Liverpool FC Forum

[Owzat]

I suppose you could look at the fact that we could have bought Johnson for £8.5million at Christmas to suggest he is overpriced. Or maybe you could look at the price that we paid for Dossena (Italian International) or the price of Heinze (Argentinian international)

We have already seen how a defensively inept fullback causes problems with Dossena, now you want to repeat the experiment?

I don't believe Johnson has improved by £10million since Christmas, I don't believe he is a player that will greatly improve the team either by his ability or by bringing balance to the team. For me he is the type of player that looks good on occasion, but all too often is found lacking both in discipline and defensively when called upon.

As with Keane and Barry last season, I think we have got carried away rather than walking away when the fee started rising. If we were forced to buy English I suppose you could somehow justify the exorbitant fee, as we could look elsewhere I can see no reason or justification.

Sorry Mick, but as with Keane's price last season we will have to agree to disagree. Or put it another way, if we hadn't paid such an outrageous fee for Keane we could probably have bought  Johnson at Christmas for £8.5million.

I just wonder who we will be forced to miss out on this time by paying way over the odds for Johnson.

Johnson is only in the England team because neville and Brown are long-term absentees and he's deemed better than Richards. Johnson may have improved, but not to the level that carries an £18m price tag. How many full-backs have gone for that kind of money, exclude how many went to Chelsea, and tell me Johnson is in the same class.

I think Rafa is just not that great at spending big. He signed Torres for £21m but any idiot could tell he was a good player and the only doubt might be over his ability to play that well in England. Mascherano for £18.6m is what you might expect to pay for him, but he's looking at spending £15m-£18m on players like Barry, Downing and now Johnson. I think Heinze was the most expensive full-back fergie bought, in fact after Ferdinand is their next most expensive defender Stam at £10m?

If we could get Tevez for £25m and end up buying Johnson for £18m instead I will not be happy

[Ciggy]

The mancs signed Carrick 18 million quid which was a joke, but they had the last laugh he has won them two leagues and a CL plus other trophys.

They pay 30 million and no one bats an eye not even their fans, its about we got rid of this small time mentality in our heads, if we want to compete against the best then our SQUAD needs improving.

I will be happy if we can keep hold of Alonso, Arby & masch ship out the deadwood and add 2-3 quality players, there isnt much wrong with our team and a major squad overhaul isnt neccesary just need to add atleast 2 players that will help us win some some trophys next season.

[RobinHood6969]

The mancs signed Carrick 18 million quid which was a joke, but they had the last laugh he has won them two leagues and a CL plus other trophys.

They pay 30 million and no one bats an eye not even their fans, its about we got rid of this small time mentality in our heads, if we want to compete against the best then our SQUAD needs improving.

I will be happy if we can keep hold of Alonso, Arby & masch ship out the deadwood and add 2-3 quality players, there isnt much wrong with our team and a major squad overhaul isnt neccesary just need to add atleast 2 players that will help us win some some trophys next season.

Yes we should use Glen wisely johnson should be the one playing against park the bus guys and arby against the top teams. so i dont think we should sell arby

[account deleted by request]

No probs with the disagreement S@int, we'll know where we stand visa vis the right and wrong of it all after six months or so I guess. As you probably remember, I was fine about the Keane signing as well (doesn't bode too well does it ) but accept we overpaid there.

There's a couple of points to consider, one or two of which have already been made. Firstly, we had the absolutely ridiculous spectacle last season of some people on here blaming the signing of Robbie Keane on Rick Parry. This was despite Rafa being all over Keane like a cheap suit at first. Whether this goes right or wrong, I hope Rafa's staunchest can bring themselves to actually lay it at the mans door should it go pearshaped.

Secondly, as I've already made clear, if we are going to buy Glen Johnson and then d!ck him around, treat him in the same absolutely ridiculous manner which we treated Keane last season then it will be a complete waste of money and time. We gave it a good go with the Keane, the old "if you score twice we'll drop you for a couple of matches" routine and it's fair to say it never really worked. Quite why anyone thought it ever would will remain a mystery to me until the day I draw my last breath, but I sincerely hope that along with other "lessons" that we've gradually been ticking off over these last five seasons, we've learnt this one as well. If we do buy the bloke, lets give him a chance. Lets not stick him on the left wing however good an "option" it might appear, lets not drop him for the next match if he's man of the match in the previous one. Lets get to know him a bit, talk to him occasionally. Even if in fact we don't, lets pretend we like the bloke. You never know, it might just work.


