Saints have signed Shane Long from Hull City for an undisclosed fee believed to be around £8 million plus around £4 million add ons.
Saints have again splashed the cash in aquiring the services of Hull City striker Shane Long , there are some Saints supporters who have turned their noses up at this signing and question his pedigree but I am not one of them.
These people are wondering why Saints are signing Long and are failing to attract the likes of Hernandez etc, a swift dose of reality here is in order, look at the Premier league goal scoring charts over the past few years and Long's record isn't bad for a striker outside of the big five clubs, at West Brom he made 60 starts and made 21 appearances as a sub in the Premier League scoring 19 goals, in effect a 1 in 4 average although the reality is in terms of minutes on the pitch his strike rate would look much better given the number of sub appearances, at Hull Long hit 4 goals in 15 appearances, similar to his West Brom record.
If we equate this to a full Premier League season we are looking at Long averaging around 9-11 goals a season pro rata, initially this doesnt sound great but when you consider that most seasons 12/13 goals would get you in the top 10 scorers in the Premier League, then Long isnt too far off the pace, indeed if you also consider that most of those top 10 scorers play for the big 5 then Long's record holds up against the majority of strikers in the other 15 clubs in ang given season.
Indeed Rickie Lambert's goal scoring record is much vaunted but with 4-5 of them per season being penalties then his goals in open play ratio is not disimilar to Long's
What Saints need after a summer where we have mainly bought outfield players from abroad with no Premier league experience is a player who knows what the league is like and what is expected of him, we are buying a player who will need no settling in period or to get up to the pace he is ready to go.
It is clear as well that Ronald Koeman is looking to have different options to hand rather than the rigid system employed by Pochettino and agains Long offers this with his high tempo game vital in games where we have to chase the ball.
I welcome the arrival of Shane Long, yes there are a few who I would have liked to have seen come here ahead of them, but we have to be realistic and in who we are after.
This takes Saints summer spending up and over the £40 million mark with options on our two loan players possibly adding a further £17 million, we have scope for a player or two yet.
Ronald Koeman has concentrated on building a squad as well as a team, and that is something lacking last year, we may well be a little weaker in terms of a starting XI than last season, but perhaps the points we might drop because of that will be more than compensated by those we will pick up because we have competition for places, different options and a manager who will not just sit on his hands and make like for like substitutions when Plan A is not working