Glen Johnson to a big 4 ?

L-r d wrote:I don't think selling anybody for 80 mill can be considered stupid no matter what

Who knows what could happen next though. You might never win another trophy in your lifetime.

That would be sweet

Glenacious D wrote:we have fumfteen players capable of playing left wing, we don't have any right backs.

I don't think we can improve on Riera/Benyanoon/Babel and co significantly for £17m. Johnson at right back is a great deal better than Skrtel or Degen.

I thought maybe a plan B in attack may have been of use for those tight 0-0s that you struggled in.

Someone like Artem Milevsky could have been had for about £12m or Huntelaar, who is now available.

You may well sign a forward, of course. But for spenind that much, you'd be hoping to win a big trophy next season - either the league or the CL.

I guess this will be your best chance given the sale of Ronaldo

we may yet sign a left winger, or a support striker. This signing makes sense to me.

Milvesky

Not sure he'd be able to cope at the pace Liverpool play at though. Definitely wouldn't run the line as well as Torres that's for sure.

strikers from the Soviet Union always do well in England.

Glenacious D wrote:we have fumfteen players capable of playing left wing, we don't have any right backs.

I don't think we can improve on Riera/Benyanoon/Babel and co significantly for £17m. Johnson at right back is a great deal better than Skrtel or Degen.

well if you sold Babel then you could have £25m to spend

£25 million for Babel?!

Brilliant.

Glenacious D wrote:there isn't another position in the first team we could improve for £17m IMO

what was the reason Liverpool did not win the league last season?

RB

Keane not fitting in

Backup for Torres

no plan B

other?

i would spend the £17m on the reason you did not win the league.

Maybe we have another £17million to spend on another possition. WE JUST DONT KNOW!!!

Batman wrote:

Glenacious D wrote:there isn't another position in the first team we could improve for £17m IMO

what was the reason Liverpool did not win the league last season?

RB

Keane not fitting in

Backup for Torres

no plan B

other?

i would spend the £17m on the reason you did not win the league.

I'll see if we can spend £17m on ludicrous refereeing decisions

Given the decisions you got, it looks like you already spent a lot more than that...

Tweedle wrote:

Glenacious D wrote:

Tweedle wrote:So the 'we can't comete financially' statement was just a load of bollocks then

Unless your planning to plug the gap by buying Bobby Zamora, that is.

what?

there was an official statement a couple of weeks ago promising we would be competitive in the transfer market.

I've heard Hull are interested in Zamora too.

Please make this happen.

We'll take 10million ono.

£17 million

It appears strengthening the RB position was Rafa's main aim for the summer. He has been so pissed off at losing his first choice targets over the years he has gone and done this. At least it will be sorted quickly.

If it does go through then Arbeloa (6-8 ), Dossena (4-6) and Crouch's remaining payments (4-5) pay for most of the fee, which I'm guessing is also structured based on success which should leave us with plenty for whatever else Rafa decides to do

I'm not convinced he is a better player than Arbeloa, however against the park the busers, he can only improve that side of the pitch for us.

It may also show that Rafa trusts Riera and Yossi for the left (and Babel will have one more year to prove himself), leaving a backup striker as the only thing left for the summer.

I think he'll be a success, but for that amount of money you would prefer to be certain

Well coater, your fellow fans have convinced my that £17m is a perfectly normal amount to spend on a Johnson. So i think you're wrong to be shocked.

Kimbo wrote:Well coater, your fellow fans have convinced my that £17m is a perfectly normal amount to spend on a Johnson. So i think you're wrong to be shocked.

Well they are arguing from the point that it is a position that needs strengthening so with Johnson being one of the best right backs (who are currently attainable) then it's better to spend what is necessary to get him rather than accept the second or third choice. I'm just not sure he is better than Arbeloa but I also don't know if Arbeloa wants to return to Spain which could be part of Rafa's thinking

Football is ridiculous these days anyway. When you are paying £18 million for the likes of Johnson or Carrick there is little hope of normality returning anytime soon. You need to be incredibly stupid to want to own a football club

I think if Liverpool will complete this deal it will work very well for them, Johnson looks like a perfect partner to play alongside Kuyt on right side of the pitch. Any price for him over 12 mln is stupid...but this is how it goes now, with english players.

for David Moyes spending 10 mln total for Baines and Jagielka.

Six wrote:Fullbacks are worth as much as anyone IMO. If we could have got Maicon for £25m I think it would have been worth it. Buffon for £30m was worth it, but everyone at the time was saying that was stupid money for a goalkeeper.

