Long takes short tram ride
Chris Long left Burnley last summer, signed for Fleetwood Town but today he’s hopped on a tram just outside the ground and travelled south into Blackpool to join them for the remainder of the season.
He signed a two year deal with Fleetwood in July and manager Joey Barton said at the time: “The signing of Chris gives us some really good competition for places in the front areas. By bringing Longy in, it gives us variety in the front line. He brings pace and the ability to play in any of the three positions at the top of the pitch.
“We feel that if you’re going to have a healthy season, you need healthy competition and we’ve got that now, it’s exciting times ahead.”
It’s not been any more exciting for Long than it was during his time at Burnley. He joined us in the summer of 2015. Frank McParland had arrived as sporting director and he’d taken Long to Brentford in the previous season in a loan deal from Everton.
We made the signing a permanent one but he made just one start for us, that at Cardiff in the 2015/16 season when he had a poor game and was replaced by Rouwen Hennings who scored our first goal as we came back from 2-0 down to draw.
He spent much of his next two seasons out on loan in League One, at Fleetwood, Bolton and Northampton before we released him which allowed Joey, who had been a team mate at Burnley, to sign him.
In his few months at Fleetwood, he’s started just one league game while his only goal came against Leicester under-21s in the Checkatrade Trophy and I understand he was told recently that he had no future at Fleetwood and should find a new club.
He’s done that today, after his contract was cancelled at Fleetwood, with this move to Blackpool who are managed by Terry McPhillips, his old academy coach from Everton. McPhillips said: “Chris is someone I know well from my days working with him at Everton and he has always had great potential. The boy just wants to play and score goals. His arrival strengthens our options in the final third and knowing him personally, he will fit into our dressing room very well.”
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