[dinkydave2003]

haha look on wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Long

[wba1993dave]

#ssn WBA in talks with Long

[Baggies]

Ive said what I think before and i think most people will agree we are over paying however, there is some logic to this.

Been reading a lot about moneyball this summer with Commolli (sp) and John W henry at Liverpool and interestingly, one of the theories behind moneyball is to OVERPAY to fill gaps quickly. In our terms, we have 3 weeks left and need a striker to help keep us up. Allied to the fact we have bought 5 players in on free transfers/loans and Shane Long might yet be our last signing, the 6 million can be accepted. The club will know he shouldnt be worth 6 million but we are paying to fill in the gap we need. He was identified some time ago and slowly we have pursued him and now he is set to sign.

His record is patchy but he has everything a top striker needs like pace, skill, strength and finishes aswell as assists so he might work out and if he does not then we can always sell him to a championship team for 2 or 3 million in a year or two.

[Londonbaggymike]

Turns out I could be bothered after all:

http://theseventytwo.com/football-league/championship/2011/05/27/shane-long-a-brief-history-of-readings-star-striker/

16 prem starts out of those 50. Puts a bit of perspective on it.

[Ben1983]

Londonbaggymike, wobble your head and have sit down.

[Tipton Baggie]

Ive said what I think before and i think most people will agree we are over paying however, there is some logic to this.

Been reading a lot about moneyball this summer with Commolli (sp) and John W henry at Liverpool and interestingly, one of the theories behind moneyball is to OVERPAY to fill gaps quickly. In our terms, we have 3 weeks left and need a striker to help keep us up. Allied to the fact we have bought 5 players in on free transfers/loans and Shane Long might yet be our last signing, the 6 million can be accepted. The club will know he shouldnt be worth 6 million but we are paying to fill in the gap we need. He was identified some time ago and slowly we have pursued him and now he is set to sign.

His record is patchy but he has everything a top striker needs like pace, skill, strength and finishes aswell as assists so he might work out and if he does not then we can always sell him to a championship team for 2 or 3 million in a year or two.

So basically sounds like a panic buy?

[Baggies]

No, it could be a signing based on a system of purchasing players that has worked very well is baseball and which one of the top teams in england are now experimenting with.

[Jack_Wba11]

wrong player, we're about to beat themfor scott danns signature

Oh sorry mate! Must. Read. Links. 

[Galahad]

Nice stats Galahad.

What will the people from the 5th worst city in the world say about these figures now?

Ooossshhhhhhhhhh!

Let's see if Swissguy replies 

[Kicking Pigeons]

Let's see if Swissguy replies 

Probably too busy chatting to the Wolves fans.

[bigbadjohn]

All gone quite now ? 

[WorcsWBA]

Been reading a lot about moneyball this summer with Commolli (sp) and John W henry at Liverpool and interestingly, one of the theories behind moneyball is to OVERPAY to fill gaps quickly. In our terms, we have 3 weeks left and need a striker to help keep us up. Allied to the fact we have bought 5 players in on free transfers/loans and Shane Long might yet be our last signing, the 6 million can be accepted. The club will know he shouldnt be worth 6 million but we are paying to fill in the gap we need.

Obviously it's madness to pay over the odds for all your signings, but I think you have to be prepared to do it for your prime targets. It's all relative isn't it - I mean, regardless of how well or badly he's done for them, no-one can claim that Torres is actually worth £50m or whatever Chelsea paid for him? In fact, given the good uses the money could be put to outside football, you could argue that all transfer fees are OTT.

[A5HB]

If we do sign Shane can we also sign Vagner Love! Then we could have a front 3 of Vagner Love Long Cox 

Seriously though will be pleased if/when this deal gets wrapped up, we need another striker and from what I've seen Long is a really good little player, very lively, who will be another good option alongside Pete.

[wba1993dave]

All gone quite now ? 

Am sure the deal will be wrapped up later tonight or early tomorrow, i think he just wants to get everything sorted so he can play for ireland with his new team mate Simon Cox

[wbarenno]

Take odemwingie out of our strike force and were left with fortune bednar tchoyi and cox
Now long is better then all of them. Longs an improvement to what weve got thats all we can ask for

[Sussex-Baggie]

Any more update on this potential transfer, as apparently he missed Republic of Ireland training today to have a medical with us?

I can't see this deal being completed today now, but hopefully it can be confirmed tomorrow if most of the details have been agreed between all parties.

