Liverpool have today agreed a rather staggering fee of £17 million for Portsmouth’s Glen Johnson. The newly established England right-back is now expected to agree terms at Anfield having publicly announced his intent to join Liverpool, despite interest from former club Chelsea and cash-rich City.
From a fantasy perspective, Johnson’s arrival a Liverpool will be met with a mixed reception. In some ways we’re gaining very little here. The right-back spot has been one of the few positions in the Liverpool back four that has been settled with Arbeloa the regular occupant. The Spaniard is reportedly the subject of interest from Real Madrid, and if that deal materialises, hopefully Johnson will get a clear run at regular starts without the threat of rotation…
However, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that we will be losing Johnson as a mid-price asset in the inconsistent Portsmouth defence. He proved to be a very handy differential at times last season, returning 3 goals and 4 assists, plus a more than credible 18 point bonus return in the Fantasy Premier League game.
Off the back of last year’s form and this seemingly inevitable move to Liverpool, Johnson’s fantasy price tag will surely rocket and he could possibly be on a similar standing, if not higher ground, than Liverpool’s defensive mainstay and irregular fantasy favourite – Jamie Carragher.
Can Johnson produce to justify such a price tag? He unquestionably has the talent and with Liverpool so short on width, it could be that Rafa charges him with plenty of ambition to raid forward. We should be guaranteed 18+ clean sheets to go with the goals and assists and, while bonus points will likely be thin on the ground, Johnson’s potential haul next season would appear to look decidedly healthy.
Should the deal be completed later this week as expected, Johnson will undoubtedly remain firmly on our pre-season shortlists. It’s just a shame that like Liverpool, we’re going to have to pay through the nose to tap into that potential.
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Interesting, ye your right nick about Tiger!
With talk of Liverpool having to balk at a price of £8.5m last summer, the price seems expensive.
As much as he’s probably the best RB in the country now, I’m still not convinced on his actual defensive capabilities. Wes Brown (yes, him) is much better defensively.
But in fantasy terms it’s great news in my opinion actually, he’ll get forward more than Arbeloa did, or at least more effectively – he’ll be given free reins to run forward with aplomb. (Though his price will be more if he’s signed before FPL restarts I would hazard a guess at 6.5). I don’t see Arbeloa staying, he’s pining to move to back to Spain.
Off out to watch ‘The Hangover’, I’d like Balotelli, Giovinco or Kacar to do something for me when i return!
If Arbeloa hangs around long enough, I think Johnson could be a new Bosingwa. Because FPL don’t know who will be first choice out of him and Arbeloa, They’ll probably be priced around .5 less than Skrtel and Arbeloa (I’m going to guess Carragher’s price will be increased to 7) – same was Belletti and Bosingwa were for Chelsea last season.
I think he’ll definately be a rafatation threat though, but at the same time, he could be employed further up the pitch if need be.
Bloody hell…I can think of MUCH better (and more needed) players to spend 17mil on than Johnson. In terms of fpl however, I think Insua might be a better bet for a Liverpool defender next season. He’ll be cheap (?) and he’s the only reason I can think of that Rafa hasn’t gone and bought himself a new left back instead of a right back.
But seriously…17 million for a player that they don’t particularly need? I wish Wenger could splash out cash like that. With talk of the limited budget that Liverpool have, do people think they’re still going to go looking for another central attacking player? If not then Gerrard and Torres look like absolute must buys for next season…
Well they are supposed to sell Arbeloa for 8/10 and Dossena for 5/6. As such, they just spent a couple of millions on a player far better than the two they currently have. LB/RB positions are key and fees for those players always seem too high (remember Bosingwa for 16, Alves for 25). I think 17 is too high but Johnson will def bring something next year
Completely agree, 17M for Johnson? Regardless of what they sell Arbeloa and Dossena for, 17M? Seems incredibly high for a RB that was bought for less than a 1/4 of that only a few years back, especially when you look at what others are giving/getting for players that make much more of an impact. Even just comparing him to Arbeloa, who I know wants out, but is Johnson really worth DOUBLE what Arbeloa is? Extremely doubtful to me, but anyways…
I’m actually somewhat happy about it though, hopefully this is the only move they make and when torres gets hurt again next year, the gunners will pass them by…
Vermaelen is coming to Arsenal for 11mil apparently, so in that respect Johnson’s probably 17mil.
