Hull City are nearing the capture of a second striker in one week after West Bromwich Albion accepted an undisclosed bid from the Tigers for Republic of Ireland striker Shane Long.
A statement on Hull City’s official website read: “The club has this morning agreed a fee with West Bromwich Albion for striker Shane Long, and will now enter talks with the striker over personal terms.”
The decision to accept the offer from Hull was made after Long, who has six months left on his current contract, declined new offers to extend his time at West Brom. And even with a 12 month option to retain Long for an extra year, the Baggies are consigned to losing the striker.
“We began talking to Shane about a new contract last spring and, during the ongoing negotiations, we made him two offers which would have significantly increased his salary,” West Brom’s sporting director Richard Garlick told the club’s website.
“However, despite our best endeavours, Shane has declined to sign a new contract. Shane effectively only has 18 months left on his deal and with him no closer to accepting our terms and then Hull making an acceptable offer, we felt it was in the club’s best interests to accept the bid.”
A long time target of Hull City, Long nearly moved to the KC Stadium on deadline day last summer before West Brom backed out after being unable to secure a second loan stint with Romelu Lukaku.
The current deal comes just one day after the Tigers confirmed the club-record signing of Croatian striker Nikica Jelavic from Everton and will take Hull’s January spending to a staggering £14.5M. Jelavic cost an initial £6.5 - which will rise to £7.5M assuming Hull stay in the top-flight - while Long is believed to cost around £7M in a similarly structured deal.
The arrival of Jelavic and, assuming personal terms are met, Long, will likely mean curtains for out-of-form striker Danny Graham, who has just one goal in 18 league matches since arriving at the KC Stadium on loan for Sunderland. It will also complicate things for Yannick Sagbo, who has been slightly more effective than Graham but has still struggled to truly impact the club by scoring only two goals in 19 Premier League matches.
Currently 10th in the table and outperforming the expectations of most pundits, recently promoted Hull City now appear set to make a strong finish to the 2013-14 season and confirm their status as a top-flight club.