Shane Long

[Olé Olé]

http://www.football365.com/news/live...the-long-chase

[Closed Account]

http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Stoke...ail/story.html

STOKE City and Everton have joined the race to sign Republic of Ireland international Shane Long, according to reports.
The Times reports that the pair have joined Liverpool in wanting to sign Long from Southampton and are weighing up a potential for the forward.
The Mirror reported last week that Liverpool had seen an £8million bid for the 28-year-old rejected, with Southampton said to be keen on keeping hold of the striker.
Long's future has come in to question after Southampton signed QPR striker Charlie Austin in a deal worth around £4million.
Austin joined Jay Rodriguez, Juanmi, Graziano Pelle and Long as striking options at St Mary's, and the Irishman is said to be keen on first-team football so to secure a starting place for the Republic of Ireland ahead of Euro 2016.
Long, who cost Southampton £12million last summer and commanded over £26million in transfer fees during his career, has 10 goals in 25 appearances for club and country this season.
He managed eight goals last season for the Saints, but has almost made as many substitute appearances as he has starts in his time at the club.
Stoke - who include a raft of Republic of Ireland stars in their squad - are said to be in to be in the market for a striker, while Everton are keen to add competition to top scorer Romelu Lukaku, and do have cash to spend after selling Steven Naismith to Norwich yesterday.

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[Olé Olé]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...ransfer-window

The Guardian have allowed an Irish journo to weigh in. The sentiment isn't too removed from that in F365.

This piece is actually fairly on the money and is quite convincing in rationalizing why O'Neill and Koeman are not always marking him down in their first 11.

[DeLorean]

It got better as it went on I think, the hurling stuff was a bit silly. I laughed at this though

sometimes when he runs with the ball he evokes a man chasing a pram down a hill

[Stuttgart88]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...ransfer-window

The Guardian have allowed an Irish journo to weigh in. The sentiment isn't too removed from that in F365.

This piece is actually fairly on the money and is quite convincing in rationalizing why O'Neill and Koeman are not always marking him down in their first 11.

I agree, I thought it was a great piece. “You can see why Liverpool might want to buy him, but also why Southampton might want to sell him”

How many times has Long been sold during the winter transfer window rather than between seasons?

[DeLorean]

“You can see why Liverpool might want to buy him, but also why Southampton might want to sell him”

I actually can't see why Southampton might want to sell him.

How many times has Long been sold during the winter transfer window rather than between seasons?

Just once.


Signed for:

Reading on 7th June 2005
West Brom on 9th August 2011
Hull on 17th January 2014
Southampton on 14th August 2014

[tetsujin1979]

Southampton player of the month for December

[geysir]

http://www.football365.com/news/live...the-long-chase

Since Klopp has arrived to the epl, one (run around a lot) criteria to determine the quality of a striker has jumped to the fore with a bullet.


'The Irishman’s strengths are obvious. Long has completed 99.35km over 14 games so far this season, at an average of 9.62km per 90 minutes. In five more appearances and three more starts, Benteke has run 116.09km for an average of 8.9km per 90 minutes. The most distance run by Long in a single Premier League game this season was 11.18km against Stoke in November. For Benteke, it was 9.73km against Sunderland in December. Long has completed 123 more sprints than his counterpart despite playing 245 fewer minutes. Benteke hardly scores an emphatic victory on the goalscoring front, with six to Long’s five.'

Fascinating stuff, all we need now is a striker's goalage calculation, i.e. goals/km.

[Yard of Pace]

the hurling stuff was a bit silly.

I disagree. I've been saying (mostly to myself) for years that he still plays like a corner forward.

I wouldn't pollute the boards with the names of current Tipp hurlers (or my brain by thinking about them) but he's reminiscent of Graeme Mulcahy or Seánie Tobin of Limerick.

[DeLorean]

Yeah he's fast and most corner forwards are fast. Although I'd associate strength, timing and aerial ability more with a hurling centre forward. Obviously Long possesses attributes which enabled him to excel at both codes, that's undeniable.

I wasn't really referring to that though. I just thought the 'hurler with boots' and 'putting the ball over the bar' bits were a bit silly.

[tricky_colour]

. Position	Apps	Goals	Assists	Rating
FW (Forward - Centre)	7	4	0	7.3
Sub (Substitute)	5	1	0	6.41
AML (Attacking Midfielder - Left)	1	0	0	6.36
AMR (Attacking Midfielder - Right)	1	0	0	6.04

Though I would post his stats on a positional basis,
unfortunately 'sub' does not give the position, but probably means centre forward.

4 in 7 games as a centre forward is pretty decent.

in fact it is teetering on the edge of quite good.

[SkStu]

I think Everton would be a great move for him. For all that some of you criticize our ShLong he's a lot better than Arouna Kone someone whose role he would likely assume. Everton is a forgiving club, lots of Irish there and I think his strengths would see him do very well there. Plus I'm an Everton fan and I think my man crush on Shane is well documented here at this stage...

[Charlie Darwin]

Would he assume Koné's role? I don't think they're similar in terms of approach, really. Long's strengths - speed, running the channels, linking up play, punching about his weight strengthwise - are all traits you'd more associate with Lukaku. Martinez has been trying to shoehorn Koné in there but what he really wants is somebody who can do what Naismith did and what Koné does, but you sort of only get one.

[DeLorean]

There's some serious competition at Everton, I like them myself but I don't think it's the best place for him. I'd say Koné's run of starts is starting to fizzle out, not sure how he was keeping the likes of Mirallas out anyway to be honest. He's an okay replacement for Lukaku when he's injured or rested, as it allows Everton to play the same way with a powerful guy up front who can hold the ball up, but I don't think he offers an awful lot in support of Lukaku, despite starting the season pretty well. Naismith couldn't even nail down a place after scoring a hat-trick against Chelsea, McGeady can't even make the squad, Lennon is only used intermittently and they've only recently signed that young, highly rated striker from Grasshoppers who'll join up with them in the summer. All in all, it's probably the riskiest place Long could go.

[paul_oshea]

Martinez failings as pointed out before years ago, is his defensive frailties. They have some great players in midfield and attack, and well capable of scoring goals, unfortunately well capable of conceding also. 2 98th minute equalisers.

[tetsujin1979]

Saints won’t sell as Austin surprises Koeman: http://www.football365.com/news/sain...rprises-koeman

Koeman also reiterated his stance that Austin’s arrival does not signal the departure of one of Pelle, Shane Long or Sadio Mane, who have been linked with moves away this month.
“We brought one player in but nobody will go out,” he said. “I’ll keep saying that until January 31.”

[kennedmc]

Hopefully Long will get enough game time between now and euros.

[DeLorean]

Gives Southampton the lead at Swansea.

[SkStu]

Nice header across the goal from a good distance out and I think the keeper should have done a lot better.

[tricky_colour]

The defence and keeping left a lot to be desired, but it a good header testing the keeper, who didn't pass the test!!