In praise of Shane Long...

[Libertine]

Fair point if we can safely assume that part of the money we get from him gets reinvested in bringing in a suitable replacement. One would hope but we can never be sure, based on the recent track record of the team...

Of course. But my point was based on the possibility that we might get more for Shane than we'd normally assume he's worth. Madejski seeks first of all to use money from sales to prop up the running costs of the club; the more we get for Shane the more likely it is that a decent proportion (not the bigger proportion, I admit) might go on players.

And again another fair point. We probably can expect to get more money for Shane than we thought he was worth up to the beginning of this season. This year he has really fufilled the promise that he has always had. So in that regard whatever we will get will probably be of fair value based on what he has done on the pitch this in 2010-2011.

But I have a little voice in the back of my head which keeps whispering to me "black hole" over and over again...

[Libertine]

Not enough "evidence"? What academy players did we "bring through" in the wake of Gylfi's departure? Jem?

Hopefully we'll get promoted and Shane will stay with us so it won't have to be proven true, and provide us more "evidence", yet again. Sorry, maybe I am a cynic, but until we stop having to sell all of our best talent off, Doyle, Kitson, Sidwell, Sigurdsson, etc, all I would expect us to do to replace Shane if we sold him would be to bring in a journeyman or a young prospect whom will take years to develop if he ever does...

So, just remind me where we are at the moment (in the league). Just how much 'strengthening' did we miss out on?

Who's to say we wouldn't have been an automatic lock for promotion if we kept Gylfi, seeing the way Shane has developed this season.

[Hoop Blah]

We missed out on bringing in a dominant midfielder (until we got Legiertwood), a winger to push McAnuff and Kebe or replace them with quality when their performances have dropped, a centre forward to take the pressure off of Long during that spell we couldn't win a game or last year when we dropped points because Long was struggling. You could argue that we are still lacking a creative central midfielder and someone with a genuine goal threat in there.

If we had one or two of those players between September and January we could be challenging for 2nd not 6th.

[Handsome Man]

Long is 24.2 Years old, 3 Years and 4 months younger than Doyle who is right now, 27 Years 6 months cold

Long is on 50 senior goals. Doyle is on 78.

Surely Long will pass Doyle's total at the same age? He has three and a half seasons to score 29 goals.

With any luck he'll be approaching that 78 by the end of next season when he'll be just 25 Years and 4 Months, still not at his peak.

Do people really say that?
I'm 44.005 years old now then.

If Shane Long does move to the premiership, he'll do well to overtake Doyle by the time he's 27. 10 Premiership goals a season would make him worth squillions.

[Snowball]

24.2 meaning 24 years and 2 months is standard

[Snowball]

Not enough "evidence"? What academy players did we "bring through" in the wake of Gylfi's departure? Jem?

Hopefully we'll get promoted and Shane will stay with us so it won't have to be proven true, and provide us more "evidence", yet again. Sorry, maybe I am a cynic, but until we stop having to sell all of our best talent off, Doyle, Kitson, Sidwell, Sigurdsson, etc, all I would expect us to do to replace Shane if we sold him would be to bring in a journeyman or a young prospect whom will take years to develop if he ever does...

So, just remind me where we are at the moment (in the league). Just how much 'strengthening' did we miss out on?

Who's to say we wouldn't have been an automatic lock for promotion if we kept Gylfi, seeing the way Shane has developed this season.

Except Shane would then be the 1 in 451, and he's not that hot playing there

[Svlad Cjelli]

Not enough "evidence"? What academy players did we "bring through" in the wake of Gylfi's departure? Jem?

Hopefully we'll get promoted and Shane will stay with us so it won't have to be proven true, and provide us more "evidence", yet again. Sorry, maybe I am a cynic, but until we stop having to sell all of our best talent off, Doyle, Kitson, Sidwell, Sigurdsson, etc, all I would expect us to do to replace Shane if we sold him would be to bring in a journeyman or a young prospect whom will take years to develop if he ever does...

So, just remind me where we are at the moment (in the league). Just how much 'strengthening' did we miss out on?

Who's to say we wouldn't have been an automatic lock for promotion if we kept Gylfi, seeing the way Shane has developed this season.