[DJ EmmJee]

If there is one thing I am pretty certain on with this topic, it's that Swissguy won't post on here again! 

[Andio]

If there is one thing I am pretty certain on with this topic, it's that Swissguy won't post on here again! 

If there's one thing I'm sure about it's that Swissguy is a blatant Dingle on the wind up.

[Quakes Fan]

Ive said what I think before and i think most people will agree we are over paying however, there is some logic to this.

Been reading a lot about moneyball this summer with Commolli (sp) and John W henry at Liverpool and interestingly, one of the theories behind moneyball is to OVERPAY to fill gaps quickly. In our terms, we have 3 weeks left and need a striker to help keep us up. Allied to the fact we have bought 5 players in on free transfers/loans and Shane Long might yet be our last signing, the 6 million can be accepted. The club will know he shouldnt be worth 6 million but we are paying to fill in the gap we need. He was identified some time ago and slowly we have pursued him and now he is set to sign.

"William Lamar 'Billy' Beane III is a former Major League Baseball player and the current general manager and minority owner of the Oakland Athletics. He is also the subject of Michael Lewis's 2003 book on baseball economics, Moneyball.

"When the A's ownership group agreed to purchase the reincarnation of the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer, Beane, who is an avid supporter of Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League, began developing a system for objectively analyzing soccer players. He has agreed to help the Earthquakes front office develop a method for building a cost-effective team, as the salary cap in MLS is even more restrictive than the A's small-market status in Major League Baseball.

"Beane is portrayed by Brad Pitt in the upcoming film Moneyball based on the book of the same name." 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Beane

(Which is why we had a friendly with Spurs last year and have a Spurs player on loan.)

[DJ EmmJee]

If there's one thing I'm sure about it's that Swissguy is a blatant Dingle on the wind up.

Didn't work too well did it?!

[Dale]

Must admit I wasn't keen on Long at first but am warming to him since I watched his goals on youtube 

[baggieheart]

I hope the kid gets off to a flier (I'm sure we all do.)

His price tag will mean big things are expected, and knowing what an expectant Albion crowd can be like wouldn't take long for people to get on his back.

Can't say I'm excited as I don't really know much about his game. Those worried looking at his past career well it is sort of an irrelevance now as all will depend on what he does for us.

Different players suit different systems & teams, it could well be the guy really suits the supply our midfield creates (one ball in particular from Dorrans in the friendly Tchoyi wasn't far from connecting, a lively intelligent striker probably would have.)

Albion are no mugs, this transfer breaks the mold of what we were looking for in purchasing players, would have taken some convincing to sign upto what would probably be worth £10m+ wages and all.

Its a crazy market, if he can have the impact Bent had for Charlton, and with supposed interest from Liverpool, his transfer value will really grow if he does well.

[WBArgo]

I was thinking about this earlier. If he were to play as many minutes as Fortune, Bednar and Miller did combined last season, and were to get 5 goals I'd be quite happy with that. It's 3 more than those lot did last season. I think 10 would be amazing but realistically 8 is what he should aim for him he does come.

Also, if he's anything like he is on FM11 we're in for goals haha!

[collins101]

Does this mean we are going to play 442 next season ? Personally not excited by this potential signing, 6 million for an unproven player in the last year of there contract 

[15.SUPERJOE]

Ive said what I think before and i think most people will agree we are over paying however, there is some logic to this.

Been reading a lot about moneyball this summer with Commolli (sp) and John W henry at Liverpool and interestingly, one of the theories behind moneyball is to OVERPAY to fill gaps quickly. In our terms, we have 3 weeks left and need a striker to help keep us up. Allied to the fact we have bought 5 players in on free transfers/loans and Shane Long might yet be our last signing, the 6 million can be accepted. The club will know he shouldnt be worth 6 million but we are paying to fill in the gap we need. He was identified some time ago and slowly we have pursued him and now he is set to sign.

His record is patchy but he has everything a top striker needs like pace, skill, strength and finishes aswell as assists so he might work out and if he does not then we can always sell him to a championship team for 2 or 3 million in a year or two.

Not overpaying to fill a gap at all. Overpaying would be paying the price Reading originally wanted - £8m. We wouldn't fill a gap like that, Roy will have players he wants regardless of what 'gap' we think needs 'filling'.

We have significantly lowered the price, looking as though it is going to be £4m upfront with add-ons.