Like many on here I am waiting for the official announcement about Sarkic and wonder why it is taking such a long time! Hopefully today will be the day.
We have been ranting away about Long for an age on here and many wondered if GR needed to go to Specsavers to see what we have all been seeing for a while now. Clearly he had seen it but for whatever reason he did not act on it as quickly as we would have liked. There are many moments that I noticed which made me question whether Long was up to it. Here are two.
Away at Wigan at the end of last season. They are proper brown stuff and we should have blown them away easily. We had been defending solidly and their attacker finds space for a shot. Long saves his first shot but pushes it right back into his path and he slots home the rebound. Hutch goes nuts, looks at Long with daggers, beats the ground in utter frustration and just cannot believe what he has just seen. We lose the game 2-1 and our playoff hopes are severely dented. If we had won then our last day collapse against Blackburn would not have mattered.
The second was last Saturday against the Dutch side. The ball gets knocked down their right and Long comes charging out to see if he can boot it out. He completely misjudges the speed of the ball it it passes him by hotly chased by their attacker who gets there first. He tries very hard to score from an acute angle but it rolls wide of the far post. GR must have had his head in his hands thinking he has seen a real Benny Hill moment from George.
I am sure there are many more that you can think of but those two show that if we are to mount a solid challenge for a top six spot then we need a keeper who can save shots as well as kick the ball a long way!
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