I don’t rate Johnson too highly anyway. He’s good, but he was partly made to look by the crap around him at Pompey last season (Belhadj, Distin, Mullins et al) and the lack of decent England right backs right now, or ever really.
Honestly, after Pompey turned down 8mil or whatever it was in January, I would have looked elsewhere. But then, (luckily) I’m not Rafa.
made to look good**. Argh!
Nice piece of business for Pompey. Bought for about 4M less than 2 years ago and sold for 18M or so… brilliant, really.
Arbeloa is surely on his way out to Spain now now and Johnson will start the season priced at 6.5M or 7M max I think…
ye he cud be expensive, tomorrow is officially when our ff preparations can begin, FIXTURES!!
Part of the fee is owed to Liverpool for Crouch though apparently, so it’s unclear just how much Pompey will make from this.
Yeah, apparently Pompey owe up to as much as £9m still to Liverpool for Crouch. It’s not cash in hand per se, but it’s still credit really that they won’t be needing to pay out anymore (though it would have been over ‘x’ years).
Sure, Pompey still owes a lot of $ for Crouch – but these are two totally separate transactions. The money owed on Crouch doesn’t take anything away from the fact that this is an absolutely excellent piece of business – making 14M on a player in less than 2 seasons…
Going well in the Confederations cup lbra! If i recall correctly, you amassed that score without captaining Torres, that’s impressive.
agreed. How much money have pompey made in proffit from harry’s signings now? benjani, mendes, diarra, defoe, muntari? the ultimate wheeler dealer eh?
Its a lot of money for a defender. I’m quite happy that Johnson is joining but hopefully Rafa’s budget will allow for another big signing. Definitely a more attacking fullback than Arbeloa so it’s a positive move.
Its a lot of money but a positive signing which will give Liverpool another attack minded player. Hopefully he will settle in easy enough.
Haha the old ‘in Rafa we trust’ I see
.
I have faith that he knows what to do.
No, I agree with RafaMC. Full-backs are very important in modern football, perhaps the most inportant part. I can’t think of one top level team that doesn’t have good full-backs. Italy won the World Cup just when Zambrotta and Grosso reached the peak of their careers, Spain had Capdevila and Ramos to advance to the european title, Champions League winners Barcelona were based on Alves to provide width and creativity. It’s not random even the fact that EPL’s 3 relegated clubs suffered the lack of a decent full-back.
What RafaMC says is no praise for Rafa Benitez, because it was only 12 months ago when he brought Dossena and Degen in and now he is again after similar players, while he could buy Johnson for half the fee some months ago. But I believe that they definitely needed a right back, as Arbeloa is rather homesick and they already used Carragher in right back many times, tipping him with many dreadfull memories. Johnson could also play as a winger in a 4-4-2 or in Kuyt’s place in the usual 4-2-3-1 if Torres is absent.
Some nice points there greek fan, reminded me of a good article on the Guardian website I read (and I think flagged up on here) a while back: http://www.guardian.co.uk/foot.....s-football
Personally I agree that this could be a decent purchase for Liverpool. MFaulkner says above that the rest of Pompey’s team made Johnson look good, but surely with a better class of player around him (I’m thinking particularly of Alonso/Mascherano assuming they stay) his defensive frailties may be less of an issue.
I also think it’s a good thing for England- right back is a real issue for us, and it certainly won’t do Johnson any harm to be playing with the big boys in the Champions League.
Totally agreed with your remarks and who am I to reject Mr Jonathan Wilson? I ‘ve read that article when it was published on March, I forgot about it, but it probably worked subconsciously in my mind.
I was saying yesterday that Florentino Perez’s euros will set the transfer market in motion this summer and that I can see Arbeloa moving to Madrid now (by mistake I typed “Alonso” instead of “Arbeloa”). I think Liverpool will take something like £8M(-9) and the rest of Johnson’s bid was what Pompey owed them for Crouch.