At least that way he will have a chance of not emulating Keane, who to be truthful still cuts a forlorn figure to this day. Not only could we really do with getting a return on our investment, but the rest of British football will be watching to see how Johnson gets on, see if he "fits in". We've already missed out on Barry as he seemingly thought "feck that for a game of soldiers" when it finally came to the point where he had to put pen to paper. A little bit of normality when handling a new signing is probably called for.

As it is, had we done that with Keane I remain convinced he would have been a good player for us. That's why valuations are very subjective. If a player comes in and performs to the absolute maximum of his ability, he is worth a very different amount of money to what he is if he performs ridiculously badly relative to his ability. That's what we did with Keane, we made a good player look awful, which made his signing look worse. All I hope is that we don't do the same with Johnson.

If we don't ruin him, he is a good player who is better than Arbeloa by a fair distance. As long as he shows that and we are simply left to quibble about whether we paid a couple of mill too much for him, all is good.

I hope I am totally wrong and you are right mate, because I do think we need better than Arbeloa.

Like you I believe if we do buy him we have to use him properly, play to his strengths, give him a run of games and try not to shatter his confidence.   

If he does a good job I don't think anyone will be too upset that we may have paid over the odds, its if he struggles that the questions will be asked, although if we fail to sign Tevez because we paid so much for him he will have to positively shine or I will be bloody upset.

I would probably not be half as upset about signing Johnson if we had already signed Tevez, but I just don't think we have the money for two big money transfers(I just hope I am wrong about this as well!)

[Ciggy]

Yes we should use Glen wisely johnson should be the one playing against park the bus guys and arby against the top teams. so i dont think we should sell arby

A little dicky bird tells me Arby wants to leave, so it will be out of our hands, his MRS was a presenter on spanish TV and wants to go back to her job. he was unsettled last summer aswell. If he stays and we sign Johnson then its a good thing he has some compitition because no one has threatend his place as of yet.

With sicknote degen being injured for a whole season.

[RobinHood6969]

Yes we should use Glen wisely johnson should be the one playing against park the bus guys and arby against the top teams. so i dont think we should sell arby

A little dicky bird tells me Arby wants to leave, so it will be out of our hands, his MRS was a presenter on spanish TV and wants to go back to her job. he was unsettled last summer aswell. If he stays and we sign Johnson then its a good thing he has some compitition because no one has threatend his place as of yet.

With sicknote degen being injured for a whole season.

If arby leaves that would be bad IMO.  the lad has improved a lot. would have been good to see johnson,arby and darby as the options for the right back.. which means neither carra nor anyone else gotta take that responsibilty...and about degen, hmm its better we sell him off than pay his wages n medic bills thruout the year

[Redman in wales]

Anyone thinking Rafa is a genius in the transfer market should consider this. He spent near £40m on players last summer, only Riera of the lot really worked out and had the other £32m not been p1 ssed away on Dossena, Keane, Degen, Cavalieri and N'Gog, then maybe we'd have saved near £10m on signing Johnson when the price was right. Maybe Keane could have worked out, not that bad a player, but once the figure got silly then we should have pulled out. We paid £20m (in principle if not all up front) and he was worth maybe £12m as I've said elsewhere, not just for convenience as the £8m difference could have been enough that we bought Johnson.

Can't disagree with that, I really like Johnson and think he would/will make a quality addition to the squad BUT once again we are about to buy a British based player at the time when their value is at it's highest. Johnson was quality 6 months ago and he was pretty much the same player 12 months ago. I just wish Rafa could spot these players before they have their best season at their club. Barry could have been had two years ago for half the price Villa were asking last summer and the same goes for Keane. I just wish we could be a bit cuter in the transfer market. i still can't fathom Arsenal grabbing Arshavin for £10-12 million when we paid 7.5 for Dossena and are about to splash £17-18 mill on Johnson.

Nor can I. That is a ridiculous amount of money, and if we do get him for that price then its official. Rafa is rubbish at signing players. It seems to me he has simply accepted that british players, regardless of position, are the best at what they do.

But that cant be right, he did sign Keane, and Bellamy. And they were by far the best. Werent they? Or is it simply, Rafa wants to honour the supporters by including british players, but is clueless when it comes to fees?

