25 Nov 2012

'He's sneaky' - Lawro hails 'tough' €8m striker scouted by LFC. Missed opportunity?

Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson has heaped praise on West Brom striker Shane Long, one of the unsung heroes of West Brom's surge up the Premier League table this season.

Speaking to the BBC, Lawro seemed pleased that 'a lot of people are talking about Shane Long at the moment', and stressed that the striker had been a quality player for a long time. He enthused:

"He [Long] has gone under the radar before now because he does not do loads of things that make him stand out.

"Long is what I call a 'sneaky' good player - he is quicker than he looks, he is good in the area and he will get you a goal.

"He has a great work ethic, and he's strong and tough too - people bounce off him like the Chelsea defenders did last week when he kept holding the ball up, no matter who was marking him"


In July 2011, Kenny Dalglish sent Liverpool scouts to watch Long - who was then at Reading - in a friendly match with Northampton. Long joined West Brom in a £6.5m (€8m) deal instead, but the Republic of Ireland striker seems like the kind of player Dalglish would've targeted (and probably paid £20m for)

During his time at Reading, Long also worked with Brendan Rodgers, and although the Liverpool manager has a penchant for trying to sign former players, it's doubtful that the Republic of Ireland striker will ever come into Reds' reckoning.

Long didn't enjoy working under Rodgers, as he revealed in an interview last year:

"It was a whole change of football with him in 2009. We all gave it our best shot and it just didn't seem to work for us. It was a big transition in a short period of time...basically, Barcelona-style football...and we couldn't make it work.

"We were virtually in the relegation zone and the club thought it was time for a change. Brian McDermott came in and he's done a terrific job ever since. It was a decision that worked when you look back on it"


Well, there's certainly no danger of 'Barcelona-style' football at West Brom (!), not that it's made any difference - they're still higher than Liverpool in the table, which is kind of ironic given the Reds' attempts at tiki-taka under Rodgers (!)

Jaimie Kanwar


28 comments:

  1. I dont mind long but lets be honest he would be no more then a rarely used squad member at the likes of Man Ure, Chelsea, Man City or Arsenal and they are the level we are trying to get to so why waste £8 million on a player who should be looked at as a squad player for a club the size of Liverpool, I am sick of us buying players who "might" become top players in 2 or 3 years why not just buy as good a quality as we can now, then let the youngsters come through or add to the squad like the others do, FFS i wish we would stop looking at second rate players!

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  2. Musings of someone who knows very little about football??
    Shane Long is a player who has yet to fullfil his full potential IMO, lets hope he does that in Blue & White striped shirt!!

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  3. Yeah lets hope he does and thats exactly my point, i am commenting on the fact we go after these "promising" players when i would prefer we went for already established players for a change

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  4. Not signing Falcao for £4 Million because Gillett and Hicks wouldn't improve Rafa's initial offer of £3 Million in the summer of 2009 is a missed opportunity.

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  5. Not giving Rafa the £80-£100 million given to KD was also a missed opportunity

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  6. There are a lot of rumours out there all of the time, but I've never ever heard before that we tried to sign Falcao. We actually tried to sign the fake Ronaldo when Houllier still was in charge.

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  7. At the time Rafa was with us that money wasn't available.

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  8. Be careful....the deluded masses will be at your door with pitch forks and torches because you dare to speak the truth!

    Spot on completely what you say though...I would have loved to have seen Rafa have that sort of backing

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  9. I understand that, i meant it as giving him a second chance, but this time with owners who backed him like owners should

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  10. Interesting. Where did you find out about this?

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  11. I fully agree with Jobsy. It seems to be a continuing problem with the people who scout for talent at LFC. All the wrong choices except Suarez. Why not bring in current stars like Cavani, Sturridge, Huntelaar, Jackson Martinez, or Falcao no matter how much they cost. By the way why Liverpool didn't purchase Jackson Martinez during summer 2012 transfer window for 11 million that Porto bought him? Now he will cost Liverpool a good 18 million pounds at least. I guess Borini was a good choice!!! I don't understand how LFC didn't get Aquillani lesson when they purchased him from Roma for 16 million. Please do not buy any more players from that club. And please somebody tell Rodgers that during January window Henderson must go. What a terrible player. 20 million???

