Liverpool snap up Johnson in £18m deal
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Johnson hits jackpot with Anfield move
Offer of £80,000 a week should seal England full-back's £17m transfer to Liverpool
Glen Johnson, in action for England, is set to join Liverpool next week
Glen Johnson has been drawn towards a £17m move to Liverpool by a salary which will make him one of the club's highest earners.
The England international defender's earnings at Anfield will be eclipsed only by the club's elite players, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, if, as expected, he becomes one of the most expensive full-backs in history and signs next week.
As well as the substantial wage, thought to be £80,000-a-week net of tax, Liverpool are also prepared to fork out £5m more for Johnson than the £12m valuation set by Portsmouth which they balked at last summer. Rafael Benitez's ability to pay this, when the club also have the purchase of a back-up striker to consider before the season starts, is in part due to the fact that they can offset the transfer fee against the £7m still owing from Portsmouth's £11m purchase of Peter Crouch last summer. The £8m Liverpool may secure from Real Madrid for their current right back – Spaniard Alvaro Arbeloa – could also help make the deal achievable for Benitez.
Nevertheless, the outlay on Johnson is extraordinary, even in the context of the last two weeks. One perspective from within Anfield yesterday was that Benitez, witnessing the frenzy of activity in the European transfer market this month, felt a need to act quickly and avoid missing out. The memory of the drawn-out Gareth Barry saga last summer also lingers for the Liverpool manager and having lost out on Barry following his move to Manchester City, and facing speculation about the futures of Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano, he may have felt the need to make a statement of intent now.
It has been a positive 24 hours for Benitez, who learned yesterday that Real have apparently cooled on the idea of signing Alonso. It remains unclear what interest Real actually retain in Alonso. Valdano's interview in Marca may be a part of the negotiating process, aimed at persuading Liverpool to lower their asking price for the midfielder.
Later, Benitez discovered he had a free run in his pursuit of Johnson. In the final reckoning, Chelsea decided that a sum of £17m for a player they sold to Portsmouth for £4m two years ago was too high. Manchester City had not tabled a bid for Johnson, either.
Regarding full-backs, only Barcelona's Dani Alves and Lilian Thuram have moved for more than the figure Liverpool are set to pay for Johnson. His performance for England in Kazakhstan earlier this month suggested that his offensive wing-back play is not yet matched by defensive resilience. But Benitez has been a long-time admirer of the player and gave serious consideration last summer to the idea of offering Crouch in return for Johnson.
Now the Liverpool manager will turn his attention to filling the gap at second striker which has not been filled since Robbie Keane returned to Tottenham Hotspur in January. He has said already that he must sell to buy, so funds are limited, and the prospect of signing Valencia's David Silva now look much slimmer.
Liverpool believe that Andrea Dossena, who wants a return to Italy, may yield a further £7m for the club. Real Madrid are known to have a keen interested in the 26-year-old Arbeloa and though no bid has yet been tabled, there is optimism at Anfield that one will be forthcoming for a player who came through the ranks at the Bernabeu and made two senior appearances before his career took him to Liverpool in 2007 by way of two years at Deportivo la Coruna.
Johnson signed a new four-year contract at Portsmouth in January but club officials accepted they could not stand in his way if he was offered the opportunity to move to a club playing in the Champions League.
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this is a real bad news
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$ wasted liao..
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zzz pay him so many $$ for wad.
Torres or Gerrard sure angry de
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angry for what?
this is real one bad signing, the money, with a little more could have got us sliva -.-
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Originally posted by limpper:
angry for what?
this is real one bad signing, the money, with a little more could have got us sliva -.-
Torres actually wan Villa than Silva? i think Rafa should sign both of them now be4.. Villa change mind. -
Not worth it.
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No Parry to hold Rafa back already now... Johnson could be officially Rafa's first signing since he took over sole control... He was also Roman's first signing when he took over at Chelsea... lol
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quickly chop chop leh... ;)
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quickly chop chop leh... ;)
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Thats Rafa for you.....buy mediocre players and later sell them for less or complain of no funds to buy players. Then he will start complain about biased refs, FA etc as excuses for a failed campaign.
17m for a fullback? And an average defender at that?
"KRAP (Keep Rafa at Pool)"
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ok la .... Johnson chin chye chin chye also an England Internationals .
