In praise of Shane Long...

[Basingstoke Royal]

Not necessarily. His form is immense, absolutely immense, but to be considered wrong he'll have to do it for two or three seasons consecutively, not in sporadic fits and spurts.

and if he could try and play well before Xmas one season that'd be grand

No doubt he will be our player of the season. He would get my vote for Player of half the season award. People forget how shocking he was for the first 15 games, but fair play for turning it around.

[West Stand Man]

No doubt he will be our player of the season. He would get my vote for Player of half the season award. People forget how shocking he was for the first 15 games, but fair play for turning it around.

He wasn't 'shocking' for the first 15 games. It was merely that halfwits who don't understand football saw it that way.

[Who Moved The Goalposts?]

No doubt he will be our player of the season. He would get my vote for Player of half the season award. People forget how shocking he was for the first 15 games, but fair play for turning it around.

He wasn't 'shocking' for the first 15 games. It was merely that halfwits who don't understand football saw it that way.

Amen.

[Wycombe Royal]

Not necessarily. His form is immense, absolutely immense, but to be considered wrong he'll have to do it for two or three seasons consecutively, not in sporadic fits and spurts.

and if he could try and play well before Xmas one season that'd be grand

No doubt he will be our player of the season. He would get my vote for Player of half the season award. People forget how shocking he was for the first 15 games, but fair play for turning it around.

He was playing exactly the same as he is now but without the goals.

[Gordons Cumming]

It will be a shame to lose Shane.


...................but if we go up?

[RobRoyal]

Whatever he has said before, I think last night was the first time Trapattoni has started to think Longy could be a starter in his first choice team. Chances of Shane being at Reading next season diminishing by the week.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... again.html

Oh dear. He's really off in the summer

Still, chuffed for him. He deserves the recognition.

[Top Flight]

Long has upped his value now to about £11million squid. He is a sensational player now. His development in the past year has been outstanding.

It just shows. We need to go up this year. Every year we fail to go up we lose more and more stars and our chances of a quick return to the top flight are diminishing. We really need to go up this year so that we can continue to build on the excellent foundations that are at the club.

Going up could put us in the race to strengthen our left-back slot with Bertrand and add further quality to the squad. Failure will result in a couple of major departures and leave us as a mid table and average championship outfit for a number of years to come.

But anyway, WELL DONE LONG. The outstanding performances continue!

[Hoop Blah]

No doubt he will be our player of the season. He would get my vote for Player of half the season award. People forget how shocking he was for the first 15 games, but fair play for turning it around.

He was playing exactly the same as he is now but without the goals.

No he wasn't, at times he was awful. He wasn't perhaps as bad as some of us felt (because at his lack of goals made his performances seem worse perhaps) but in plenty of those games in the first few months he couldn't win, control, hold up the ball or do many constructive things with it when he did.

For all his work rate he was getting caught offside because he'd be walking back, and he missed plenty of decent opportunites through his poor play. The only thing he's done consistently this season is run the channels well and win penalties through some clever running across defenders and going down under the slightest touch.

What we've seen from him over the last few months is a massive turn around in the way he's played as well as his scoring rate.

Fair play to him it's a hell of a turn around and he's proved me wrong as I didn't think he could keep this level or performance up for this long a period. We all knew he could have the odd good game, but this run is more than that.

He's certain to leave in the summer, as he has been for months, but his value will probably have doubled since Christmas. I still can't see anyone paying as much for him as Wolves did for Doyle.

[Gordons Cumming]

The management have always thought that Shane could be better than Doyle and that prediction could turn out to be spot on.

I couldn't see it myself, but what do I know.....................

[Snowball]

No doubt he will be our player of the season. He would get my vote for Player of half the season award. People forget how shocking he was for the first 15 games, but fair play for turning it around.

He wasn't 'shocking' for the first 15 games. It was merely that halfwits who don't understand football saw it that way.

Correct!


Well said

[Snowball]

No doubt he will be our player of the season. He would get my vote for Player of half the season award. People forget how shocking he was for the first 15 games, but fair play for turning it around.

He wasn't 'shocking' for the first 15 games. It was merely that halfwits who don't understand football saw it that way.

Agreed with this already, but as for "not scoring goals" in those first 15 league games?

He was worth his place on his work-rate alone, and...

After 15 Games

4 Kebe
3 Long Plus 2 assists plus won a penalty for Harte to score
3 Harte
2 Church
2 Mills
2 Gylfi
1 Pearce
1 HRK
1 McAnuff
1 Antonio
1 Karacan

[Basingstoke Royal]

No doubt he will be our player of the season. He would get my vote for Player of half the season award. People forget how shocking he was for the first 15 games, but fair play for turning it around.

He wasn't 'shocking' for the first 15 games. It was merely that halfwits who don't understand football saw it that way.

Strikers are paid to score goals - he was missing chance after chance and not contributing anywhere near to the effect he is now.

Yes strikers lose form for periods, but this was half a season and we could have been in a very different position to where we are now.

Like I say, fair play to him for turning it around when the crowd were on his back - but he didnt play well for the first 15 or so games.

[Basingstoke Royal]

No doubt he will be our player of the season. He would get my vote for Player of half the season award. People forget how shocking he was for the first 15 games, but fair play for turning it around.