Except that if we'd kept Gylfi, we'd have not been able to afford Harte or Zurab.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Who's to say we wouldn't have been an automatic lock for promotion if we kept Gylfi, seeing the way Shane has developed this season.

Except that if we'd kept Gylfi, we'd have not been able to afford Harte or Zurab.

Or pay Liegertwood's wages

[Ian Royal]

So, just remind me where we are at the moment (in the league). Just how much 'strengthening' did we miss out on?

Who's to say we wouldn't have been an automatic lock for promotion if we kept Gylfi, seeing the way Shane has developed this season.

Except that if we'd kept Gylfi, we'd have not been able to afford Harte or Zurab.

Zurab's played a (significant) minor role this season. Harte's played a lot of games, and it would have been difficult to cope without him, but who's to say Cummings and or Williams (or Tabb / Gunnarsson) wouldn't have stepped up enough for it to have allowed Gylfi to have made the difference?

[Svlad Cjelli]

Who's to say we wouldn't have been an automatic lock for promotion if we kept Gylfi, seeing the way Shane has developed this season.

Except that if we'd kept Gylfi, we'd have not been able to afford Harte or Zurab.

Zurab's played a (significant) minor role this season. Harte's played a lot of games, and it would have been difficult to cope without him, but who's to say Cummings and or Williams (or Tabb / Gunnarsson) wouldn't have stepped up enough for it to have allowed Gylfi to have made the difference?

True, but who's to say that if we'd denied Gylfi a move his form wouldn't have departed him completely? We can play "what if's" until the cows come home.

[Ian Royal]

This is true, though I believe to a certain extent quality will out, and Gylfi was by far and away too good for our league.

Definitely better with him. But it's a valid question about whether we'd be better off with him and without some of the players that came in since he left.

[Ian Royal]

Long breaks the 20 mark. Absolutely fantastic, well done Longy you've proved me wrong... absolutely delighted you've started to live up to all that early promise. If you could have been a little less frustrating over the previous few seasons that would have been nice though.

[URZZ]

Although a distant second in the Championship’s goal-scoring charts to Watford’s Danny Graham (23 goals), it is Long’s (18 goals)

distant my arse

5 goals is distant at this stage of the season......

3 goals.

[Terminal Boardom]

If only Shane was able to find the goal between August and December.

And a massive LOL at people trying to compare Shane Long to Kevin Doyle. Completely different types of forward. Like trying to compare Jermaine Defoe with Peter Crouch.

[RFCUK]

Who's to say we wouldn't have been an automatic lock for promotion if we kept Gylfi, seeing the way Shane has developed this season.

Except that if we'd kept Gylfi, we'd have not been able to afford Harte or Zurab.

Or pay Liegertwood's wages

Or fly to 'Boro..

[Jeffers217]

If only Shane was able to find the goal between August and December.

And a massive LOL at people trying to compare Shane Long to Kevin Doyle. Completely different types of forward. Like trying to compare Jermaine Defoe with Peter Crouch.

Not really mate, both good at running, both hold the ball up, both similar in terms of their height and weight, both fairly good at heading. In fact not many people who are as similar, both Irish!

Crouch is massive and white and completely different to Defoe who is small and black- I'll give you that one!

[Ian Royal]

Strength is massive for Long's game, not nearly so much for Doyle, who has always struck me as more of a finesse player and is stronger than Long in his link up play by quite some way. So thats a couple of fairly significant differences.

[Snowball]

Long breaks the 20 mark. Absolutely fantastic, well done Longy you've proved me wrong... absolutely delighted you've started to live up to all that early promise. If you could have been a little less frustrating over the previous few seasons that would have been nice though.

He was learning his trade, and getting physically stronger

[Snowball]

Compare Doyle and Long's RFC Form




106 Starts 82 Sub Appearances = 120 x "Games" 51 Goals, Strike Rate 2.35 Long

145 Starts 17 Sub Appearances = 148 x "Games" 55 Goals. Strike Rate 2.69 Doyle

[Scarface]

If only Shane was able to find the goal between August and December.

And a massive LOL at people trying to compare Shane Long to Kevin Doyle. Completely different types of forward. Like trying to compare Jermaine Defoe with Peter Crouch.

I don't see them as that different, Long is quicker, but Doyle is technically a better footballer and probably always will be.

I have to admit being well wrong about Long, however it still only one good season.