Surely we have to recall him in January. 9 goals this season and for a struggling tesm. Understand the need for him to play matches but with Charlie out for the foreseeable and lack of goals from the other strikers, he can get game time with us.
I've been saying the same thing Lamby, I could see the improvement in the lad last season for the U23s and now he is proving it at first team level. His confidence must be sky high right now and we should be taking advantage of that. I'm not saying that that we shouldn't try to bring in another proven striker though.
Would probably benefit the first team this season. But you need to look at the long term. I think he will be a better and more effective player next season if we allow him to get an entire season of regular football and regular goals for Blackburn.
This. Leave him where he is. He's not suddenly gonna come back and solve all of our goalscoring issues. Shows how desperate we are though.
Leave him where he is, let him have a full season scoring, it'll build his confidence and he'll be more use to us in the long term. Short term we need to limp along till Jan and then get either a striker or a creative midfielder in.
Nah, top priority should be to get a first choice striker. Then an attacking midfielder. If possible ship out one of Long and Rodriguez and sign a replacement.
Don't think we should be shipping out Long, we just need to get someone to play with him. His movement and style of play will create chances even if he's not taking them himself. I think a slight change to formation is needed to get long back how he was last season.
Tough one. Do we leave him where he is so he can progress while we slide down the league. In desperation we can get in a proven goalscorer. That way when his loan ends he can come back here and be 3rd/4th choice. That will do wonders for his confidence. Next season he can go on loan again, find his scoring boots elsewhere for a second season and we can have the same debate at some point 12/24 months from now. Not sure what the best thing is but its definately a case of we have a striker in scoring form out on loan and a pile of deadwood in the first team. Who think the club will find 20m for a striker rather than recall our loanee? Not I.
I remain to be convinced of the wisdom of talking to Allardyce. He might be better than Claude, but would cost us too much in bungs and reputation. Sorry. Wrong thread
Can see the argument for both leaving him there & bringing him back. But, this may well be his chance to take here. We don't loan out often, and when we do they barely return. I want this kid to make it & he has shown some big improvement. (don't think we can break the deal with Blackburn)
It doesn't seem that Long really works in our system though. We have several wide players now so there's no need to use him there and there's only one spot for a central striker. We can't afford to have so many central strikers who don't score goals. I think I'd rather Rodriguez went but - assuming we get a decent offer for him and have a replacement lined up - I'd be fine with Long leaving.
Out of Long or Jay, id be moving Long out. Jay has the potential to get to where he was whereas Long hit his ceiling last year. Id also stick with Jay at the weekend, he will go on a run of goals soon.
Yeah i agree Long doesn't fit the current system, which is why i mentioned the change of formation. Not sure we should be letting any players leave in Jan but if we do i'd rather Jay weny on loan some where.
We've gambled on a couple of youngsters already this season and seen it work out pretty well. In an ideal world we'd leave him where he is until the end of the season for the sake of his own development, but this is not an ideal world, so perhaps we have to take a punt.
Well I think we need one more striker on top of what we have so for me if we let anyone go they need to be replaced. Which is why I'd be more inclined to sell and re-invest the money. I doubt Kat is going to invest in players at this point so I expect we need to seek to buy. I wouldn't be totally opposed to signing a new striker, letting Rodriguez go out on loan and bringing Gallagher back but he might be better off starting games rather than sitting on our bench.
If either Long or Jay go in Jan i can't see us buying 2 strikers. At the momnet we have lost Charlie so a replacement has to be found for him, We need to leave Sam at Blackburn he is having a wondeful season so for me he needs to be left there to enjoy it and progress as a player.
All depends on the contract with Blackburn, but the main issue is what is best for Gallagher. I think a whole successful season with a lower league club would suit his development best and then we could see what happens...either he returns or, more likely, he gets himself a nice long term contract with a decent Championship club. We are really not in such a desperate situation as many seem to think...this is going to be an alright season....at the very least. Too many think that continuous improvement every single year is essential otherwise you get relegated and go into administration. As for getting rid of Long and Jay...that seems just the answer when you are short of strikers already
