Not sure about the possibility for, and relevance of, the other reasons, but I suspect that between falling out of favour with Rooney, injury and aging out against the more youthful, the writing was on the wall that he’d be fighting to regain and/or maintain his starting role or worse the next back-line selection from the bench.
Long has an impressive pedigree standards and should provide an upgrade on our backline once he is match fit.
Baby steps.
Longstaff was def one of the trialists as he follows spicer and JMR on instagram and I believe another trialist was nickseon gomis. https://www.transfermarkt.us/nicksoe...spieler/704499
I am down for TFC to be team South Africa.
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/sahil_e_/status/1759606083092373821?s=20
Is this JMR’s year, he seemed to be a lost soul under Bradley and co. I hope so.
New defender incoming?
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/brunoandrd/status/1759959032108863520?s=20
this is a head scratcher. his resume is like someone york would have signed a few years ago.
Canadian relatives maybe? Hard to see when we have exactly one free international spot how we sign Long, this guy, the South African rumored yesterday, Longstaff if he sticks.
We're going to need to trade some of our piles of unused budgetary allocation to get some international spots, at some point.
"At some point." Our first game is in six days and we've made almost no moves.
It's getting a little discouraging.
Gotta think Dio will be bought out to clear one of those international spots. And yeah, gonna need to buy the rest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kABUQK1kKak
obligatory youtube scouting vid
Before going down the international slot rabbit hole, it's entirely possible that this kid is destined for TFC2 initially. He doesn't appear to have any professional games played.
Long signed officially.
1 year deal and club option for 2025
Good terms. Will motivate him to play hard too.
Anyway its nice to have a veteran CB with lots of EPL and Championship experience. At the least he will understand the tactical awareness of defending. Hopefully that rubs off like how last year with Hedges made our other CB's look better.
Last edited by SenorDingDong; 02-20-2024 at 11:42 AM.
We paid a fee for Long per the Birmingham release
He joins the Major League Soccer club for an undisclosed fee, ending a year-long association with Birmingham City
https://www.bcfc.com/news/all/kevin-long-leaves-blues
Apparently we are getting a 19 year old CB from Sao Paulo on Loan?
https://ge.globo.com/futebol/times/s...anadense.ghtml
I'm going to assume it was a low fee since there's such little time left on his deal. Probably 250k or less, but Birmingham would want something to give them a reason to let him depart early. Better to get him here now and integrated for the full year than to wait for July when he'd be free. I'm guessing the team learned from the Insigne/Bernadeschi/Criscito arrivals that it's better to get them in at the beginning. You risk punting the whole season by waiting and giving up valuable points. Having him here from the beginning could save us a solid 6-12 points by having him in the lineup. He'd miss the first 23 games of the season if we waited for him to be free.
With regards to the International slots, I wonder if maybe Spicer has a green card from his time in the US. Can you get one as a college student, or would they just be on a student visa? Or maybe Diomande is already injured and on the season-ending injured list freeing up a slot