Pardew keeping tabs on Shane Long?

toonsy

Pardew Long-ing for Shane?
Transfer gossip has been fairly relentless over the last week or so.

From £35 million bids for German internationals to stories of scrabbling around in the free transfer bin, NUFC have been linked with them all, plus some more to boot! Some of them have been purely laughable, like the Mario Gomez rumour, some of them have unpopular, like the Cheikh M’Bengue rumour, whilst some of them have stoked up random interest from certain supporters.

This latest rumour falls in the last category for me personally as I really rate the lad who we have been linked with. Shane Long has apparently caught the eye of Alan Pardew who was at the Republic of Ireland v Macedonia game and is considering making a bid for the 24-year-old in the summer.

Long has scored 20 goals in 43 appearances so far this season and earned praise for his recent international performances against Macedonia and Uruguay from ROI boss Giovanni Trapattoni.

Personally I feel that he is one of the better players outside of the Premier League. It’s random I know, but I think he could actually do a job for us. Granted his goal return hasn’t been great in seasons gone by, but then it’s also worth bearing in mind that the majority of his time has been spent appearing from the bench.

I don’t think Long would have any problem dealing with the physical nature of the Premier League either. In his younger days he used to play Hurling and is in fact the only player to have played international football and Hurling at Croke Park. If you don’t know what Hurling is then have a look on Youtube. You’ll see that it a game where men beat each other with sticks mainly. It’s pretty intense and involves having a screw loose somewhere.

It’s probably more paper talk to be honest, but I really wouldn’t mind seeing Long join the ranks at St James’ Park. I see him as a strong yet nippy striker who works hard for the team, which is a good thing in my book and is something that we seem to be lacking at the moment. The fact that he would command a reasonable fee and reasonable wages is a bonus.

I know a lot of people will probably disagree with me on this, but I think he would give us another option and would improve the quality of our strike-force.

What do you think?

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

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58 thoughts on “Pardew keeping tabs on Shane Long?”

  2. Say we signed Gervinho then he would be a fantastic option as the second striker, if we sign one. When I look at him I think of a younger Doyle and we all know what I think of him 😆

    So we hopefully get rid of Lovenkrands and bring Long in 😉

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  3. It’s the kind of move I can see the club making to be honest. Ditch an aging Lovenkrands and replace him with a younger, arguably better, player.

    And do youd lot never sleep? I’m used to being on my own throughout the night :mrgreen:

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  4. My sleeping pattern is all over the place with me being off the last few weeks :mrgreen:

    It’s going to be worse in the summer when I’ve got weeks off and all the transfer gossips in it’s element 👿

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  6. That’s what I’ve always done 😉

    Tell you what.. I feel sorry for those poor journalists already who I’m going to badger all summer about who we might be signing 😆

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  8. 😆 I have a feeling it’s going to be the worst summer yet for gossip.

    I wonder how many people on Ed’s blog will be seeing a player going into the Jesmond hotel 🙄

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  9. Dan, i’ll have you know Ed is on point with every dealing ever made at the Newcastle club. Cant wait until his son takes over again in the summer and posts 1 article every week.

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  10. Millions I bet 😆

    I reckon it’s going to be frustrating to be honest. I think the intention to spend is there but the problem is that other clubs will try and take the **** and we’ll lose interest and switch to other targets or something 🙄

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  11. Josh, yeah it was one extreme to the other with that 😆

    Toonsy, one good thing is that with us using our scouting network there’s not many teams in the Premier League who will go down that route and hopefully we’d have the edge over most foreign clubs that were competing with.

    I can though see people getting frustrated and saying were not signing anyone if we haven’t signed anyone after a few weeks of the window opening 😡

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  13. Weeks? More like days 😆

    Wonder who the first one to get a cob on about will be? My money is on Stuart 😉

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  15. 😆 What ever there doing Guthrie looks like he’s enjoying him self 😯

    I don’t think I’ve seen Stuart comment something positive so he would of been my choice as well 😆

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  16. Josh, at the minute he’s probably the number one striker and I can’t see us buying more than two strikers so third at the most.

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  17. but you have shola, then if say ranger has a good end to the season and a good pre season he might just edge best.

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  18. Shola will always have his injuries and Pardew seems to favor Best and not so with Ranger.