I can see your point Jonny and there is no denying that Rafa’s favoured and most effective formation is 4-2-3-1. Mascherano and Alonso will sit in front of the back four and give them protection but this will only mitigate Johnson’s seeming defensive frailties. Whilst I agree that the role of the full-back is integral to many successful teams, it is also a position where a footballer can be cruelly exposed. Johnson’s pace is a virtue for such a position but he still can’t tackle effectively and his 8 yellow cards last season shows that he is prone to the odd mistackle and he has got a little bit of a suspect temperament.
Given that Kuyt has been a real asset on the right-side of midfield for Liverpool, I would have thought that Rafa would have settled for what he had, unless Arbeloa is on borrowed time at the club. How often will Johnson play further up the park when Rafa has Kuyt? And even with Degen’s injury proneness it is still a curious buy and a hell of a gamble for that kind of money…
There’s no argument that full backs are important greekfan, the question is whether Johnson is worth 17m, especially in light of all of Liverpool’s reported money problems and the fact that Rafa has a ‘limited’ budget. Frankly I don’t think his defensive capabilities make up for his (half) decent attacking skills. In any case, I can see this easily becoming one of Rafa’s expensive flops.
History is definitely not on his side, this the 6th right-back Rafa’s gone through. Hence the inherent funniness in the phrase ‘In Rafa we Trust’…
In looking up his transfers I am corrected lol…forgot about joker josemi. He was only there for a few months but still counts!
The fee is surely staggering as Mark noted and every single contributor commented here since last night when it came up. I tried to expose my thoughts above about where Liverpool found the money. Johnson will play alongside Carragher, Agger, Skrtel , Aurelio now and Mascherano is capable to fill many holes himself. If you read the article Jonny posted, you ‘ll see that this kind of full-back is what’s needed in Rafa’s favorite 4-2-3-1. You may doubt Johnson’s attacking ability which waits to be proven in a top side, but he has been more than decent for Pompey and England already. Another major point of this transfer is just the fact he’s an englishman. Native players are a necessity for Liverppol for a number of reasons. They only have Carragher and Gerrard in their starting line-up.
…and you did expose your thoughts, very well I may add, and I added my comments to them. I read the article that Jonny posted when it was written but if you want to put Johnson in anywhere near the same league as any of the full-backs mentioned then you’re having a laugh.
The thing about great full-backs is that they can defend as well as bomb down the wings. I seem to remember Brazil, France and Italy keeping a great deal of clean sheets in the cup runs that were cited in the article (did you see Johnson trying to defend against Kazakhstan?!). You also state that Johnson can play in a lot of positions. Do Liverpool really need another utility player?
This transfer smacks of a panic deal. Anyway, let’s not get worked up about this; my original comment was merely to poke fun at the fact that Rafa has a penchant for buying useless full backs and now I’m entrenched in a full blown debate xD.
just signed up mark-it feels very professional now-well i should say even more professional.i decided to become a ‘Mr’ for the season ahead to reflect the new professionalism and in a hope to inspire better things for the coming season.
PS I move house in 2 weeks so am facing up to a month without net-crazy aussie ISPs!good time to move tho (as i am sure u will agree)
Mark,
I registered this morning and I have not yet received an e-mail yet.
Does it take 24hrs to come through?
Regarding Johnson I think he is a good player overpriced but I think the top four especially United will get robbed this transfer window!
Check your junk mail folder.
Not normally. You’re showing up in the list in the users. If it doesn’t turn up I can reset your password and then you can specify a new one. Let me know.
My view on Glenn Johnson? Definitely not worth the disclosed transfer fee and defensively suspect for both club and country. Can see the benefits to Liverpool with his pace so could often be deployed in right-midfield but don’t think he’s in Bosingwa’s class yet and he was the joint second worst defender for picking up yellow cards last season.
I could see him priced at about £6.5m in the FPL but with some doubts about his defending and almost certainly needing time to bed in at Liverpool I think there will be more obvious alternatives at the price.
£18 million quid. The footi world has gone stark raving bonkers
Yo! Test
Hears an interesting fact… since ferguson took charge of united in 1986 real madrid have made 25… yes 25 managerial appointments!! great club for stability!!!
