Shane Long has finally completed his move to Hull City, in the same week as Nikica Jelavic sealed his transfer to the KC Stadium.
Steve Bruce has been chasing Long since the end of last season, having clinched promotion to the Premier League with the Tigers. It looked as though he had got his man when a fee was agreed on deadline day in August, but West Bromwich Albion pulled the plug on the deal when Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku snubbed them for Everton.
The Hull manager had maintained his interest in the 26-year-old ace, who has scored 19 goals in 81 league appearances for the Baggies. And he finally landed his man on Friday morning, when the striker passed a medical and put pen to paper on a contract which is designed to keep him at his new club until the summer of 2017.
“I finally got the deal signed,” the Republic of Ireland international told the club website. “I’ve met all the lads and everybody seems really friendly. It’s a club that’s on the up, and I’m delighted to be a part of that. After meeting the manager, and respecting what he’s done as a player and a manager, I was happy to start a new part of my career here and hopefully I can score a few goals to take us further up the league.”
Long’s addition takes Bruce’s spending on strikers to over £10million this week, having earlier paid £6.5million for Everton’s Jelavic. It is no surprise that the Hull boss has identified his attack as an area in need of improvement, as although his side have made an impressive return to the top-flight, one negative of their campaign thus far has been the goals for column having scored just 22 goals in 21 league matches.
