I can't see the problem with him travelling from Birmingham. I do it for home games- takes roughly 2hrs.
Worth 5m? Hmm. Bit of a risk, but he can score goals and I think he'll keep you up. But will he be good enough when you look to take the next step? Don't think so.
Mike White on twitter says that the Birmingham Mail has told him that there is no deal for Shane Long.
Two hour commute to training? leaving the house at 7am or whatever every day and getting back home late. With the Irish contingent I imagine he'd be fairly happy up here but obviously not his wife. P.S she should really have thought about how much she would have to move before marrying a footballer, does she think her kid is going to go to the same school for the next 7 years?
I agree. It's the Daily Mail who have the track record of giving us accurate news first. Can't remember the mirror getting anything first or doing anything other than waffling the same ****e as everyone else.
To take the next step we need to sign 3 strikers to go with Sagbo so we've got 4 in total, 2 to start and 2 to be on the bench/cover. Doesn't matter what order we sign them in, so if Long is good enough to start for us now he's at least good enough to be on the bench for us when we take the next step. I don't really think we're ready to make the next step yet anyway though, we need to stabilise the club and get the finances back on track before we try pushing on above our current level. On current standings we're one of the top 10 sides in the country without even being one of the top 15 clubs in the country, so we're more likely to be fighting to hold our position than move forwards in the next 18 months.
In fairness, goals and assists are pretty ****e stats to judge a player on. If you're going to use stats to judge, you'd at least use ones like final third passes, attacking runs, heat maps, shots (from where and on target ratio) etc. Specially in the case of assists, you could do all the work but if you don't make the final pass or the player you set up doesn't score you don't get anything. I still don't think he's worth anything like that when his contracts almost out, and when Alukos back I'd rather Sone and Sagbo play as the front 2.
I don't give a **** about what paper favours who, I don't read newspaper because every last one puts their bullshit biased spin on everything. The fact is whether you want world domination, ethnic cleansing or the worlds population living on benefits, sports journalism is sports journalism and I don't see how any bullshit political delusions could have anything to do with it. And the Daily Mail has a track record of hearing about things first.
Bruce killed the Fletcher rumour and now Longs wife has killed his rumour. That only leaves the serbian striker rumour right?
Didn't someone say that Bruce was on Sporttalk this morning and said they had two irons in the fire and if they come off we'll be sorted?
I prefer this version, from their album of the same name [video=youtube;StDPcu34p1A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StDPcu34p1A[/video]
Something very fishy about those (supposed) tweets from his wife. For one he seemed quite eager to come here in the summer, so unless their kid has been conceived since (and this has changed her mind) it seems likely she was also prepared to come. Secondly this transfer has been on the cards (or at least a distinct possibility) since the summer, but neither Shane Long nor his wife have suggested they don't want to come here. I don't know how twitter works, but those tweets seem more emotional and outspoken than you would expect from a wag. Maybe it's the hormones talking or she's a bit of a battle axe.
If you look at the photos of her at the baby shower (this isnt stalking is it). You will see that clearly she was not pregnant in the summer. The tweets she is having are with her friends and not random people and they do not read as emotional. (you can tell because its the same chicks that are in her baby shower (this isnt stalking is it?)) So that is your first and 2nd point. If you go to the time stamp you can see that her tweets with her friends are a couple hours before the mirror article came out (this is sounding like stalking). Since they are not direct response to the article that came out and were in regards to her friends asking her questions they certainly do not read as hormonal or coming from a battle axe. Infact they seem quite reasonable. She is going to have a baby in a couple months, just put her kid in school and he has a team for a year and a half. She also says that her and her husband talked about his contract and moving to a new club and decided against it. All very reasonable.
Or is she making a statement that the deal is not yet done to other potential suitors - on the advice of the agent? The line "happy at west brom" with no playing time or long term contract aroused my suspicions.... ....isn't the Bruce family based in brum anyway as well as Aluko and Davies? I suspect this is a goer and will only be derailed by someone else matcking the fee and bettering the personal terms (as his wife would obviously wish - what with another mouth to feed and celebrity christening to pay for and all...) She didn't have much to say when he was at cottingham in september did she?