You have to see what happens in Greece where club owners are famous too like in Spain, sometimes the biggest stars in their clubs and often want to take the biggest part of glory (more correctly “glory”). I remember Panathinaikos playing Glasgow Rangers for the CL some years ago, the british commentator said something like: Rangers had 17 managers in the last 100 years and Panathinaikos 100 managers in the last 17 years. Totally absurd.
“Rangers had 17 managers in the last 100 years and Panathinaikos 100 managers in the last 17 years.”
If that’s true, or even slightly true, it’s my favourite statistic ever!
Lol. It’s certainly an exaggeration. Rangers actually had less than 17 in 100 years (12 managers in 14 managerial changes), while Panathinaikos tried hard to reach the 100 in their 101 years history.
Rangers:
Jock Wallace October 1983 – April 1986.
1) William Wilton May 1899 – May 1920.
2) Bill Struth May 1920 – May 1954.
3) Scot Symon May 1954 – November 1967.
4) David White November 1967 – November 1969.
5) William Waddell December 1969 Until May 1972.
6) Jock Wallace June 1972 – May 1978 (and October 1983 – April 1986).
7) John Greig May 1978 – October 1983.
9) Graeme Souness April 1986 – April 1991.
10) Walter Smith April 1991 – May 2001 (and January 2007 – present).
11) Dick Advocaat July 1998 – December 2001
12) Alex Mcleish December 2001 – May 2006.
13) Paul Le Guen May 2006 – January 2007.
14) Walter Smith January 2007 – present.
On the other hand, Panathinaikos changed their manager 23 times in the last 14 years, or 25 times in the last 17 years, or 32 since SAF got the job at ManU. There are some famous managers in that list, like Henk ten Cate, José Peseiro, VÃctor Muñoz, Hans Backe, Alberto Malesani, Ivica Osim, Jacek Gmoch, Tomislav Ivic.
GJ is undoubtedly very good going forward but 18 million does seem a lot for a RB who’s a bit suspect defensively. Having said that, how many really top class left-wingers do we have in the PL that he’ll be required to defend against?
The Grauniad had a nice piece a few weeks ago about how FBs are the sine qua non of modern footy:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/foot.....s-football
Is this Rafa investing in English players for fear of the UEFA ruling requiring x number of homegrown players? This would bring his total of homegrown players to – erm – three?
Hmm when i first read this i thought great definite pick for next year, but then i thought about rafa rotation shite
may hold fire, this ones up in the air for lil old al, but i am a fan of the fella
Ow-some.
i think the wolves attack will be one of the better investments this season.. i think Kightly and ebanks are a must.. they’l prob be price at 5.5 each. n i’ve got my sights on milijas too.. class act for red star belgrade. great left foot.. may have all 3 in my team as cheapos cuase i just cant decide between the 3. The birmingham defence should we worth a look also.. they dont score many goals n need to keep CS to win.. mostnumber of CS in the championship. Scott dann would be an awesome punt at 4 million.. gonna have johnson in my defence for sure. he scored at 4 points a game at pompey.. with the addition of clean sheets at liverpool he could get 5 points a game.. at the expense of bonus points though.. Just been my two cents. c u guys later
Fixtures out at 10am. Let the panning begin…
Johnson must be considered, even if he is £7million region.
On a side note, Newcastle’s first Championship game on tv anyone? Must be at least 1/10 on that happening!
I think Johnson shouldn’t be any more than £6-6.5. £7m would be way over priced in my opinion and I would’t be buying him. There is the chance that he could be rotated a fair bit and there is no way I’m spending £7m on a player at risk of not playing. I had him for a bit of last season and he was a good points scorer definitely.
Can’t wait for the fixture list
I’d go for £6-6.5 too, but there is a possibility he’d be more simply because hes joined a big 4 club. If he stayed at Pompey I think he’d have been £6mill and no more.
Fixture list here we come..
Bolton will get one of the promoted three is my bet. An unfashionale start for one of em!
