Portsmouth defender Glen Johnson is likely to arrive in Liverpool later today to discuss terms with the club in an £18 million deal.
According to The Times Liverpool’s bid for the right back exceeded that of Chelsea, who sold the player to Portsmouth only 2 seasons ago. Liverpool are owed £7 million by Portsmouth for the Peter Crouch transfer last summer, so this deal will involve the reds handing around £11 million over to the south-coast club.
There was some concern that a deal may be delayed due to Portsmouth’s present situation with the club undergoing due diligence as a new buyer takes control – however it is believed the transfer has been sanctioned by the legal members of both parties down at Pompey.
Glen Johnson will be Liverpool’s most expensive defender in the club’s history.
The defender who turns 25 at the start of the season already has two Premier League winners medals from 2005 and 2006.
We expect pressure to grow on a potential departure of Alvara Arbeloa to either Real Madrid or Atletico, although it is understood Liverpool are looking at at least £11 million in return.
Babel has a contract and doesn’t want to leave so not much we can do to move him on and Mascherano is a vital player who we must keep.Don’t know much about Johnson but from what i hear the boy’s an attacking wingback.
Due to our financial situation we’ll need to sell sooner or later,in my opinion Arbeloa,Lucas,Pennant,Dossana and Degan should be shown the exit door.Need another forward together with a pacy winger…
Hope Rafa gives Nemeth and Pacheco a chance too impress as they look really promising.We need much more coming out from the academy.
is this true coz i watched sky sports news and they didnt say anyfing bout this and also its not on the offical lfc website??
Craig Watson said Mascherano OUT? Is he having a laugh?! Must be or I must be hallucinating.
Oh and to the point of this post – Glen Johnson for £11m plus the cash owed fron Crouch sounds like excellent business to me.
Rafa’s the Gaffer! Happy 5th anniversary Mr. Benitez 😉
Im chuffed with this! If it all goes through smoothly we’ll have got a fantastic young England international, and £11million to pay out is very reasonable. Good defender and he offers more going forwards than Arbeloa i think. This will probably see the end of Degen’s Liverpool career aswell, Lucas and Dossena probably should go aswell and that will give us about £20million back. We need a right winger next i think and if we can afford Ashley Young he would also be a great addition for us. That may be all aswell. The spine of our team is as good if not better than any other team in England.
YNWA
I think its a good signing as long as it’s not at the expense of Arbeloa. Why not sell Dossena, Degen, etc. We then have cover at full back positions with either Arbeloa or Johnson at Right back and Aurelio and Insua at left back. Let’s not forget when Arbeloa signed he was initially played at Left Back and did a good job. Especially against Ronaldinho in the Nou Camp a couple of years back.
I don’t think Johson’s arrival automatically signals Arbeloa’s exit (at least I hope not anyway). I think there are plenty of players we can and will sell in order to raise the cash needed without compromising on the spine of the team. Babel, Lucas, Degen, Dossena, collectively should raise between £20 – £25 million which covers the Johnson transfer with a little left over.
If Rafa had any funds to play with initially you can add on the £10 million raised from player sales after the Johnson transfer, could add up to £20 million plus, I’d be happy to see that spent on David Silva.
If they were the only two players to be signed and none of our ‘spine’ players leave to line the yanks pockets I’d be confident of no.19!
YNWA.
this is great news any 1 that thinks johnson will not be good for liverpool will be proven wrong ..i for 1 am very exited rafa has made a very good move here.jus praying for a good winger now.
rafa u r on the right path
I’m not going to feel satisfied we can go a step further next season unless we find some proper help for Torres. Every game he missed this season we lacked proper fire power. Please Rafa bring in some reinforcements up front.
I’m slightly surprised at the figure banded about, however IF we keep Arbeloa then Johnson could also be deployed on the right of midfield as an alternative to Kuyt.
i think he is a rafa signing, young quick can play as a a wing back which is what we are missing, i do not want to see arbeloa go? because lets not kid each other he is a great full back, and what the point of buying one only to buy another one, we need depth in the team and having johnson is all very well but at the cost of having to get rid of a very underated player like arbeloa, is not what we need in terms of going forward, thats not progression at all, only hope we sell leto, dossena and voronin, itandge, hobbs( sold already) not first team players to finance these deals, pompy do owe us 7 mill on the crouch deal so that helps.
it would be good if johnson can settle now and sign a long term 5 year deal, he needs to learn more about the game now, more tactics, positioning play, team shape all the things rafa gives a new player.
now lets get silva, aguero( dreaming???)
Gotta say I’m a bit disappointed at this. If we were getting the next Paolo Maldini or Cafu then fair enough, but this seems like an excessive sum of money for this guy. Anyone remember when we broke the British transfer record for a defender when signing Mark Wright? We all know how that one turned out. I trust Rafa unreservedly and I really hope Johnson proves me wrong if he comes but I honestly don’t think he’ll make us much better than we already are. I’m of the opinion that Arbeloa has had a great season and is one of the most underrated players in the league. However, we’ll probably need to cash in on him now if Johnson comes. Let’s just hope he can justify some of that huge fee.
Well Done Rafa !!
Johnson is what we need and to push on next season, all we need now rafa is to get 2 wingers. . .
In:
Johnson (Good deal) £11m + P/C Owed Monies
Silva £15m
Yaya Toure £15m
Micah Richards £5m
Distin £2m
Adam Johnson £4m (Middlesborough)
Ashley young £25m
Johnson £8m (Man City)
Owen Free
TOTAL: £85m
Out:
Mascherano £30m
Arbeloa £8m
Dossena £6m
Pennant £3m
Voronin £5m
Aurelio £5m
El Zhar £1m
Lucas £5m
Degen £1m
TOTAL £64m
Income – Outgoings £21m Spent !!!! They said £20m Budget IN RAFA I TRUST !!
Defence – Carragher, Skrtel, Agger, Johnson, Richards, Insua, Distin.
Midfield – Gerrard, Alonso, Silva, Young, A Johnson, M Johnson, Benayoun, Reira.
Attack – Torres, Kuyt, Babel, Owen, Ngog,
That is strength in depth and with alot of good players coming through the reserves and youth squad this will do us.