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  12. Patrick Apea-Danquah12:01 am, November 26, 2012

    fellas, is it possible for fans to put out cash to buy players?

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  13. It's all down to scouting properly or not?

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  14. to hell BR and his tiki taka! liverpool will remain a mid table team as long as he is here. and hendersn is just shit.. always playing the ball backwards. he has no brain just like BR

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  15. There are surely good things about Rafa, no doubt about it, but I wouldn't want him back at our club. He is a master of manipulation. For instance, many people think that all the failings of his team were down to poor ownership. While we had very poor owners at the time it wasn't all down to them. Quite a bit was down to him.

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  16. Long has gone under the radar because he just doesn't fly that high. A fine player for a club like West Brom but just not good enough for teams that want to challenge. His talent has been noticed ever since he played at Reading but he just isn't that good.

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  17. Jobsy you need a lifey !!8:28 am, November 26, 2012

    Yea Andy Carrol, no thats a much better Choice !!!!

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  18. The same old arrogant Liverpool, at least we know who we are at West Brom and do not survive by spending the money of people who use their club as a toy. If fair play rules ever materialise which I doubt, we would be light years ahead of most clubs in finance terms. No we are no going to go into the champions league, we are happy that we are just maintaining a place in the EPL and that is the difference between us. We are a real football club.

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  19. Typical arrogant remark from "a bigger club" fan. Why do you always believe its your god given right to be at the top all the time? Roll on the day when the tide turns and the money runs out.

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  20. ur obviously some kind of retard, do u not understand the point i am making? omg...

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  21. So a real football club doesn't have any ambition other than to not get relegated?

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  22. Where do I say we have a right to be top? As it stands, with all the money wasted on average Joes like Long, I think we are exactly where we deserve to be. We as in the club and the people who run it, not we as in the supporters of that club.

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  23. As a note - Ian Rush came from Chester, Walcott from Southampton, Zaha plays at Crystal Palace -smaller clubs nurture and produce great talent too! BR is an example of a blinkered 1 season manager from a smaller club - Ferguson and even Guardiola state you play the style and formation with the players you have available and then change the style.. I think LFC will be lucky to achieve a Euro place this season..

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  24. Shane Long is 25 and his quality was well documented when he was at Reading. Nevertheless, no top four club or foreign big club ever went for him whereas Walcott was signed by Arsenal when he was seventeen and Zaha, if he leaves Palace, will be 20 when he does. Rush was also nineteen when we signed him. If Long was that good, he would have had his chance to move away from Reading to a "big club" five years ago.

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  25. Oh I'm not saying he's that good - he's a Kevin Phillips really - a good player - mid level PL with a few good seasons and a hard worker(though Ian Wright was a good age before he even became pro) - what I was pointing out was the amount of people who look down on players because they play for Championship clubs and below - yet that's probably the best route. PL clubs should set up 2 year loan contracts with their youngsters to go and play and get experience long term. My other point is that I don't believe BR is a Liverpool manager - he (and Paul Lambert) are examples of managers who have had a good season in the PL and then get a big job, but simply aren't either ready or are not at the level needed. Sustained success (a la Moyes, Pulis, O'Neill - even red nose Fergie had 10 years of success and struggled when he came to England!) pretty football doesn't stop a manager getting sacked and BR has to vary his play and not be so blinkered - remeber Tony Mowbray at West Brom trying to out pass Arsenal at the Emirates?

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  26. No money ? £34 million on Johnson and Aquilani in 09?
    The problem with Rafa was by 09 season Rafa thought he needed to spend tens of millions to build a winning team even though his best signings except for Torres and Macherano were brought for £10 million or less.

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  27. Mark Lawrenson needs a serious haircut, lol

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  28. Please read my comment again. I didn't say that Rafa has had no money to spend. He wasn't able to spend 80-100m in one go. That's all I've said, really. I am not the biggest fan of Rafa's revolving door transfer policy either.

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