Burnley1989 wrote:You’re more worried about losing our 4th choice centre half than Tarkowski?
Yes, not in terms of playing ability, simply because I think we are more likely to sell Long if someone waves a bit of cash in front of us at this late stage in the window.
With four days left can we bring in a player comparable to Long for the money that we might get for him?
It isn't entirely out of the question, but I would say no. However, if we did they would have to get up to speed very quickly, learn our framework, be better than Long and be happy to play second fiddle to Tarks.
If we brought in a youngster to develop, we would be down to three central defenders. We could try Dunne, but Long is a better player and Dunne hasn't been tested at Championship level never mind the Premier League. It would be a big risk.
I would rather we keep hold of Long and try Dunne to see if he is ready to make a big step up, that would protect us against any risk. Alternatively, keep Long, bring in a young development player ( pushing Dunne back in the pecking order which might annoy him ) and give the new entrant a year or six months at least to settle in.
Pieters has played one match as a centre back in his whole career. So the idea of retraining him to a new position with no time left to do so is even more risky.
Oh, what about Gary Cahill?
Not really, he would have to get up to speed quickly, expect sizeable wages, raise the overall age of the squad and if he asked for a contract longer than 1 year it would preclude us from filling the spot with another player in a future window. Unless we want to pay him to sit around. If we decide to do that and he goes elsewhere we would be left with the Dunne option. Although nobody seems over eager to snap him up.
To clarify I didn't say that I would rather keep Long than Tarks if we had to make a choice between the two, just that I was more worried about Long leaving.
I don't think we can afford to let either of them leave this late in the window. We have enough on our plate trying to get a quality midfielder, that won't cost us a ludicrous amount, without making life more difficult by adding a first team defender to our shopping list.
