Shane Long is looking forward to making his Hull City debut at Crystal Palace.
Republic of Ireland striker Long was set to join the Tigers in a deadline day switch from West Brom on September 2, only for the Baggies to pull the plug when their own pursuit of Romelu Lukaku fell through.
"It was a weird one (in September). I think there was 10 hours from finding out about the deal to get it done and it got pulled a the last minute," Long said.
"It was a strange situation to be in but these things happen in football. I tried to be as professional as I could be. I was a West Brom player and I think anyone there would tell you I gave my all on the pitch and trained hard every day.
"But it was hard to try and get it out of your head. I think it was always in the back of my mind that West Brom wanted to sell up and I was lucky that a club like Hull were interested.
"After meeting the manager (Bruce), he left a good impression on me and I wanted to play for him.
"He was just talking to me about the club, the players coming in and how I was going to be a part of it.
"When a club is agreeing to sell you, for me anyway, you want to go.
"Once the transfer window opened again, it was inevitable something was going to happen sooner rather than later and I got the deal done."
