[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

I don't see Long ever being anything more than a bench-warmer at Southampton, and it wouldn't surprise me if he continues his tour of England at some point in the next year or two; probably to a newly-promoted team with money to burn. I don't think he'd be an improvement for us these days; Roy obviously bought him with a view to forming a strike partnership in a 4-4-2, which is the kind of system that suits him, but he's surplus to requirements when we're playing one up top.

If Odemwingie hadn't become a toxic asset then I'd have been happy for him to play out his last couple of seasons with us as a super sub, injury problems or not, but he burnt that bridge.

I do increasingly wonder if retaining Marc-Antoine Fortune wouldn't have been the better option than signing Anichebe too. I'm sure that if Big Vic fulfilled his potential he'd be the better player, but his injury record and propensity for looking for free-kicks rather than bullying defences is getting really tiresome. In the fifteen months or so since he's signed, I can count on one hand the number of times he's really impressed me or looked worth the amount we paid, and that's not good going at all.