Sunderland are ready to make a £7million bid for Reading striker Shane Long. £7m bid: Long hit 25 goals for Reading last season Manager Steve Bruce is hoping to sneak into the race for the Republic of Ireland international and blow rivals Newcastle out of the water. Long, who is on holiday until next week, will be allowed to leave Reading after their failure to win promotion and Sunderland have the money to match their asking price. Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has been tracking the 24-year-old for months and Wolves manager Mick McCarthy, who would like to pair Long with former Cork City team-mate Kevin Doyle, is another admirer. This promises to be a busy week for Bruce who hopes to seal a £6m deal for Birmingham's Craig Gardner and complete a £2m move for South Korea international Ji Dong-won who is expected on Wearside today for a medical. Bruce is also still keen on Charles N'Zogbia, Darron Gibson, David Ngog, Connor Wickham, Wes Brown and John O'Shea. Sunderland are also rivalling Tottenham with interest in Plymouth defender Curtis Nelson, 18. Thoughts guys don't know enough about him personally
For me, it was Wickham or Long, not both. We have a terrible track record for messing up with expensive unproven strikers. Stokes, and Stead spring to mind. To a lesser extent Chopra, and even with the so called proven ones a la Flo.
Heard good things about him, but am clueless personally. Two Championship strikers and a Korean League striker is a risky strategy though.
nobody's mentioned the young 18 year old defender from the article, Curtis Nelson anyone seen him play
I agree i say lets push the boat out for a proven PL striker Pav Defoe Kalou Interestingly i have just looked at a rating site and N'GoGG (excuse me) is rated more highly than Berbatov and at Number 50 M.Owen lol Don't all jump on me lol but do you think we should maybe try to get Chamakh from Arsenal as i don't think he is Wengers fav at the moment
I agree with the thinking that it was EITHER Wickham or Long not both. We need a proven operator at this level to partner Gyan and you know what, if that were Welbeck for 15m I'd be very happy indeed. It doesnt have to be a foreigner or a Crouch/Pav for me. Welbeck showed me he was capable of performing at this level last year and at 21 he is a perfect age to partner Gyan, for whom he had a superb relationship with when they played together last season.
Chamakh will be on silly wages, and hes one of those players who has played for a top 4 club, and wont want to turn back to a midtable team. He'll end up in Turkey or a top 6 team in Spain.
Long looks a very handy forward from what I've seen of him a league below. Big question for me about whether he can make the step up. He was very disappointing for me in the Play off final with Swansea which suggested that he may not be temperamentally suited to a bigger stage. I wouldn't want us to commit to another striker without PL experience after getting Wickham. I wish we could find another Marco for about 80K.
I sense a change of policy from Bruce, where he looks like he is targetting young hungry players rather than established ones looking for the best pay deal. I don't know a great deal about this lad, but wouldn't it be great if he turned out to be as good as Super Kev...
I hope this thread it a load of tosh and nothing materialises from it. Shame Long is not a good player.... Very very average at best.
