Eriksson eyes Long and le Fondre as Leicester lead promotion chase
Published:Sven Goran Eriksson is looking to bolster his Leicester attack in a bid to earn promotion to the Premier League next season.
Shane Long, a striker that is high up on the shortlists of many football clubs, could well be Leicester’s first big money move of the summer.
Eriksson has seemingly convinced the Leicester board to stump up the £7m needed to lure Shane Long away from the Madejski and a bid is being readied for the Reading striker.
Long has become one of the Championship’s hottest properties thanks to 46 goals in 115 appearances for Reading over the last three seasons, and a 25 goal-haul last season means clubs are ready to take a chance on the striker again.
Long had two seasons in the Premier League with Reading during the 2006/07 and 2007/08 campaigns and while he may have been the club’s fourth choice striker, his goal haul of five across the two seasons isn’t brilliant.
Three goals in his last 10 Ireland starts has seen Long’s valuation rocket and while £7m seems a bit steep, if you think back to Michael Chopra’s £5m move from Cardiff City to Sunderland in 2007, it’s probably about right.
Leicester were the fifth highest goalscorers in the Championship last season and at home averaged an incredible 2.09 goals per game, but that was mainly in part to midfielder Andy King who top scored with 15.
Yakubu and Paul Gallagher chipped in with double figure hauls each but Eriksson has targeted improvement in his forward line.
Long would certainly boost the Leicester attack and so would Rotherham United’s Adam Le Fondre.
Eriksson is willing to take a chance on the League Two striker that has managed 50 goals in 92 appearances for Rotherham and it’s about time someone did.
A bid of around £750,000 would certainly have the Rotherham board thinking and he could prove to become a very shrewd buy.
