Has anyone who's seen Long play actually been impressed by him?

[theworm2345]

I have only seen him play once, and he was playing wide right and didnt look comfortable there to be honest so perhaps if Sunderland get promoted David Connolly will be sold to another championship club, because thats his level, and stokes will get a run as a striker in the premiership ... then we can all see if he is good enough for ireland.

I will bet you hundreds of $$$ Connolly will not be sold if they are promoted, he has been first choice all season and has the fans and Keane's full backing, unless Keane goes, Connolly is not going anywhere

No one was talking about Connolly for the Irish team until Roy Keane decided he'd try and get Connolly and Miller into the spotlight. Probably because if Keane gets Sunderland into the premiership he will have to sell Connolly and Miller beacuse he suspects that they are just not good enough for the premiership.

I was (seach my posts, I bet about half of them include Connolly )
You also forget that many of his appearances were as a sub late (especially earlier on in his career). If that one shot against Spain was a foot in the other direction, he likely would have been called up (I wasn't talking about his penalty).

[Stuttgart88]

Anyone see Stokes' shooting during the half time interval? Something else.

[tetsujin1979]

Missed that, but I heard he hit the back of the net every time

[tin tin]

Stokes going to be world class, so will long in time. They both are talented and have a good attitude to the game

[Nailer77]

Anyone see Stokes' shooting during the half time interval? Something else.

Yeh it was impressive alright. I was down the far end though and trying to work out who it was for a bit.

[kev mcq]

Christ he is only 19,...

He's 20. DOB 22/01/1987

[Torn-Ado]

Im still on the fence about Long. I had high hopes when he scored Three in three for Reading and when he got called up ´for San marino.

But against San marino he was atrocious and he's slipped back in the pecking order for Reading. He was lively for us on wed night but should have scored two goals. I don't think he is the future and will be a championship or league two player in a few seasons.

Hopefully he will prove me wrong.

[Nailer77]

Im still on the fence about Long. I had high hopes when he scored Three in three for Reading and when he got called up ´for San marino.

But against San marino he was atrocious and he's slipped back in the pecking order for Reading. He was lively for us on wed night but should have scored two goals. I don't think he is the future and will be a championship or league two player in a few seasons.

Hopefully he will prove me wrong.

I thought he looked fairly impressive on Wednesday, but we'll see I suppose. The only thing is I remember Duff playing for us in his early 20's and he was often dreadful, he only really started to show his potential in the later qualifiers in 2001 notably the Cyprus, Portugal and Holland games. Hopefully Long and McGeady will go the same way as Duff and not McPhail.

[carloz]

I have only seen him play once, and he was playing wide right and didnt look comfortable there to be honest so perhaps if Sunderland get promoted David Connolly will be sold to another championship club, because thats his level, and stokes will get a run as a striker in the premiership ... then we can all see if he is good enough for ireland.

I dont know what you are basing Connolly bring a Championship level striker on. He never got a chance with West Ham in the Premiership, and Wigan splasked out good money for him but unfortunatly he suffered some bad injuries. He has never had a proper chance at Premiership level

[eirebhoy]

Stokes could be next best thing, if he is as good as people are hyping him up to be but the truth is he has done nothing yet, im sorry i dont count scoring lots of goals in the SPL as an achievement that should push him into the national team, Richie Foran was banging them in up there for christ sake!

Foran scored 7 goals in the SPL this season, and 4 of them were penos...

I think Stokes is guaranteed a big future. You can tell with some players. Some of them play entirely on confidence but Stokes is different. He's an arrogant that I can't see being affected by confidence. He's also incredibly intelligient on the football pitch.

[kingdom hoop]

Im still on the fence about Long. I had high hopes when he scored Three in three for Reading and when he got called up ´for San marino.

But against San marino he was atrocious and he's slipped back in the pecking order for Reading. He was lively for us on wed night but should have scored two goals. I don't think he is the future and will be a championship or league two player in a few seasons.

Hopefully he will prove me wrong.

i've never found fences comfortable places to be!! long will be an excellent player in 3/4 years. he's got natural skill. i know its a little unrelated but the fact that he was a tipp minor hurler at 16 evidences his raw talent.

i dont think its fair to judge him on the SM game. as for the reading situation, dont worry about it. he hasnt really slipped down the pecking order, its just kitsons(a different type of player) return from injury. coppell rates long very highly, will nurture him and give him every chance. keep faith

[republicofwhite]

Agree wholeheartedly (as ever with the wise and eloquent words of Kingdom Hoop) Long is ridiculously talented and is only going to get better and better. We should be thankful he's under the tutelage of Coppell, who has the described him as the most naturally talented sportsmen he's ever seen. Anybody who criticises him about the SM game is ridiculously harsh. He was totally isolated and deserted by his more senior teammates and you could see he was thrown in at the deep end. Doyle had a great game on Wednesday as the target man, but when Long came on he was noticeably energetic, and you would never have guessed he was on his own. He will make a serious mark on the game for us. Anybody who saw his goal against Burnley will know the natural talent and eye for goal he has.

[kingdom hoop]

Agree wholeheartedly (as ever with the wise and eloquent words of Kingdom Hoop) .

i wasn't aware i had a fan club

ah, so, do you like films and stuff

[zenokelly]

Long did well when he came on for a 20 year - old but should have scored at least one of the two clear cut chances he had. He showed confidence, ability and desire for the green shirt which are all very important! He will probably be another Alan Lee consistently doing decent in the Championship.


However, I think Stokes would have buried both chances with what I have seen from him for Falkirk and the odd game for Sunderland. He's big, strong and controls the ball very well. If Sunderland are promoted he will be a star next season. Keane will only help him achieve what he is capable of and that is becoming a £15m player in the next 3 - 4 years.

[bellavistaman]

not impressed with long myself either,

[Soper]

He is a class player. People shouldn't be ridiculous in their expectations, he is young just like Stokes.

[finnpark]

I think we all agree that none of them are as bad as Robbie Keane.

[tricky_colour]

Long starts ahead of Doyle (bench) alongside Lita for Reading (manager wanted 'fresh legs') he seems to have done OK so far but nothing special,
I would say Hunt has done better.
I also saw Stokes second half for Sunderland, again OK but nothing special.

[carloz]

I would say Hunt has done better.
I also saw Stokes second half for Sunderland, again OK but nothing special.

Yeah he was quiet last night but it was a poor game in all. Stokes looked extremly average. The only forward on the pitch that resembled Premiership class was our own David Connolly

[eirebhoy]

Stokes looked extremly average.

In fairness van Nistelrooy wouldn't have had much joy in the Sunderland team last night. He got into 2 excellent positions behind the Southampton players and would have been clean through but they couldn't get the ball to him.