In Focus - Pierce Charles: The rise and rise of Sheffield Wednesday's biggest talent
Sheffield Wednesday fans need to enjoy Pierce Charles' talent while they can, because his future almost certain lies away from Hillsborough.
“Don’t you think he’s a bit too small?” one fan asked this writer as the sun beat down in Alicante. Pierce Charles was a name that many supporters had started to hear, but few had actually seen him play.
It could have been fairly assumed that the teenager was in the mix due to the chaotic nature of a ridiculous summer under Xisco Munoz following promotion, but that wasn’t really the truth. Everyone at Wednesday knew what a talent the young goalkeeper was, and he would’ve been on that camp anyway. Darren Moore had seen it, just like Steve Haslam and Nicky Weaver had in the academy.
It was always a matter of when – not if – he’d become Sheffield Wednesday’s number one.
A lot of the talk before his foray into first team football was about his distribution, his quality with the ball at his feet. Internally, there were no real concerns about his height, but on the outside there were some who had already decided that it was to be what held him back.
So much was being said about his physical stature, or apparent lack thereof, that I eventually went and asked him. In 2023 he was 6’1”, I was told, the same height as England’s Jordan Pickford and taller than Arsenal’s potential Golden Glove winner, David Raya. He was also taller than me – though that doesn’t take much.
“To be honest, with the type of player that Pierce is, I never saw his size as being an issue,” said Weaver, speaking to The Wednesday Word. “It’s not as big a thing as it used to be, and I knew how good he was at everything else. When it comes to goalkeepers only needing to come out gobbling up crosses - which is still great obviously - it’s not like it was.
“I believe that he’ll play at the top, top level - I’m talking like elite level stuff. I was telling people long before people had heard of him, ‘You just wait for this kid to come through’… I can’t speak highly enough of him, and it’s nice to know I’ve played a tiny little part in his journey, a journey that’s going to result in a fantastic career.”
Weaver’s probably doing himself a disservice there, though. Alongside former Academy Head, Steven Haslam, the ex-Owls goalkeeper coach was integral as Wednesday snapped up the talented young shot-stopper.
He was 15 and being released from Manchester City. ‘Weavs’ got on the phone to Richard Wright in Manchester, and ‘Hassy’ set up a Zoom call with his mum and dad - Mary and Calvin.
“We explained how it works at Sheffield Wednesday,” the former Owls ‘keeper went on to say. “How it wouldn’t be like it was a Man City, where you’ve got three or four U18 goalkeepers and three or four U21 goalkeepers. We also explained that if he did well, then he’d be shoved up the levels and potentially get first-team chances really early.
“Being a Manchester lad helped, too, it wasn’t like he was moving five hours away or something. He was in digs with Bailey Cadamarteri and a couple of others, and it wasn’t far away… Quite often you make your plans with young players and they don’t come to fruition, they don’t progress as you’d like them to. But obviously Pierce is a completely different story.”
It wasn’t just the coaching staff who were excited by him, either. Speaking over a coffee during that same preseason, Barry Bannan and Josh Windass waxed lyrical about the teenager. Given the quality they themselves possess, and who they’ve played with, you take praise seriously when they give it.
That doesn’t surprise Weaver, either. “The players love playing with Pierce because they can trust him with the ball,” he said to TWW. “So if they give it to him, they knew he’d look after it and either give it back or split the lines, or find someone on the half turn. He very rarely gives it away, and to be honest his distribution is the best I’ve ever seen.
“His temperament is as good as anyone I’ve ever seen as well. He doesn’t panic, he doesn’t get flustered, and that breeds within the team… Sometimes you get goalkeepers that have got good distribution so they’re always looking for 70-yard diags - Pierce is quite happy playing a five-yard pass if it’s the right thing to do. He doesn’t get bored of doing the simple things.
And it didn’t take him long to impress at Middlewood Road, either. Once the young teenager came out of his shell it became very apparent that his ceiling was exceptionally high.
