Sheffield Wednesday scored a bullseye with £250k Barnsley FC transfer

Sheffield Wednesday scored a bullseye with £250k Barnsley FC transfer

Sheffield Wednesday has a long and distinguished tradition of being astute in the transfer market, bringing in players who have gone on to have a significant impact at Hillsborough.

In addition to developing their own talent and finding hidden gems in the lower divisions, the Owls have made some wise acquisitions that have far surpassed expectations.

David Hirst, who joined from Barnsley as one of Sheffield Wednesday’s most prolific forwards, was one of the team’s most successful cheap acquisitions in history.

Hirst is a legendary player in this area, and his transfer is still regarded as one of Wednesday’s best player acquisitions ever. The team will be looking to find a player with comparable skill to fire them towards the top end of the second division.

David Hirst’s Sheffield Wednesday career

Prior to the 1986–87 season, David Hirst joined Owls manager Howard Wilkinson at Sheffield Wednesday, a team in

Yorkshire, after scoring nine goals in 28 games in the second division for Barnsley. The reported fee for this move was £250,000.

The now 57-year-old scored six minutes after entering the game as a substitute against Everton on his Hillsborough

debut in the first flight. Hirst would go on to score six goals from 21 league games in his first season with the team

after establishing himself in the starting lineup.

Hirsts’ career would only take off while wearing a Sheffield Wednesday shirt. The star-studded forward would go on

to become a cult hero in 1991 after scoring 31 goals in a campaign that was sufficient to propel the Owls back into the

first division. He stood tall with exceptional speed and a clinical eye in front of goal.

With his goalscoring prowess there for all to see, the Barnsley-born striker would get called up to the England B

international side against Switzerland, where he netted both goals in a 2-1 victory.

From this, Hirst would gain a first-ever call up to the England first team squad for their tour of Australasia.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson made six attempts to entice Hirst to go to Old Trafford after the

English game saw such a dramatic uptick. Two of these attempts occurred in 1992, when the Red Devils were

struggling with a goal deficit. United would ultimately give up their pursuit and sign French great Eric Cantona after a protracted saga.

Even though Hirst fractured his ankle in 1992, he still managed to score 16 goals in 33 games across all competitions

that season. During that term, Wednesday would advance to both domestic cup finals, but they would lose to Arsenal in both.

In 1997, Hirst suffered a string of injuries that would terminate his Owls career, forcing manager David Pleat to move him to Southampton on the South Coast.

Hirst had a stellar 11-year career at Sheffield Wednesday, scoring 106 league goals in 294 games.

Sheffield Wednesday hope to replicate David Hirst bargain transfer

Hirst’s move to Sheffield Wednesday for such a low price was a spectacular move, as his consistent goal-scoring

prowess helped the team reach cup finals and finish near the top of the First Division. He also became the club’s

second-highest top scorer in history.

The Owls will undoubtedly be looking to add a similar player in today’s market, but it has grown more challenging

since the football landscape has changed and the team is operating on a more constrained budget.

The youth program is one way the club can uncover such potential, but another is to find targets from the lower

levels and hope they will quickly adjust to life in the second division.

The Wednesday supporters will never give up hope that such a successful goal scorer would return to Hillsborough;

if it is possible, this arrival will undoubtedly help the team go closer to rejoining the Premier League.

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