Wednesday boss insists Hirst's future is with Owls

Wednesday are a big club, who have the potential to compete in the Premier League again, but allowing asset-stripping of their young footballers (before they've even played in the first team) is just wrong.

If the Wimbledon or Coventry results had gone awry, then the same thing could be happening to Everton now.

Some people do. Just because a kid supports one club doesn't mean they can't see anything else on the horizon.

Andy Carroll?
Steve McManaman?
Steve McMahon?

Ring any bells?

Kendall who wanted money to buy Trevor Steven who was a very good buy.

I had to double check who his manager was for a second.

It seems strange that he was club captain (I think) and a top player yet we sold him after only 100 games. Wasn't there a contract dispute as well?

As far as I remember, it McMahon wanted a pay rise and, perhaps similar to Rooney, couldn't see Everton challenging for honours at the time. Howard Kendall desperately wanted to sign Trevor Steven and the fee received from Villa helped Kendall get Steven.

I can't remember if the other lot wanted him or if he wanted to go there prior to moving to Villa.

Regarding McMahon some years back, I went to a sportsmens night at Dunnies club and the speakers were Howard Kendall, Steve McMahon and Alan Kennedy. There was also a question and answer session at the end of their speeches.

McMahon was asked was he a blue or a red he said he wouldn't answer but the inference was he was a blue. Then Howard was asked why he sold McMahon and he said that he tried to agree a deal with McMahon's agent over a new deal. At this point McMahon stood up and said he had never had an agent in his life, and the fact was that Howard had offered him an increase of ٣ a week extra for being captain.

McMahon said if being captain of Everton was only worth ٣ a week then something was wrong at the club. There was definitely a frosty atmosphere between Kendall and McMahon.

If this lad's good enough then he'll move on eventually, but much like Rooney, why not fulfill a non-financial boyhood dream (if there is one) before progressing to the highest level possible?

I worry that we sometimes buy these lads too young.

Remember Jutkiewicz and the lad from Oldham?
Also the midfielder from Bradford that got released.

I'm not a big fan of buying up youngsters from their local clubs but it makes sense to try to stockpile talent that can make the next step up. The new ruthless Everton. What I don't want is 38 players out on loan, like Chelsea... How is that allowed?

Thanks for that Brian, always good to have an insight into what goes on "behind the scenes" at clubs, things that, as fans, we have no inkling about until someones Biography comes out years later. Sad part of it is we sometimes get to see our idols with feet of clay.

I was also at a Sportsman's Dinner with Snodin as the guest speaker. His chat wasn't controversial but his recollections of his medical with Kendall were along the lines of "Are you fit?" "Yes." "Great, I'll open a bottle of Champagne," which he did and the two got wellied.

Very personable chap, though, and I had relatives at the time fairly close to Doncaster where he's from so we had a good chat about common places etc. as we had a drink afterwards.

At that time Stevie felt he was entitled to a good rise seeing as how David Johnson and Adrian Heath were on around 𨀼 per week and Stevie was on not much more than 𧷤.

I grew up with Stevie's dad, Tommy (Tucker), who was a staunch Blue, he told me Stevie loved Everton and Gordon Lee who gave him his debut at Sunderland (I think), the problems started with the meagre rise he was offered at Everton and caused the rift that led him away from Goodison.

In the end, both Stevie and Everton did well out of the move.

There's nothing wrong with that, if it's what the lad wants to do. However, if that's not the way he sees his career progressing, he's quite entitled to follow whatever path he chooses.

I was offering my opinion on it. I think it'd be great if he saw breaking into the Sheffield Wednesday team as something he wanted to do rather than leaving on a whim so early in his career.

Playing for Everton rather than the faded Wednesday, I did say that, perhaps you overlooked that bit ?

To those questioning Steve McMahon's first allegiance. He was a ball boy at Goodison and a "Royal Blue" through and through.

I even saw him at the Boleyn when we were playing WHU, he was with Villa by that time. He was with three other lads, one (I think) may have been his brother.

I rate McMahon's departure as one of Kendall's greatest mistakes.

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I should think a young lad who is on the cusp of playing in the 1st team of the club he supports would want to play for them rather than knock about our U-23s. Especially as he'd be following in his dad's footsteps.

Why move now, when he can move to a big club in a year or two?

Stevie was never a fan in the sense that McManaman and Robbie Fowler plus Ian Rush were never fans of Everton for the simple reason that they were too busy playing football from a very early age.

In the last three instances, I don't know too much about them, but in McMahon's case, I know that, when Stevie was a youngster, he would have wanted Everton to beat Liverpool in every derby game, the same as his dad.

It's more than likely McManaman was the same; his dad was a true Blue, but I couldn't vouch for that.

a) No club ever came in for Osman, he wasn't that good; and b) He was a boyhood kopite.

If he's half as good as his arl fella, we would do well to secure a first option on him.

Yes, Dave you can definitely add McManaman to the true blue list.
Also add our jovial Sky pundit, Carra.

Bobby Mallon, I'm not sure what your point is; he shouldn't play for Wednesday in case he's not that good and gets abuse on a discussion board? This is about his ambitions, not how others react to them.

Too many youngsters are farmed by clubs (ourselves included) never to be seen again. How many of them might have made the grade learning their trade in the lower leagues? Guess we'll never know.

I'm closing this thread now.