Long time coming for Albion target

Albion blogger Jarrod Hill believes the Baggies will land exactly what is needed at the Hawthorns if they pull off a club-record transfer deal for Reading striker Shane Long.

Our final pre-season friendly on Sunday only served to highlight what most Baggie fans already knew - we still need another option up front.

The match reports will tell you that we dominated play, controlled possession and created a number of good opportunities going forward.

They may also tell you had Chris Brunt have converted his penalty in the first-half we would have beaten experienced Italian outfit Parma.

However, the most glaringly obvious thing to come out of our final pre season friendly is our need to recruit another quality striker.

Peter Odemwingie has a sore ankle, a minor injury he should recover from for next week and, in his absence, we got to see what Somen Tchoyi can do playing as a lone frontman.

Somen's unpredictability is one of his strengths and they certainly broke the mould when they built our Cameroon international, but his style can be as frustrating as it is entertaining when he plays like he did on Sunday.

No problem with that as long as we have another option when Tchoyi is not firing on all cylinders and currently those other options are Roman Bednar, Marc-Antoine Fortune and Simon Cox.

Personally, I see Cox as a second striker or a front line striker as part of two in attack, I don't see him as a player who could play as a lone striker.

Bednar and Fortune are too hit and miss, which leaves us hoping that Odemwingie doesn't pick up too many niggling injuries.

With more than three weeks to go before the transfer window closes and chairman Jeremy Peace keeping his powder dry with free signings so far, I am hoping we will see a capable striker arrive soon.

That could be Shane Long and, maybe by the time you are reading this, the Reading striker will be close to signing on the dotted line.

It could be a club -record signing for Albion and, if it comes to pass, anywhere from £6million to £7million is a lot of money for a player with limited Premier League experience.

When you think that Liverpool apparently only want the best part of £5million for David N'Gog, a former target of ours, it puts the price tag into comparison.

Surprisingly, Roy seemed to be still experimenting on Sunday with Chris Brunt playing just behind Tchoyi and Graham Dorrans playing out wide left.

Both played reasonably well and it was good to see Graham Dorrans back in an Albion shirt.

Players who stood out were Gabriel Tamas, James Morrison and George Thorne. With competition fierce for places amongst our midfield, I wasn't surprised to see all of them play well.

Paul Scharner looked sharp and his central partner Youssouf Mulumbu got through his usual mountain of work, but it was James Morrison and substitute George Thorne who carried the most threat to the Parma goal.

Morrison must be wondering whether he has done enough to get into the team next Sunday when the Premier League champions come to town and it's great we have such competition within midfield.

Thorne looks a real prospect, physically imposing, good passer and not afraid to demand the ball.

The lad will do well to force his way into Roy's midfield plans but looks up to the challenge, Zoltan Gera must have looked on and wondered what he will have to do. A nice problem to have.

We also got to see not one but two new goalkeepers in the same game. Unfortunately I couldn't gauge anything about either Ben Foster or Marton Fulop from this game as all Ben had to do was pick the ball out of his net, while Marton saw even less of the ball.

Our domination looked like drawing a blank until the impressive Jonas Olsson decided enough was enough and ventured forward to deliver a teasing cross that was put away by Tchoyi.

It may only have been a pre season friendly but it was good to see some of our trademark silky passing. The killer ball eluded us too often but that will come when the first choice eleven are put into action, but who that first choice team will be remains a mystery.

Neither Billy Jones nor Gareth McCauley made an appearance yesterday and I was keen to get a first look at them, with Gabriel Tamas and Gonzalo Jara Reyes replacing them at centre back and right back respectively.

Tamas certainly helped his cause by putting in a solid performance against the still sprightly Hernan Crespo and Jara, although caught out of position once or twice, was steady in possession.

Now we have established there is still money in the kitty, I think with a couple of real quality additions we could have a great squad capable of achieving great things.

Our midfield looks really good with competition and cover for every position, the goalkeeping department is now sorted and it was nice to see Foster taking the time after the game to stop and talk to fans.

Having not seen too much of Jones, McCauley and Craig Dawson, I am unsure as to whether we have solved our defensive frailties, but my gut feeling is we may need another more experienced centre-back.

Up front, we definitely need another option and if that option is Shane Long I will be happy. At 24-years-old, the Republic of Ireland is starting to mature into a very exciting prospect and he is a player I highlighted in one of my end of season blogs, so I am expecting a finders fee!

Talking of money, I await with interest what fee has actually been agreed for Mr Long. Peace has proved to be a canny negotiator and the fee that has been quoted sounds very much unlike our beloved chairman.

The truth is we are stronger now than we were last year and, when you factor in most of the squad has another year of Premier League experience under their belts, things do look good.

We may not have the final parts of the squad in place before we play United this Sunday but, with maybe two more additions for the right positions, this team will be ready to have another go at the top flight.

Up the Baggies!