Agreed. I don't think he's a bad player, he's just not a very good player. He's an average Premier League striker. But I do think he would compliment Pellè quite well. I can't imagine they're a pleasant duo to face.
Except CB, where one of the three mooted targets is Ron Vlaar, another is based in Scotland, and the third appears to be off the table.
If we are going to buy him, get it done quick, and get him in the team for Sunday. He is the sort of player that could get Lovren sent off.
This will perhaps price ourselves out of Vlaar. As someone bluntly, but perhaps generously said, he's 2 years away form being immobile.
Long may turn out ok. He might easily turn better then some exotic foreign striker we might have signed, for example that Paulinho guy. But it doesn't seem a very ambitious move, does it? I think it's the main problem. He's a mediocre player for a mediocre team. And we wouldn't like to think of us as a mediocre team.
He's less than half a lambert in goals scored/assisted terms. You're all sick of me being negative so I'm not even gonna say anything. I really, really hope I'm wrong.
How many would Rickie have scored and assisted if he had been playing in the teams that Long has been playing in? Just askin' ..............
You can't really compare players just in stats when they play for teams that are a different standard to each other.
I don't think that it's lack of ambition that separates, using LTL's point above, the also-rans from the Evertons; every team wants to be as good as they can be on the budget that they have. I think that it's closer to lack of imagination. When Everton has had to sell players on, they've done a fantastic job of spending that a lot of that money on highly-rated young players who were still short of finished products (and thus affordable). When the average teams come into money, they tend to spend it on 'proven talent', which almost necessarily means 'proven-to-be-average talent". Thus, one team takes a small risk in the pursuit of future gains, while the others recycle the same handful of players over and over to little effect.
My thinking exactly...solid, safe but hardly inspiring. As for the fee, if the reported amount is true then i can only imagine (hope) a lot of it comes from bonuses and triggers...might also be that he had extremely low wage demands and will therefor become cheaper over time.
You are describing Twitchy there though. Carries his handbag full of the same names from club to club, short term gains (if any) and the media fawn over his genius. I think Long is far from being a top player however I don't see us being able to get in a 20 goal a season man on the wages we pay ATM. If we are going to score enough goals to be able to get top half this season we are going to have to see them come from more sources than under MP. So if Long gets 8 or 9, Pelle gets 8 or 9, CBs get 4 or 5 from corners, Davis/JWP/Morgan???/Tadic/other midfielders chip in another 10 to 15 then Clyne/Leftback chip in another few then we may well get there. Long nor Pelle are going to be hitting 20 and we can't afford 20 goal a season in the Prem player wages so lets get real.
I'm also describing a lot of other clubs, however. There are a lot of players who bounce from midtable side to midtable side, never being particularly good (and generally getting grossly inflated wages for what they do) but always getting another look from a team that lacks the imagination to roll the dice. You've got us down for 38 goals on the high end of those ranges, though (I'm not expecting our fullbacks to get a few; 1-2 combined would be a pleasant surprise). Score even a tad above that, and you'd better hope that your defense is stellar, or your relegation battle is coming down to the wire. And Long is not on cheap wages...he's not far off what Lallana and Lambert were making last year, and he's on more than most imported players would be. No one's saying 20-a-year or bust here. But if we're going to spend large sums on 'mostly adequate', we're going nowhere in a hurry, and soon the money will dwindle and we'll still be without real quality.
You are being a tad pessimistic there. Ramirez will start almost every game this year if he stays injury free. I can see him hitting double figures. Same for Tadic and Pelle. Long will chip in with at least 5. Davis will get a few and so will the centre backs on set pieces. That's without even bringing Rodriguez into the equation.
Why the certainty that this one will happen quickly DTLW? Do you have any specific info/reason why this one will when others by comparison seem to have dragged out? Is there anything going on with Gallagher for example, or is he genuinely just Ill?
Sure hope Kat/Les/Ralph/Gareth realise that with this one they're gonna struggle to get £25m from Liverpool in 12 months time. Reckon we'd need c. 10 league goals & 5 assists just for him to maintain a value of £12m come next summer. To get to £25m at his age, we'll need more like 16 goals & 8 assists.
That's a decent analogy. I have a fair bit of admiration for Shane Long as well. He's a very good player indeed. Thing is, I don't want very good. I want excellent, maybe even superb. You can still get excellent for £10M. Ok, perhaps superb requires around £20M or more. Forgive me if I'm wrong though, but aren't we ever-so-slightly minted, so we could even afford superb if we wanted to..?