Maicon is not worth that much at his age. If it was Maldini/Zanetti/Cafu/Thuram/Carlos in their mid 20s they would be worth £25M and Maldini more so.

Buffon was a WC GK at a very young age and will probably stay at Juve for 15+ years. £2M/year. Johnson is not a WC RB.

Alves is also not a WC RB but he is a WC wing-back in his mid 20s.

I would simply prefer Arbeloa and spend the money on a LW/LM. IMO Arbeloa is better than Johnson and he already knows how to play Rafa's high line/off-side trap defending.

I can see this transfer turning into the no so bad version of the Bently/Keane situation. I'll be happy to be wrong, it'll be interesting to see a genuine £17M RB in the league

BTW Eboue is just as bad defending and just as good attacking and you could have bought him for less than £8M.

shazlx wrote:

Six wrote:Fullbacks are worth as much as anyone IMO. If we could have got Maicon for £25m I think it would have been worth it. Buffon for £30m was worth it, but everyone at the time was saying that was stupid money for a goalkeeper.

Maicon is not worth that much at his age. If it was Maldini/Zanetti/Cafu/Thuram/Carlos in their mid 20s they would be worth £25M and Maldini more so.

Buffon was a WC GK at a very young age and will probably stay at Juve for 15+ years. £2M/year. Johnson is not a WC RB.

Alves is also not a WC RB but he is a WC wing-back in his mid 20s.

I would simply prefer Arbeloa and spend the money on a LW/LM. IMO Arbeloa is better than Johnson and he already knows how to play Rafa's high line/off-side trap defending.

I can see this transfer turning into the no so bad version of the Bently/Keane situation. I'll be happy to be wrong, it'll be interesting to see a genuine £17M RB in the league

BTW Eboue is just as bad defending and just as good attacking and you could have bought him for less than £8M.

Do you not believe that with Johnson's exceptional recovery pace, he could easily become far better in a high defensive line?

Apart from being caught out defensively potentially, (although with the double pivot who slide across to cover our full backs, there is always cover) - i don't see anything but positives from this transfer.

We need English players [Tick] - We needed competition at right back [Tick] - We need to make our wings more penetrative [Tick] - We needed to retain some funds to purchase another attacking player [Tick]

The reality is £17m although the quoted figure will not disappear out of acounts in one go, we are reportedly owned £7m from the Crouch deal - and the i doubt that the remaining £10m is a lump sum, whether installments or clauses that interpret the success of the signing (trophies, appearances, international caps etc)

The fact of the matter is, the sum total may appear high, however the cash flow will not be affected and we will definately still be able to target other areas of our squad which are 'weak'

If confirmed, i'll be delighted with Johnson signing.

Seems like Arbeloa is off... Real or Atletico(or maybe Sevilla).

From the quotes I've read, and with him having a year on his contract we are likely to sell as opposed to let him do a McManaman.

Would love him to stay, though unspectacular he is 7/10 player in in ability and highly consistent + versatile... but if the lad wants to go/Rafa thinks we need to cash in, so be it.

================================



Target given permission to discuss move
June 16, 2009

Portsmouth right-back Glen Johnson is set to discuss personal terms with Liverpool this week after the two clubs agreed a fee.
According to the BBC, Liverpool have had their £17million bid for the England international accepted.

Several clubs including Chelsea and Manchester City are also interested in the defender however, Johnson is set to move to Merseyside with the transfer being concluded as early as Friday.

A club official said: “If he wants the move to Anfield he could be a player before the end of the working week. It’s down to him now.
“Johnson has been given permission to speak to us.

“His agent claims that the player is more interested in a move to Liverpool than to London or anywhere else and that his decision won’t be just about money.

“A condition of any sale would be that Portsmouth don’t disclose the transfer fee and conditions of the transaction due to outstanding business between the two clubs.” (Crouch?)

It would almost be on a Barcelona-Pique level if we buy back Arbeloa so I hope it is Atletico who could really do with a consistent defender.

“A condition of any sale would be that Portsmouth don’t disclose the transfer fee and conditions of the transaction due to outstanding business between the two clubs.” (Crouch?)

Kinda confirms that the fee will NOT be £17m...

If Portsmouth wanted to appease their fans by the sale, they would say "hey but look at all the dollar we got"

I'd be very surprised if he costs us in additional funds to those we are still due from the Crouch sale more than £9-£10m.