I know I ain’t spitting 7m for him and his bum knees… But if Arbeloa does go away… who knows. For the most of last season I went with one Liverpool defender (Reina), but even that did not turn out that smart because my bench goalie was Shcwarzer
FIXTURES are in
http://www.premierleague.com/p.....06,00.html
Quick Mark! Hurry up and finish the season ticker!
Hmmm actually they seem to be gone again but I’ve still got the page open so to wet your appetite
Saturday 15th August 2009
Aston Villa v Wigan Athletic 15:00 Villa Park
Blackburn Rovers v Manchester City 15:00 Ewood Park
Bolton Wanderers v Sunderland 15:00 Reebok Stadium
Chelsea v Hull City 15:00 Stamford Bridge
Everton v Arsenal 15:00 Goodison Park
Manchester United v Birmingham City 15:00 Old Trafford
Portsmouth v Fulham 15:00 Fratton Park
Stoke City v Burnley 15:00 Britannia Stadium
Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool 15:00 White Hart Lane
Wolverhampton Wanderers v West Ham United 15:00 Molineux
OK not sure whats going on with the Official site but try this link from the BBC..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/h.....efault.stm
Some interesting fixtures. Liverpool’s one at Tottenham could be tricky. Arsenals first 6 games are pretty tough.
Newcastle and West Brom are playing each other on opening day of season lol.
Just on the BBC site to see if the leaked Arsenal fixtures were right. Looks like they weren’t, but I can’t see West Ham v Arsenal on either club’s page.
Is it just me…? Seems odd!
In fact, West Ham’s whole fixture page only has 28 games! I’m putting money on them getting relegated.
Link in name…
Burnley look to have an absolute demon of start, I would not want to be in Coyles shoes right now!
Stoke away, which is no mean feat. Quickly followed by Man U, Everton, Chelsea & Liverpool. Talk about welcome to the premiership.
Liverpool have a pretty easy first few months
15 Tottenham (A)
19 Stoke (H)
22 Aston Villa (H)
29 Bolton (A)
September
12 Burnley (H)
19 West Ham (A)
26 Hull (H)
I think Gerrard can get 6-7 goals + 5-6 assist + bonus points in those games
Good catch Panda
same for Chelsea
yeah, I can sense a lot of people with Torres/Gerrard/Kuyt in their team come the start of the season.
made a fixture list of the first six games of each side(except hull wig and pompey cause they dont interest me fpl terms at all). ENJOY!!!
Arsenal- eve BOL POR manu mcy WIG
Aston villa- WIG whu liv FUL bir POR
Bolton- SUN ars hull LIV por STK
Burnley- stk MANU EVE che liv SUN
Birmingham city- manu POR STK tot AVL hull
Chelsea- HULL sun ful BURN stk TOT
Everton- ARS mcy burn WIG ful BLA
Fulham- port BLA CHE avl EVE wolv
Hull-NEVERMIND
Liv- tot STK AVL bol BURN whu
Man city- bla EVE WOLV port ARS manu
ManUtd- BIR burn wig ARS tot MCY
Portsmouth-NEVERMIND
Stoke- BURN liv bir SUN che bol
Sun- bol CHE BLA stk HULL burn
Tot- LIV hull whu BIR MANU che
West ham- wolv AVL TOT bla wig LIV
Wig-NEVERMIND
wolves- WHU wig mcy HULL bla FUL
based on fixtures i’d say an opening team should be based like this
Fulop BirmCity gk
Vidic Baines Johnson Shawcross A.cole
Gerrard lampard artetaKightly Milner
Rooney/torres ebanks Bent(or any other cheapo sunderland forward)
based on i said.. i know i’ve crossed a 100 million easily.. but it’s these above players i feel will do well the first 6 games.. no need to thank me for makin a fixture list. was bored as hell
Why write-off Wigan? Figueroa and N’Zogbia brought in a couple of decent returns last season.
k.. dint take into account the missing gameweek 2 fixtures.anyway here are the wigan, pompey and hull fixtures..
Wigan- avl WOL MANU eve WHU ars
ports- FUL bir ars MCY BOL avl
hull- che tot BOL wolv sun bir
Oo thanks Wassup. I was gonna do something like that but felt too lazy
. Arsenal have horrible away games, though Liverpool, Chelsea and ManU look pretty comfortable in the opening.
just it’ll have to be a little cheaper
Everyone’s got a big decision when it comes to choosing between Asrhavin, Gerrard, Lamps and Rooney. I guess the latter tow will be obvious picks for most with their opening fixtures.