    Like Andrew said earlier I can see Ranger and Vuckic getting loaned out to the same club.

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  21. It’s about time Vuckin started showing a bit more IMO. He’s been unlucky with severe injuries but hopefully he can put that behind and improve and crack the first team.

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  24. Of course Vuckic is really all that haha. Every time i have seen him he has played reasonably well. I got him on my top hoping for an impact in the starting 11 this season but he is nowhere to be seen.

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  25. I don’t bother with names usually, but I was going to get Jose on mine. I’ll hold up on that I reckon 😕 😕

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  28. Toonsy, I got Jose on mine at the start of last season and the guy in the shop said that’s a weird choice and then at the start of this season the same guy was there and said the same thing because I got Tiote on 😆

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  30. Honestly nevere had a player name. I’ve seen too many of my favourites come and go over the years so don’t bother 🙄

    I was going to get toonsy but I reckon that’s just geeky 😆

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  31. A wise choice 😆

    It’s better than what Andrew got on his when he still supported them 😆

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  32. toonsy, when the blog gets bigger and gets more and more hits, that’s when you should, I bet people would recognize the name 😆

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  34. Everyone off here should get what ever there username is on their tops 😆

    Anyways that’s it for me. Later mate 🙂

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  39. Think long would be a decent enough signing, probably won’t make up for losing tiote, Barton and Jose though 🙁

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  40. I was thinking of getting a shirt with Tiote, Jose and Barton on it because they’ll be around for a long time.

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  42. It’s not something I have ever done. As I ain’t growing anymore, my shirts seem to last forever. I would get Shola on my shirt if he ends up retiring with us. Like him or not, can’t argue with that length of service

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  43. He’s destined to be with us forever. Two failed transfers out of the club would suggest that :mrgreen:

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  44. You reckon he has smashed his own knee in to intentionally fail Medicals? 🙂
    That’s true commitment, or he couldn’t be arsed moving house.

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  45. Clumsy **** probably forgot where his house was 😆

    Remember when he reported a burglary at his house and claimed that it had been ransacked only to work out he just left the house in a mess? 😆 😆

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  46. We should give Shola the No.9

    Send a message saying ‘this is the reward for loyalty’

    Let’s be honest, some reet shites have had it in the past, can’t see us getting a new ‘typical’ number 9

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  50. Priceless article. I still don’t believe it though. More likely he found out who it was and called the bizzies off!

    No one is that daft….surely?

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  52. Stating the obvious but we got got relegated with most of this season squad and are in a relegation scrap again this season. Surely it is clear as night follows day we need a massive investment in number and quality of players.
    Of what we have at present for next season first XI I would only have
    Any of the goalies
    Colo
    Jose
    Cheik
    Joey
    Ben Arfa

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  53. Moreno, Dont you think that the millions he has pocketed from the club during a very average career is loyalty enough? Be honest, if he hadnt been a local lad he would never have lasted as long, says the right things but rarely backs them up with a consistent run of form.
    There is a footballer inside him but he never seems to push on for me, a constant disappointment.

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  54. I’d love to see us sign Long, very good player. He always looks dangerous.
    And Sholas not the sharpest tool in the box.

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  55. True bobby,
    But he can’t do anything right in the view of most fans. The abuse he has taken from his own home town fans at times, even when playing well, is ridiculous.
    Yes, he’s frustrating to watch but he has always been there as backup and worth having around IMO.
    To be fair, he is probably more consistent than Jonas!
    Players like Xisco get paid more than Shola so I tend not to jump on him too much about his wages, as I feel a fair few others are less deserving at the club!

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  56. Moreno, cant argue with the Xisco point, think maybe Shola plays when is is not 100% hence the abuse and even when fit he seems to run out of steam quickly, its stupidity making him play with a mask on, hes either fit or not.

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  57. He is constantly used as the backup option, we all say about other players ‘he doesn’t have match sharpness’ and mention that players need a run of games to see what they can do.

    When has Shola had a run of games? (maybe his own injury proneness is to blame) Other players who don’t make instant impacts from the bench or random starts, don’t seem to get half the abuse.

    Also, noticed djg is getting about http://www.footballtransfertavern.com/2011/03/premiership/aston-villa/pardew-going-all-out-for-one-of-the-worlds-worst-players-ever

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