Kevin Long?s time at Birmingham City is at an end after not much over a year with the central defender having made the move to the MLS today to join Toronto FC, following in the footsteps of Steven Caldwell and Richard Eckersley, two of his early team mates at Burnley.
Long left us for Birmingham in the January transfer window last year after thirteen years at Turf Moor and went straight into the Birmingham team. He made his debut for them on 14th January 2023 in a 4-2 defeat at Bristol City and had made twenty league and cup appearances by the end of the season, scoring twice, the first in the FA Cup at Forest Green and then in the league in a 2-0 home win against Rotherham.
Nothing changed at the start of this season and he?d clocked up another thirteen games by mid-October when manager John Eustace was replaced by Wayne Rooney. He wasn?t favoured by Rooney. He played twice in the first couple of weeks with the new manager and was then left out and didn?t get another game until he played in the FA Cup in January with Birmingham under caretaker management prior to the arrival of Tony Mowbray. Since Mowbray took over, he?s started three of the eight games and added one substitute appearance but it is thought the 33-year-old is not in the new manager?s long term plans.
That has led to his decision to move on and become the third member of Sean Dyche?s Premier League squads to move to the MLS along with Ashley Westwood and Scott Arfield who are both at Charleston.
In his thir...