@smadeley_star: Hull bid for Long believed to be around £6m and they want him as well as Nikica Jelavic, who they have agreed a fee for with Everton. #wba

For me, Hull can have Victor Anichebe and we keep Shane Long.

http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/west-bromwich-albion-fc/2014/01/10/steve-bruce-we-wont-bid-for-west-brom-striker-shane-long-unless-he-is-available/

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/west-brom-hull-city-make-6497242

Can't see Shane Long being sold in this window without Pepe Mel having a good look at him on the training pitch.

I can, I don't think Long is fully committed, and I also think that he might refuse to go and run his contract down. One good game in seven is not good enough. Take the 6 million, release Rosenberg, tear up Popov's contract, and sell Dorrans. This should free up over 100k in wages per week, then bring in a new forward and left back. Not fussed if we use the loan system or sign permanently.

Spot on Weall8.

I've looked past the fact that Long...runs round a lot. Nice guy and he's done pretty well here, but bite their arm off for £6M.

When he wants to, he can be a real handfull, just too few and far between since his contract negotiations began over 12 months ago. Would live to see Quagliarella come in on loan, CL said in the summer the deal was close to being completed until the Lukaku situation happened, but if not I would be sure PM already has players earmarked from Spain. Just hope we don't stick with the current squad as we are going to have another major rebuild in the summer, so why not start now with 3/4 out, and a couple in?

Because WBA don't do business in January. Well known.

weall8villa, I totally agree with releasing Rosenberg and Popov and selling Dorrans on - the wage bill argument is strong. We're definitely going to have to look at LB and RB. Been too weak there for too long now.

Agree £6m would be tempting but we still have a relegation battle to fight in the next 4 months which I would be loathe to fight with a weakened squad. Hope Mel can get more out of Sessegnon and Anichebe than Clarke seemed to be able to do.

Sess started like a house on fire. He was excellent for the first few months but his form tailed off when results started going South.

That's exactly what happens with (exciting) luxury players.

As for Vic, he has to get himself fit for a long enough run in the team.

I'll drive him there myself.

I really will!

Let's not blame Shane Long for everything that's wrong with Albion at the moment. He missed a chance late on, the Southampton 'keeper made a great save, it's sometimes difficult to tell which is which. Shane Long is not the only player who is misfiring at the moment. Look at Sessegnon - he was championed very strongly as a signing, yet he's tailed off badly recently, and I bet he's missed more chances than Long has.

This is an article about the sale of Shane Long. Ofcourse people are going to forward their feeling on him here. Nobody is blaming 'everything going wrong at WBA' solely on him.

I think his performances (apart from 1 good game vs Villa) have been woeful this season. Have we actually even won a game he's started this season?

It's not the fact he's very bad in front of goal. It's the constant
• being caught offside
• fouling the opposition (needlessly nudging the defender in the back giving possession back to the opposition)
• the fact, his inclusion keeps Berahino & Vydra on the bench. Both did more in 5 minute cameos, than Long did in 90mins yesterday.
• our football suffers when he's in team. Not his fault, true. But it's what happens.

He has his positives but they are far out weighed by his negatives for me. As I mentioned, the most worrying thing at the moment, is that he is keeping 2 natural, exciting goal scorers out of the team.

The fact somebody is willing to offer £6,000,000 to take him off our hands, staggers me. I only hope Bruce didn't watch yesterday's game as he may be regretting his decision.

Harsh?...maybe, but that's my opinion.

If a club is willing to pay us more than what we paid for him, we shouldn't even think about it considering he isn't going to develop into a 10-12 goal a season striker.

The one thing I would say is that there is a possibility someone like Mel who will want to press from the front may want to keep someone like Long who does that well. But at the moment £6m looks more than tempting.

How much did we pay for him ?

Is there a profit plus a dozen pints of Guiness ?

I think we paid £4.5 million for him, rising to some other figure based on appearances. I agree with Teix, I can't see him developing into a 10-12 goal striker any time soon, but it is interesting that first Clarke and then Downing opted to start him rather than Berahino or Vydra. I wouldn't want Berahino feeling the weight of too much pressure on his young shoulders at this early stage of his career, but with the right CF he would flourish. Is Anichebe that CF?

The right CF is none other than Anelka, how he and Berahino have not started together after the promise and 3 goals they got against west ham is beyond me

I honestly think my judgement has been clouded by him being a decent hard working guy. In the position he is supposed to play I would expect more goals and they haven't come. For that sort of money let him go

Woy, I wasn't suggesting that Victor Anichebe is the CF for Saido Berahino to play off, I was questioning whether he is. With his injury record so far, I haven't seen enough to be able to make up my mind about him.

I never said you were mate, all I said was that Anelka should be partnering berahino after the West Ham game, they can bring the best out of each other.