The former Owls goalkeeper coach went on to say, “He’d been at Man City, so we knew he’d be good with his feet and all that sort of stuff, but he came in as a 15-year-old and was quite shy and unassuming… Look, he didn’t come in and blow us away straight away - I could see there was a good goalkeeper there, don’t get me wrong - but once he’d been in the building a few months his trajectory just shot ahead of the curve. That’s when we saw what a talented goalkeeper he was.”
Fans may have heard the stories of him being used in midfield in training when the team was short of numbers, with his skillset meaning that he was able to hold his own in amongst his outfield teammates. What they might not know, however, is that there was a stage when a decision was almost made to stick him in the middle of the park.
“It was almost embarrassing sometimes, because you’d do a passing drill or a possession drill and he’d be the best player.”
“He broke his finger in training,” Weaver said with a chuckle. “So he obviously couldn’t go in goal, but we were genuinely considering using him in midfield for the U18s. He was training as an outfield player because he couldn’t do any handling, and to be honest we’d probably have played him if we weren’t worried about him getting injured.
“It was almost embarrassing sometimes, because you’d do a passing drill or a possession drill and he’d be the best player. I remember we had a head tennis tournament once with all the U18s and U21s, and he won it - he was just so much better than everyone else with his touch… He’s such a unique talent.”
And the coaches weren’t the only ones who liked what they saw. David Stockdale with his multiple promotions and 500+ professional appearances, gave a very quick answer when the TWW asked if he knew straight away that Charles was special. “Yes,” came the reply.
‘Stocko’, who trained with Charles during the 2022/23 season, has been around some pretty good shot-stoppers in his time, and knows a thing or two about what it takes to have a long and successful career between the sticks. It’s safe to say that he expects big things from the Owls’ first-choice goalkeeper.
“I’ve spent some time around the Northern Ireland national team recently, and he’s incredibly highly thought of there. People talk about small goalies, but I don’t care… When you can kick it like he can kick it, and dive like he can dive, who cares if you don’t look big? There are a lot of tall goalkeepers that I wouldn’t go near. There’s no point me saying that he’ll go far ‘if he keeps his head on his shoulders’, because he’s a good kid and he’s not made like that. With his demeanour and his personality, I think he’s in for a long career and a distinguished one as well.
“Being goalkeepers, you look after each other, and while he was only young I was trying to say to him not to worry about things that he couldn’t control, to just be himself… I was with Robert Sanchez at Brighton, and it was the same with him - he’s obviously taller, but he was just learning himself. They have the same spring, though, and things like that - I think Pierce is better than Rob was at that age. Rob’s obviously come into his own now, but I think Pierce is there at an early crossroads. He’s in the David Raya mould, I could definitely see him at somebody like Arsenal in the future.
“Pierce always came across as a person who wanted to do better, to be better all the time. Sometimes he’d get frustrated if he felt like he wasn’t, but I’d just say to him, ‘Look, not everybody’s as good as you mate!’”
Pierce, and his brother, Shea, are regulars in the NI setup now, with the former their number one and the latter having donned the captain’s armband. Though they’re born and raised in Flixton, Manchester, but a promise made to their Northern Irish mum as youngsters was kept as they opted for green over white at international level.
The younger of the two played for the Green and White Army at U17, U19 and U21 level before his debut at senior level - with that honour coming before he’d even played a league game for his club. For a while Pierce had racked up more appearances on the international stage than the domestic one.
There will be plenty more of those to come, too, with NI manager, Michael O’Neill, often singling him out for praise and predicting a bright future.
Speaking after a particularly good performance against Italy, his international boss said, “He’s 20 years of age, I thought he was magnificent. I think his decision-making - yes, the saves that he made at key moments - but his decision-making was excellent.
“He doesn’t bring any pressure onto his back three, which I think is rare in a goalkeeper of that age. He’s got a brilliant temperament… There were great performances all over the pitch, but Pierce in particular had a strong performance.”
Unfortunately for Wednesdayites, it’s practically guaranteed that Charles will be on the move in the not-so-distant future. He’s only got a year left on his Owls deal, and interest in him grows with every performance. His impending departure has been largely accepted by supporters - and if the deal is right then he’ll go with their blessing. It’s up to whoever ends up in charge of the club to make sure that he goes for a fair price.
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