In this sense, fucking excellent business Rafa

Super Real Ronaldo wrote:It would almost be on a Barcelona-Pique level if we buy back Arbeloa so I hope it is Atletico who could really do with a consistent defender.

treble *cough* treble

Football Genius wrote:“A condition of any sale would be that Portsmouth don’t disclose the transfer fee and conditions of the transaction due to outstanding business between the two clubs.” (Crouch?)

Kinda confirms that the fee will NOT be £17m...

If Portsmouth wanted to appease their fans by the sale, they would say "hey but look at all the dollar we got"

I'd be very surprised if he costs us in additional funds to those we are still due from the Crouch sale more than £9-£10m.

In this sense, fucking excellent business Rafa

Exactly, myself and other Reds here earlier(and in the past) were saying likewise that the Crouch deal was to be involved in some way though others disagreed. It makes sense really.

Excellent bit of business indeed

It makes no difference, it still adds up to £17m that Pool either don't have or won't have. We had a similar deal for Owen with Real Madrid including some money they owed for Woodgate, you don't see me saying he didn't cost us £17m, because he did.

Ade wrote:

Football Genius wrote:“A condition of any sale would be that Portsmouth don’t disclose the transfer fee and conditions of the transaction due to outstanding business between the two clubs.” (Crouch?)

Kinda confirms that the fee will NOT be £17m...

If Portsmouth wanted to appease their fans by the sale, they would say "hey but look at all the dollar we got"

I'd be very surprised if he costs us in additional funds to those we are still due from the Crouch sale more than £9-£10m.

In this sense, fucking excellent business Rafa

Exactly, myself and other Reds here earlier(and in the past) were saying likewise that the Crouch deal was to be involved in some way though others disagreed. It makes sense really.

Excellent bit of business indeed

it means you probably ended up selling crouch for about 4mil?

excellent business, i think not.

you cant have it both ways lads

Kimbo wrote:It makes no difference, it still adds up to £17m that Pool either don't have or won't have. We had a similar deal for Owen with Real Madrid including some money they owed for Woodgate, you don't see me saying he didn't cost us £17m, because he did.

What you are saying is correct HOWEVER allow me to correct your tone to why we are so optimistic.

We are due £7m from Pompey, this is money we do not already have in our accounts, so to deduct this from the deal is clever because it releases more of the existing transfer budget to other targets, thus allowing us to capture a right back of a certain quality and still pursue our more primary attacking targets.

It is because we manipulated a previous sale in order to achieve this season's objectives that makes this move smart, financially and also in obtaining the players we need.

We maintain our cashflow and budgets, yet still acquire the targets we are after.

Its of no surprise to me that now Rafa has full control of his transfer budget, that this deal has been completed.... Rafa is clearly far more shrewd that Rick Parry ever was. He understands the footballing qualities and the financial implications... to the Rafalution!

Rosicky wrote:

Ade wrote:

Football Genius wrote:“A condition of any sale would be that Portsmouth don’t disclose the transfer fee and conditions of the transaction due to outstanding business between the two clubs.” (Crouch?)

Kinda confirms that the fee will NOT be £17m...

If Portsmouth wanted to appease their fans by the sale, they would say "hey but look at all the dollar we got"

I'd be very surprised if he costs us in additional funds to those we are still due from the Crouch sale more than £9-£10m.

In this sense, fucking excellent business Rafa

Exactly, myself and other Reds here earlier(and in the past) were saying likewise that the Crouch deal was to be involved in some way though others disagreed. It makes sense really.

Excellent bit of business indeed

it means you probably ended up selling crouch for about 4mil?

excellent business, i think not.

you cant have it both ways lads

Its not excellent business if you still buy a good player for £10-7M more than their 'normal' transfer fee.

What would have been excellent business is if you had somehow forced Pompey to sell cheaply because they owe Liverpool FC. If you could've paid £12M (still too much IMO) by forcing their hand that would have been a good deal.

Kimbo wrote:It makes no difference, it still adds up to £17m that Pool either don't have or won't have. We had a similar deal for Owen with Real Madrid including some money they owed for Woodgate, you don't see me saying he didn't cost us £17m, because he did.

People who are saying that the fact that Crouch is involved makes it a better deal are completely clueless about business. We would have declared the full amount Portsmouth offered for Crouch as profit the season he was sold.

And as LRD said earlier, even if you do factor in the Crouch money, it would mean that we sold Crouch for £4million and Johnsan signed for £10million. Crouch doesn't make any difference to this transaction appart from the fact that we don't have to pay as much money up front because we're using some of the money we're owed to pay for the deal.