I think Man City’ Brazilians should get off to a good start while the weather’s still good, although I can see them gtting bullied by Big Sam’s Blackburn on the opening day.
I would say easy first fixtures for:
-Liverpool
-Chelsea
-Wolves
-Sunderland
-West Ham
Easy fixtues for both Wolves and Westham? *grin*
Where are Blackburns fixtures…..you can’t get the staff….
My opening team thoughts;
Robinson (Bl)
Evra (Mu) L Young (Av) Alex (Ch)
Gerrard (Li) Millner (Av) Lampard (Ch) Reid (Su)
Fuller (St) Rooney (Mu) Defoe (To)
I bet not more than 4 of those will be in my team come 11.30 15th August but hey….it was something to do with my lunch hour.
try the link in my name. Also see write up on blackburns fixtures by me below.
Because i’m doing c**p in the fantasy under 21 game I thought I would turn my attentions to the recently released fixture list and noticed that the following matches are called off for European reasons in what we would call ‘Gameweek 2′:
ARS vs BOL
WHU vs AST
MCY vs EVE
Given Arsenal’s tough couple of fixtures i’m probably going to stay clear for a while. Can anyone remember when these missing fixtures were played last year?
Also noticed that Sunderland have a decent set of fixtures (after Chelsea), think I will be considering at least 2 budget options
That’s a good spot Woo. I thought one of Arsenal’s games was missing when they showed them on SSN just now.
It looks like Everton, Arsenal and Man City players should be wirtten off for starting FF players.
Aston Villa will also miss ‘Gameweek 2′ and then they face Liverpoool away in ‘Gameweek 3′.
This is starting to get tough!
Heres my long term take on the fixtures (for the teams i reckon might be worth following)
WEST HAM should have a good start to the season as if they dont they most certanly will have a very difficult sevond half. They play villa, spurs, liverpool, arsenal, everton, man utd, and chelski at home in the first half of the season (which obviously means they will have to play them away in the second half)
CHELSEA are at home to spurs, liverpool, man utd, everton and away to villa, arsenal and man city. Chelsea look a good defensive bet for first 13 games (includes man u, liverpool and spurs at home) as their first big away game is against arsenal (14th game).
EVERTON look good up to game 9 but then their fixtures stiffen up considerably villa (h), west ham (a), man u (a), liverpool (h), totenham (h), chelsea (a)
Then six games out of the next 8 look good followed by liverpool (a), chelsea (h), utd (h), spurs (a)
They then have a nice ten games to finish.
LIVERPOOL dont look to have any long difficult or easy run
MAN CITY look to have a decent start but no runs (difficlut or otherwise) to speak of either except a 9 game streak after xmas which looks pretty promising.
MAN UTD look to have a good enough first half of the season with chelsea (a), spurs (a) and liverpool (a) their toughest fixtures
SUNDERLAND look decent defensively with chelsea (h) gw2 and utd (a) gw9 being their toughest fixtures. but it does stiffen up after this for them.
STOKE look like a bit of a mixed bag with two of the promoted teams in the first three games plus liverpool (a) spurs (a) and everton (a) and chelsea (h) utd (h) west ham (h) in first 10 games.
SPURS have a difficult first 6 fixtures with liverpool (h), man u (h) and chelsea (a) west ham (a) but after that it eases up somewhat with the next 14 games having only arsenal (a), villa (a) everton (a) and man city (h). And then the next 13 games look good also but for liverpool (a), villa (a), city (a) and everton (h) being considered tough.
Might be worth something to some of you.
sorry meant to add blackburn to that list as they may be decent defensively (going on tail end of last seasons form)
first 5 games look good enough (except maybe city (h)) but then they play everton (a), villa (h), gunners (a), burnley (h), chelsea (a) and man u (a) in the next 6 games. the next 16games look good then with pool (h) spurs (h) and man city (a) looking the toughest of them.
hope this helps
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