Garry Monk on the next steps for Sheffield Wednesday starlets Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, Alex Hunt and co

The future is bright at Sheffield Wednesday if the club’s exciting roster of youngsters continue to put in the hard yards, according to Owls boss Garry Monk.
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A number of youngsters are training with Monk and his new-look coaching team at the first team’s training camp at Loughborough University.

And it’s not a first in Monk’s 12 months in charge at Hillsborough. Last season midfielders Alex Hunt and Liam Shaw were elevated to regular senior involvement in a campaign that saw academy players train with the first team on a daily basis.

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Former Manchester City midfielder Fisayo Dele-Bashiru has been added to a growing list of exciting Owls starlets and while he has made a promising first impression on Monk, the manager knows that together with the other youngsters the hard work starts now.

Fisayo Dele-Bashiru joined SHeffield Wednesday this summer from Manchester City. (via swfc.co.uk | Steve Ellis)Fisayo Dele-Bashiru joined SHeffield Wednesday this summer from Manchester City. (via swfc.co.uk | Steve Ellis)
Fisayo Dele-Bashiru joined SHeffield Wednesday this summer from Manchester City. (via swfc.co.uk | Steve Ellis)

“We're delighted to have Fizz here,” Monk said. “He's a young talent to go along with the other guys we've got with us right now and ones we believe with help and with the right coaching and guidance, the right attitude – which they're showing – they can be very, very good players and important players for the club moving forwards.

"We just need to guide them right now but they've come here to compete in a first team environment. I know Alex Hunt and Shawy [Liam Shaw] had a taste of that environment but it took a while to get them to that point, and Fizz comes in at a same sort of level.”

Monk has made clear that the future of his Sheffield Wednesday squad centres on ‘young, hungry, dynamic’ individuals. But around those, he has said, must be experienced pros that the youngsters can learn from.

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It’s these older, more experienced heads that provide a step up from the quality of training they might otherwise experience in under-23 football. Teenage goalkeeper Josh Render is on his first trip with the seniors along with forward Charles Hagan. The likes of Liam Waldock and Conor Grant are enjoying a further taste.

Monk was asked how the young players were doing as Wednesday gear up for Saturday’s friendly with Premier League Leicester City.

“They're competing,” he said. “They're in a first team environment and they're now first team players. The key with young players is them understanding the demand of the first team environment, where it needs to be repeated every day; the intensity of the work, the want to get better. It needs to be there every day.

“No disrespect to academies but when you're a better player in the academies you can have a day that's not so good and it's still good enough. In the first team environment it needs to be a constant strive for the best, that intensity and that demand is always there.

“Alex and the other young lads had a good taste of that and got used to that and Fizz will be the same this season as well.”