In praise of Shane Long...

[brendywendy]

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.

also said plenty about not going to any club, and not wanting to sit on a bench.
im not saying he wont go. im simply saying that actually we dont know, and anything could happen.

we need to recieve and offer that matches our evaluation, the club needs to convince shane he'll play regularly, and they wont get relegated, reading need to oxf*rd up promotion.etc etc

oxf*rd all is certain here

[URZZZZZZZZ]

He's CERTAIN to stay if we get promoted.

[Sarah Star]

He's CERTAIN to stay if we get promoted.

Thank you, Shane.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

You're welcome

[Sarah Star]

Can you remove the whole shirt if you score on Saturday, please?

[Svlad Cjelli]

Can you remove the whole shirt if you score on Saturday, please?

Yellow card if he does.

[Sarah Star]

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the common good. Griff's already promised to take his off and jump into the West Stand if he scores.

[NR_Royal]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqDbsvuOI2g

[Man Friday]

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.

There never was a chance. That's what the 1-year contract extension was about.

[Kitson12]

Last time I looked, 15 games was less than a third of a season, not half.

[ZacNaloen]

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the common good. Griff's already promised to take his off and jump into the West Stand if he scores.

Double yellow for that one surely?

[Sarah Star]

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the common good. Griff's already promised to take his off and jump into the West Stand if he scores.

Double yellow for that one surely?

Worth it.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the common good. Griff's already promised to take his off and jump into the West Stand if he scores.

Double yellow for that one surely?

Worth it.

If he does and it's the first goal that I've got money on at 66/1 I'll probably do the same.

[Sarah Star]

You'll be like twins. They won't know who to send back on the pitch

[Ian Royal]

I think the best we can hope for from Long is that he agrees to stay for 6 months and see if we're looking at probable / possible automatics and if not we'll actively help him find a Premier League buyer.

[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.

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.

I love the hypocrisy on this list. When Shane's goals-per-minute were excellent, I was being told by every Tom Dick and Harrry that "being a striker" was a lot more than just scoring goals, and that Doyle was God even when he went on long goal-less streaks "because of all the other work he does..."

He played very well through those games and was one whole game behind Kebe but had also won a pen and had a couple of assists, and in less than a third of a season, not "half". And it's over a WHOLE season that we measure players. Long was good then. Now he's fantastic. Kebe was good then, now he's nothing like as good. Church got a few goals as sub then, now he can't score when the other side go off the pitch.

McDermott heaps praise on him. Irish professionals heap praise on him. Trapatonni says he's a England Premiership player. He's second-top scorer in the league. An Ipswich professional says he's the best striker in this league. He has 18+2+3 goals this season. He's just scored his 50th senior goal.

And still some of you want to criticize.

[Snowball]

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!

So 9 goals at a rate of 1 in 180 minutes last season, including winning the equalising pen at Anfield then scoring the winner, two more goals against Villa, they didn't happen?

He was excellent in the second half of last season, excellent all this season. 32 goals in 14 months.

[PlasticRoyale]

In Ireland at the mo, most people know fairly little about him

[Svlad Cjelli]

In Ireland at the mo, most people know fairly little about him

That's because, just like in every other country in the world, there is no coverage of anything except the PL.

[Who Moved The Goalposts?]

In Ireland at the mo, most people know fairly little about him

That's because, just like in every other country in the world, there is no coverage of anything except the PL.

You mean there's football outside the premier league? Who'd have thought it?