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I wish I’d tapped George Hirst up for Scotland – his dad’s a hero in England
LEE BULLEN was stunned when he learned George Hirst is eligible for a Scotland call-up — and says he would have tapped him up himself!
The former Ayr boss worked with the hitman when he was a youngster in the Sheffield Wednesday youth system.
Ex-Owls star Bullen is close friends with Hirst’s dad, Wednesday legend David.
SunSport’s exclusive on Wednesday broke the news that the striker — capped at youth levels for England from Under-17s to Under-20s — would welcome a call from Steve Clarke.
Hirst, 25, was born in Sheffield, but he qualifies for Scotland through his grandfather on his father’s side.
Bullen said: “I didn’t realise George was eligible for Scotland — but if he is, I’ll be delighted.
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“He came right through Wednesday’s ranks when I was working on the youth side at the club, and he was one who was earmarked as having a real chance from the start.
“George got some attention because his dad David is a proper legend at Hillsborough.
“He and Chris Waddle are the two former players everybody talks about in Sheffield.
“But George was a really good player in his own right. From the age of about 16 he was scoring goals for fun at that level.
“George was really hardworking, he could finish, had good pace, and played on the shoulder of defenders.
“He had a lot of really good attributes, and his consistency led to him getting into the first team.
“George signed a pro contract when he was 17 and made his debut a few months later.
“If Scotland are interested it would be good for him and good for us.
“Although he’s a decent size, he’s not a target man in the Lyndon Dykes mould.
“Hirst is tall, but he doesn’t have that kind of physicality about his game.
“Attack is an area where we don’t have much strength in depth.
“You’ve got Dykes and Che Adams, and Lawrence Shankland has just come off the back of a fantastic season at Hearts.
“But other than them, there aren’t too many other candidates. So if Scotland are in the mix for George, the more the merrier as far as I’m concerned.”
Hirst’s goalscoring prowess as a youngster led to him being called up first for England’s Under-17s then their Under-20s for the Toulon Tournament in 2017.
His hat-trick against Cuba there led to him being named in the team of the tournament, and he finished that season with 40 goals for club and country.
Manchester United and Everton were linked with him that summer, which led to a contract wrangle at Wednesday.
That saw dad David fall out with Owls owner Dejphon Chansiri, who claimed Hirst’s agents had demanded a record package to re-sign.
But Leicester made three bids for the youngster before Brendan Rodgers landed him for £2million in the summer of 2019.
However, Hirst made only a handful of first-team appearances, and had loan spells at Rotherham, Portsmouth and Blackburn.
He signed a permanent deal with Ipswich last year after a successful loan spell.
Hirst will be a Premier League player next season, after scoring seven goals in an injury-hit campaign as the Tractor Boys won promotion.
But Bullen says the loans he’s had have contributed to his development.
He added: “When George was a kid and getting called up England at the youth levels, he was going there as a player from a League One club.
“He was mixing with kids from Manchester United and Chelsea — but he was still going and scoring goals for them.
“And even before the move to Leicester, he went out to a team in Belgium, OH Leuven, who were managed by Nigel Pearson, who knew him from Wednesday.
“George had enough about himself to go there and try something a bit different.
“Then when he went to Leicester he had a few loan moves where he was trying to find his feet.
“Eventually he went to Ipswich and the way they played saw him click there.
“When they were in League One he scored a few goals and helped them to promotion.
“His ratio was one in every three games, which is OK for a young striker. That was enough to get him a four-year deal, and he scored a few goals last season as they went up to the Prem, which is great for him.
“I was with his dad David in April when Wednesday had a few former players on the pitch at half-time, as the club played their 5,000th senior game.
“David had had a fallout with the owners around the time of George’s contract dispute, and it was good to see that was behind him.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
“But I’m sorry now I didn’t ask him about being available for Scotland. Even though David played for England I’d have done my best to convince him!”
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