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Originally posted by hamidisaidi:
Thats Rafa for you.....buy mediocre players and later sell them for less or complain of no funds to buy players. Then he will start complain about biased refs, FA etc as excuses for a failed campaign.
17m for a fullback? And an average defender at that?
"KRAP (Keep Rafa at Pool)"
17m because he is English...if not, he will worth 7m only, the most...
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lol its like his other signings: babel, benanyoun, bellamy etcetcetc. and he buys alot of these plyrs and says: man utd can spend 30m on one plyr! where stats alr show benitez spending more.
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Originally posted by emman-7-:
lol its like his other signings: babel, benanyoun, bellamy etcetcetc. and he buys alot of these plyrs and says: man utd can spend 30m on one plyr! where stats alr show benitez spending more.
benayoun is a match-winner, certainly a good signing. babel has also showed his potential, just than he is being underplayed. however i agree benitez is making more and more big-money signings because of one torres and spending more
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I wouldnt say this is an entirely bad signing. Even though johnson is shaky, i am sure he has learnt quite a lot from the past and is definitely going to be more stable. He will add more speed to the old and aging defence of liverpool.
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But at 17m price tag and 80k a month, he is officially labelled a flop from now on unless he can prove himself.
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You pay top wages for established proven players.
No disrespect to GJ but is he worth that amount?
I hope rafa will be fair to him and give him at least 1 full season of regular games before considering selling him.
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end of 09/00 season then we judge his worth .
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I remember Gary Mcallister was about 30+ , when he joined LFC on a free .
Everyone was saying ... his twilight years la , retirement age la .....
Looked what he did ?
He played his best football at Liverpool !!!
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this guy can play as good as any top right back in e world, no doubts
but e problem with liverpool now does not lies on the right side.
we need a creative winger lar -.-
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Johnson has told friends he favours a move to Merseyside
RAFA BENITEZ'S pursuit of England full-back Glen Johnson has stalled - after Portsmouth accepted a rival £17.5million bid from Chelsea.
Liverpool boss Benitez had an offer accepted for Johnson, 24, on Monday. He was hoping to tie up the transfer this week only for Chelsea to have now matched the Reds' approach.
Johnson has told friends he favours a move to Merseyside after a miserable time at Stamford Bridge between 2003 and 2007, where he made just 35 league starts.
Yet Chelsea are hoping to tempt him back to the capital with a more lucrative wage package. Johnson's departure from Fratton Park remains inevitable though.
Pompey executive chairman Peter Storrie said: "The matter will come to a conclusion at the beginning of next week. I do not have a preference over the move, it is up to Glen.
"The deals are almost identical so it really is down to him and what club he prefers, which one is going to pay him more money.
"Glen wants to play regularly in the Champions League, he has got himself back in the England side so I understand that. Sometimes you have to be fair to players."
Johnson's performances for Pompey last season elevated him into the position of Fabio Capello's No 1 right-back. And with the World Cup in South Africa less than 12 months away, he is conscious that unless he is playing Champions League football he could miss out.
Storrie added: "It's a big year for him with the World Cup coming up. "Playing Champions League football will make him an even better player than he is today."
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Originally posted by HyuugaNeji:
I wouldnt say this is an entirely bad signing. Even though johnson is shaky, i am sure he has learnt quite a lot from the past and is definitely going to be more stable. He will add more speed to the old and aging defence of liverpool.
He will give Liverpool the option of going forward...Old aging defence? Agger, Skrtel, Aurelio, Arbeloa, Insua... Only Carra is abit old...
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Originally posted by HyuugaNeji:
But at 17m price tag and 80k a month, he is officially labelled a flop from now on unless he can prove himself.
Yeah, agree that is abit too much... -
Bayern close in on Bosingwa
BAYERN MUNICH are closing in on Chelsea right-back Jose Bosingwa.
The Portuguese ace was in fine form during his first season with the Blues following a £16.3million move from Porto.
But his future appears uncertain with new boss Carlo Ancelotti keen to take Glen Johnson back to Stamford Bridge.
Liverpool currently lead the race to sign Portsmouth ace Johnson and Chelsea are unlikely to sell Bosingwa before securing a replacement.
Yet Bayern refuse to give up on a player who has emerged as their top summer target.
Club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said: "We are holding talks but we still need the approval of Chelsea.
"He is one of the best right full-backs around."
Bayern plan to offload Tim Borowski, Christian Lell and Andreas Ottl to fund a move for 26-year-old Bosingwa.