West Brom striker Shane Long linked with Lazio
Shane Long today targeted a permanent return to the West Brom team as Italian side Lazio were linked heavily with a January move for the striker.
The Rome club are the latest to be connected with a swoop for the Baggies' top scorer, who bagged his eighth goal of the season in Saturday's 1-1 FA Cup draw at Queens Park Rangers.
But Long, who has also been linked by reports in Ireland with a possible bid from Newcastle, is focused on retaining his Albion place.
The 25-year-old marked his return to the starting line-up with a goal on Saturday after losing his place for most of the Baggies' Christmas fixtures to Romelu Lukaku, who he partnered at the weekend in a two-man strikeforce.
Long said: "I felt like I was playing well but the manager wanted to change it because we had a lot of games over Christmas and, to be fair to Rom, he scored goals and played well so the manager stuck with him.
"But, hopefully, I'm still high in his thoughts and he will throw me in again sooner rather than later."
Albion were today awaiting news of Zoltan Gera after the Hungary international limped off with a worrying knee injury on Saturday.
Gera joins a lengthening injury list for Albion, who were without Steven Reid, Jonas Olsson, Goran Popov and Claudio Yacob and saw Marc-Antoine Fortune limp off with a knee injury.
