The Sheffield Wednesday striker will have no doubt taken note Edward Nketiah’s exploits for Arsenal.
Both strikers scored hat-tricks as England’s Under-19s beat Poland 7-1 at the start of September. One was Arsenal’s Edward Nketiah, the other being George Hirst of Sheffield Wednesday.
But as Nketiah went mainstream with two goals on his first team debut on Tuesday, as Arsenal overturned a 1-0 deficit to beat Norwich in the Carabao Cup, Hirst (who liked Nketiah’s subsequent Twitter post) is still awaiting his first minutes of the season at any club level – senior or youth.
The 18-year-old, whose father David was one of the stars of Wednesday’s successful early ’90s side, is regarded as one of the Owls’ best ever prospects, but has suddenly found himself frozen out at Hillsborough, having entered the final year of his first professional contract.
The situation looks unlikely to be resolved any time soon, if at all, with Hirst Snr having earlier left his hospitality role at Wednesday (a move widely believed to be linked to his son’s future) and plenty of interested parties – including, perhaps, Arsenal – ready to pounce in the new year.
And if Hirst’s mind wasn’t made up already, seeing Nketiah’s progress – not to mention that of his Toulon Tournament teammates Joe Worrall, Ronaldo Vieira, Ike Ugbo and David Brooks, who have all played significant senior club football this season – will probably do it.
Is Hirst destined to leave Sheffield Wednesday next summer?
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