I’m happy to step back and let him play.” Relations appeared to be getting better and Hirst’s contract offer was still on the table. Things seemed to be going in the right direction. Ultimately, it proved another false dawn. No deal was struck and Hirst was left out of the U-23s final few fixtures. Hirst’s divorce from Wednesday was inevitable from that moment on. The parting of the ways between the club and Hirst is a real pity, particularly as Hirst would have, in all probability, enjoyed his fair share of game-time at senior level last season. Given the Owls’ unprecedented injury crisis, Hirst could have added to his two substitute appearances had his contractual situation been settled. It wasn’t to be. When Hirst signed his maiden professional deal back in March 2016, he said there was “nowhere else” he would rather be and was looking forward to kicking on at S6. But he has lost the best part of a year of his development over the contract stand-off. His career has stalled. Could Wednesday have handled the situation better? Was banning him from playing at all age levels at the club the right thing to do? The only thing that was ever going to achieve was further alienate the player and his management team. But the club made a stand. As far as Chansiri is concerned, the club did everything they could to try and keep Hirst at Hillsborough.
‘Could Wednesday have handled the situation better? Was banning him from playing at all age levels at the club the right thing to do?’ Erm...probably not.