He was playing exactly the same as he is now but without the goals.

No he wasn't, at times he was awful. He wasn't perhaps as bad as some of us felt (because at his lack of goals made his performances seem worse perhaps) but in plenty of those games in the first few months he couldn't win, control, hold up the ball or do many constructive things with it when he did.

For all his work rate he was getting caught offside because he'd be walking back, and he missed plenty of decent opportunites through his poor play. The only thing he's done consistently this season is run the channels well and win penalties through some clever running across defenders and going down under the slightest touch.

What we've seen from him over the last few months is a massive turn around in the way he's played as well as his scoring rate.

Fair play to him it's a hell of a turn around and he's proved me wrong as I didn't think he could keep this level or performance up for this long a period. We all knew he could have the odd good game, but this run is more than that.

He's certain to leave in the summer, as he has been for months, but his value will probably have doubled since Christmas. I still can't see anyone paying as much for him as Wolves did for Doyle.

+1

[brendywendy]

No doubt he will be our player of the season. He would get my vote for Player of half the season award. People forget how shocking he was for the first 15 games, but fair play for turning it around.

He wasn't 'shocking' for the first 15 games. It was merely that halfwits who don't understand football saw it that way.

Strikers are paid to score goals - he was missing chance after chance and not contributing anywhere near to the effect he is now.

Yes strikers lose form for periods, but this was half a season and we could have been in a very different position to where we are now.

Like I say, fair play to him for turning it around when the crowd were on his back - but he didnt play well for the first 15 or so games.

kevin doyles game was never just about scoring goals, still isnt, hence why he still plays through his barren spells.
same with shane. doesnt matter where they come from, if you have a striker who only scores 1 in 5, but a lampard scoring 20 goals a season from just behind him, im sure youd be happy enough.

shane long played well for the first half of the season, he just didnt score a s many goals as he shoulda

[brendywendy]

He's certain to leave in the summer, as he has been for months, but his value will probably have doubled since Christmas. I still can't see anyone paying as much for him as Wolves did for Doyle.

LOL at certain.

[Who Moved The Goalposts?]

He's certain to leave in the summer, as he has been for months, but his value will probably have doubled since Christmas. I still can't see anyone paying as much for him as Wolves did for Doyle.

LOL at certain.

Sadly Brendy, I agree he's off in summer. I'm a little pissed off at Trappatoni effectively pimping him round PL clubs, but they would have been aware anyway. Brian can't win in this scenario. If Shane goes, we'll probably get around £4m for him of which Brian will see just some of the money (the rest to account for the black hole) and try to plug the gap through his scouting or rely on Manset and Williams and use the cash to buy Leigertwood/strengthen elsewhere.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

It would be such a shame to see him go in the Summer. 5 seasons of not getting a huge amount of out him and then seeing him go after 6 months good work would be disappointing. I read an article at the beginning of the season that said he wanted to become the next Doyle at Reading, if he keeps on going the way he is, he's well on track!

[brendywendy]

He's certain to leave in the summer, as he has been for months, but his value will probably have doubled since Christmas. I still can't see anyone paying as much for him as Wolves did for Doyle.

LOL at certain.

Sadly Brendy, I agree he's off in summer. I'm a little pissed off at Trappatoni effectively pimping him round PL clubs, but they would have been aware anyway. Brian can't win in this scenario. If Shane goes, we'll probably get around £4m for him of which Brian will see just some of the money (the rest to account for the black hole) and try to plug the gap through his scouting or rely on Manset and Williams and use the cash to buy Leigertwood/strengthen elsewhere.

still lol at the word certain, regardless.

and i have no more idea of the size of next seasons shortfall than you do(ie none)
youd imagine that selling all our high earners would have had some sort of an effect to bring it down from 4 million though.
i can see people coming in for him, but even at a lower prem club hes still going to be a bench warmer. that and his relationship with BMcD, and our flirtation with the playoffs means the word certain is misused here. imo

[facaldaqui]

No doubt he will be our player of the season. He would get my vote for Player of half the season award. People forget how shocking he was for the first 15 games, but fair play for turning it around.

He wasn't 'shocking' for the first 15 games. It was merely that halfwits who don't understand football saw it that way.

Strikers are paid to score goals - he was missing chance after chance and not contributing anywhere near to the effect he is now.

Yes strikers lose form for periods, but this was half a season and we could have been in a very different position to where we are now.

Like I say, fair play to him for turning it around when the crowd were on his back - but he didnt play well for the first 15 or so games.

For quite a few of those games he did play well, apart from being unable to score. It was frustrating, but I can see why Brian didn't replace him with Church, which was all he could have done.

[Hoop Blah]

He could've actually addressed the issue of a lack of fit and in form forwards in the squad by dipping into the loan market.

As for the word certain....brendy I love your positive thinking and naiveity. Long has pretty much said all season that he'd be off in the summer because he wants Premier Football and all that goes with it. If we got promoted I'd say we'd have a very good chance of keeping him, so yes in those circumstances certain might be the wrong word. I was working on the basis that we didn't some how pull out a minor miracle and will be playing in the Championship next season.