It has emerged this morning that Real Madrid coach, Carlo Ancelotti is considering a move for Reds right-back Glen Johnson in the summer transfer window. The news will come as a surprise to many given Johnson’s form over the past 2 seasons has been patchy, at best.
With doubts apparently surrounding the future of current Madrid first-choice full-back, Alvaro Arbeloa, it seems that Ancelotti has targeted Johnson as a primary candidate to replace the former Liverpool defender.
The current season has seen Johnson’s form dip considerably and, at times, he only managed to retain his starting place because the Reds had suffered injuries to a number of full-backs meaning there was almost no option but to play the England international.
However, since his return from a recent injury Johnson’s form has improved considerably and is now starting to look like the player Liverpool signed from Portsmouth.
Talks over a new contract for the defender have been put off until the summer, with the Liverpool manager clearly keen to not allow Johnson to get too comfortable but with barely 12 months remaining Liverpool may need to move fast to ward off interest from the Madrid side.
Although, should such a move go through, Liverpool could do much worse than strike up a deal with Madrid to bring Arbeloa back in the opposite direction. Which would you prefer?
Keep Glen Johnson better player refer to yesterday game
Or sell johnson and have flano and wisdom battle it out next year for right back. Don’t think rodgers has any faith in kelly
I find it likely that Johnson will go. He’s said in the past how he’s always wanted to play abroad, this is an ideal moment for him.
An Arbeloa swap deal did cross my mind, but would he offer the same amount going forward? Then again, he would be much more solid at the back I guess.
Liverpool definitely looking to sell him which will remove his huge wage bill. If he was part of Rodgers plans he would have been offered an extension by now and not allowed to enter his final year. I think Rodgers has other more talented fullbacks in his sight and Glen will leave for a considerable low fee. And that’s good news as too often he plays with an annoying casualness. The form of Suarez , Sturridge, Sterling and Gerrard makes the rest of the team look better. Would like to see the likes of Koke and Lallana lining up with Gerrard instead of Allen and Henderson.
for god’s sake……….henderson’s been great this season. what planet are you on?
B Rodgers needs to keep G Johnson(29) and offer him new but reduced salary due to his age and injury problems and inconsistencies in his performances this season.
B Rodgers needs to ship out the 8 dead wood average or injury players, 1 world class player he no longer wants or has faith in, plus the two abyzmal and pathetic loan signings we brought to club this season. Thats 11 players off the books. As we currently have a poor and weak squad and those players offer the club very little.
GK: B Jones GK: P Reina CB: S Coates CB: K Toure RB: M Kelly
AM: L Alberto RW / RWF: O Assaidi FD: F Borini FD: I Aspas
And the two loan signings: LB: A Cissokho and LW /LWF: V Moses
Then 9 class quality players are needed to replace them and strengthen squad: As currently we have a poor weak squad, we have 12-13 class good players and 11-12 average/poor players.
And If FSG want the club to get back being successful again all around the world in the league and Europe(Champions League) we need to bring better class,quality, quality competition for places to club. So there is class, good quality competition for places in every position at club.
And this season our defence has been a weakest spot, so 5 defensive players are needed.
In 5 key areas: So there is class quality , quality competition in all the defensive positions: GK, CB, RB, LB and A DM : In which Four/4 out of the Five /5 Players are British:
GK: A Mccarthy(24) Of Reading for £4-£8M to compete and cover S Mignolet(25) for the next 5- 7 years at club to be the number 1 at club
CB: S Caulker(22) Of Cardiff for £8-£12M to compete and cover M Skrtel(29) for the next 2-8 years at club and to take over from Skrtel in next 2- 3 years.
RB: N Clyne(23) Of Southampton for £5-£8M to compete and cover G Johnson(29) for the next 2-7 years at club and to take over from Johnson in 1-2 years.
LB: B Davies(20) Of Swansea for £5-£8M to compete and cover J Enrique(27) for the next 2-8 years at club and to take over from Enrique in 1-2 years.
DM: M’Vila(23) Of Rubin Kazan for £8-£12M to compete with S Gerrard(33) and L Leiva(27) for next 2-6 years at club
And Four attacking players: In which Three/ 3 out of the Four/4 of them are British:
Coutinho(21) needs class, quality competition for his position:
(AM) A Lallana(25) Of Southampton for £12-£18M to compete with Coutinho(21) and Suso(20) for the next 3- 5 seasons at club
(RW) N Redmond(20) Of Norwich for £5-£8M to compete and cover Sterling(19) for the next 6-7 years at club
(LW) A Johnson(26) Of Sunderland in straight swap deal with F Borini(22) to compete with IBE(19) for the next 2-3 years at club
FD:FD: L Muriel(23) Of Udinese for £14-£18M to compete and cover D Sturridge(24) for the next 4-6 years at club.
Those 9 players would take squad to next level, B Rodgers could bring in £30-£40M on shipping out the 9 dead wood average or Injury players off the books.
And the two abyzmal, comical and pathetic loan signings.
And then the 9 class quality players who should be brought in would/ will cost the club £90-£105M, so FSG would need to give B Rodgers £65-£75M this summer.
And the players would be for now and future of club. 8/9 players would be British, so the core of the squad would be British. And with those players brought to club in summer:
Next season with those 9 class quality players brought into club: we could have 7 – 9 regular England internationals in squad ( GK:A Mccarthy, RB’S: N Clyne and G Johnson,
CB S Caulker, A Lallana CM, A Johnson LW, N Redmond and R Sterling RW and D Sturridge FD