I would rather we saved our money, I like keane as a player and felt we overspent with him, the same would go with barry if we  signed him, also with johnson. If we spend this amount on johnson, we have to agree, its not just our owners blowing what money we have, rafas also quite good at it.

unfortunately they're my thoughts as well.

good player but no where near £18m.

As you pointed out paying top dollar for a man whos just had one outstanding season and seen his market value quadruple in 1 season.

A good player, but a poor but, and def not value for money.

[Effes]

If arby leaves that would be bad IMO.  the lad has improved a lot. would have been good to see johnson,arby and darby as the options for the right back.. which means neither carra nor anyone else gotta take that responsibilty...and about degen, hmm its better we sell him off than pay his wages n medic bills thruout the year

It all depends how much money we have left over to spend.

As aCe said a few days ago - selling Dossena and keeping Arbeloa would be the best option, as Arbeloa has been decent on the left.

[7_Kewell]

From what I’ve heard the Johnson deal is all but done. Pompy still owe us cash for Crouch and the 18 million figure includes add ons, which will be spread over a couple of years.

In reality, Rafa will be paying 9 million from his transfer kitty, leaving him plenty for other signings.

[DrPepe]

From what I’ve heard the Johnson deal is all but done. Pompy still owe us cash for Crouch and the 18 million figure includes add ons, which will be spread over a couple of years.

In reality, Rafa will be paying 9 million from his transfer kitty, leaving him plenty for other signings.

from the times

Portsmouth accept Liverpool bid for Glen Johnson
Window watch: England right back could be on his way to Anfield after South Coast club accept £18.5 million offer
Glen Johnson
Gary Jacob, James Ducker

Liverpool had an offer of about £18.5 million for Glen Johnson accepted last night. The successful bid comes after they struggled to raise the money to buy him when he was valued at about £8.5 million in January.

The Portsmouth and England right back subsequently signed a new four-year contract, but his future club appears clearer with Chelsea unwilling to match the fee for a player they sold for £4 million two years ago. Manchester City expressed an interest, but have not matched the price, which will include add-ons.

Liverpool will raise funds from the potential sales of Álvaro Arbeloa and Andrea Dossena and from outstanding money that they are owed from the sale of Peter Crouch to Portsmouth for £11 million a year ago. The Anfield club have expressed an interest in Micah Richards, the Manchester City defender.

[heimdall]

I actually think Johnson will be a good buy. I think he'll become a top player, and yes I think if we needed to play him right midfield he would be better than Kuyt is there.

I totally, agree, give the lad a chance for FFS!! This attitude that all English players are somehow not worth as much as Spanish, Russians or Argentinians is completely ridiculous.

[tubby]

I haven't seen much of Johnson in action like - but what's his final delivery like? - can he cross a ball?

Not that Andorra are opposition to measure by but he crossed for 3 of the goals last week and also had a hand in another.

Yes it is a lot of money but that's just the way the market is now so we either pay it or not pay it and end up with the scraps. I thought some people here didn't want 'bargain basement' players any more. Yet they moan if we pay a bit over the odds. There is no pleasing some people these days.   

[tubby]

I actually think Johnson will be a good buy. I think he'll become a top player, and yes I think if we needed to play him right midfield he would be better than Kuyt is there.

I totally, agree, give the lad a chance for FFS!! This attitude that all English players are somehow not worth as much as Spanish, Russians or Argentinians is completely ridiculous.

+1

Couldn't agree more. I hope this is finalised quick.

[akumaface]

I think if we had confirmed getting Johnson, then whether Arby is here or not wouldn't matter as Johnson will be the new starter regardless. If in fact Arby wanted to leave then this forces rafa's hand as he has no cover at RB. Honestly, I really don't know what 18 million can get you anymore in today's transfer market. We all know that English players have an inflated price and we can't really do much about it unless we don't buy any English players. In terms of natural attribute, I do believe Johnson is better than Arby. There are only a handful of good RB around and don't know if any of them will come even if we shell out the same kind of money.

It seems Rafa doesn't really have a 20 million transfer budget plus whatever he can get from selling other fringe players. It might only be 20 million only from selling and not the annum 20 million the Yanks had promised....

As for the squad, I agree with Ciggy that we don't need a overhaul as we only need 2 to 3 additional useful players to maintain our competitiveness but only if we are able to keep Alonso and Mascherano....As for cover on the right, I believe Rafa will use Jamie there more often this year.

[tubby]

As long as Skrtel never plays there again.