Why Shane Long should stay at West Brom despite German interest.

        It was reported today in the media that West Brom's Republic of Ireland striker Shane Long is being targeted by both Schalke and Hoffenheim who would be interested in bringing the player to the Bundesliga.

        Long who got himself on the score sheet for the first time since January against Southampton has had a frustrating season for the Baggies as he has been in and out of the team and struggled to find the net regularly. However he has scored eleven times for West Brom this season which has attracted the German teams to him.

        He was signed in 2011 for £6.5 Million pounds from Reading and West Brom are reported to be keen on offering him a new deal to ward of any interest.

        I think that Long could make a success of himself if he stayed at the West Midlands club though for several reasons. Long is a striker who plays in a way that suits West Brom’s playing style Steve Clarke has built his side quite successfully this season on a solid defensive foundation mixed with attractive fluid counter attacks and Long supplements this style well.

He is a willing runner and will chase and press pretty much anything to try and force a mistake from the opposition defence as well as possessing technical ability to move with the ball quickly in an attack and also the positional awareness to be in the right place at the right time.

It also looks likely that on loan signing Romelu Lukaku will be heading back to Chelsea in the summer after a very successful season with the Midlands club. This could provide Shane Long with the opportunity he needs though to stake a claim to make it back into the starting line up.

There is still a long way to go before the start of the next season but West Brom will surely be looking to go even further after a very good season this year and Shane Long will certainly want to be part of that challenge.    

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