15 Oct 2014

Sell ASAP? - Benitez wants to sign 'outstanding' £10m LFC star. BR to sign replacement

Last week, 'outstanding' Reds defender Glen Johnson admitted that contract talks with Liverpool have 'gone very quiet', which suggest the club is not keen on handing him another long-term deal. Johnson is now (arguably) surplus to requirements at Anfield, and Rafa Benitez could be the man capitalise on the club's reticence to hand the defender a new contract.

According to the Daily Mirror today:

* Napoli are planning a January bid for £10m-rated Johnson.

* Rodgers has already 'made plans' to replace him.

Liverpool already have two decent replacements in Javier Manquillo and Jon Flanagan, but both are hugely inexperienced. As such, it makes sense to bring in another established right back, especially since neither player is particularly adept at going forward.

Dani Alves is regularly linked with a possible move to Anfield, and he'd be a great replacement for Johnson. However, it transpires that the Brazilian is a typical football mercenary, and is demanding £250k a week to move to the Premier League.

There's no way Liverpool will pay such a ridiculous salary for a 31-year old footballer, and if Alves seriously believes he'll achieve that, then he's living in some kind of twisted fantasy land.

Johnson is a relic of the Benitez era, so it'll be rather fitting if it's the Spaniard who finally brings Johnson's Liverpool career to an end. There's a pleasing symmetry to the proposed deal, and if Benitez takes Lucas too, then it's two relics with one stone.

Author:


12 comments:

  1. Pablo Von Mooneyo8:07 am, October 15, 2014

    10M.... Lmao! No chance. He'll leave on a free and tbh that's good enough for me :)
    I've never seen a more lazy, gutless player wear the Red shirt, he never could defend but his attitude has been an absolute disgrace now for years. Goodbye, good riddance

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll be happy to see the back of Glen Johnson. If we can get a nominal fee for him in January then great but anyone who wants him will probably just wait til the summer and get him for free.
    Would love to see Dani Alves come in for a couple of years but he's having a laugh if he thinks he'll get that kind of money. Offer him what johnson was on and not a penny more

    ReplyDelete
  3. We dont need ALVES - JOHNSON AND BORINI

    ReplyDelete
  4. If we get money for him, great. The reality is, however, that Napoli will offer us next to nothing. Alves might do OK but I think he'd be a risk. We have enough problems defensively without brining in another attack-minded winger who has very little experience of what is required in the premier league. I think there are better options and we should stump up the cash to brining in someone decent with a bit of a future rather than another bloke on the way out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dani Alves, Victor Valdes, who are we? Sam Allardyce's Bolton?

    ReplyDelete
  6. We won't get any money for him. Italians seem to be trying to get cheap options recently. I think everyone will wait for his contract to expire.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Being linked to Valdes and Dani Alves reminds me of the early days of PL football.When other European leagues like Seria A were more dominant.
    Big clubs in this country had to go after players who were past their best or had injury issues.Gianluca Vialli, Gullit, Marcel Desailly and Ravenelli...
    The landscape of football has changed.Massive TV deals allow English clubs to target the best players in the world, in their prime.That's exactly what our rivals do.
    Liverpool usually go after a standard of player below our rivals hoping to develop them into top players.Now we're getting linked to Dani Alves types.He's got thousands of miles on the clock and only has a few years left until he hangs up his boots.
    Like you i think it seems a bit like going down the Fernando Hierro, Djorkaeff route.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Very happy for Johnson to be moved on to be honest. When he was at Portsmouth he really impressed and I thought he was a really good buy apart from the transfer fee. But he has stalled and defensively has become suspect.

    Plus he wages are a big concern to me. So I think it's best we move him on, we have Wisdom who is performing well for the Baggies so we have the right side covered.

    I've been impressed with Manquillo, still very young and raw but I think he will be a fantastic player for us, and Moreno too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. FtodM i really McLaughlin.If he works hard at developing his game defensively, he could easily break into the first team.
    Andre Wisdom and Flanagan are solid fullbacks but they only attack with overlaps.Ryan McLaughlin's got the ability to start attacks with the ball at his feet.He dribbles past the opposition like a winger, similar to Moreno.
    However, until we look more sold defensively, a steady option at RB is what we need.Javi Manquillo is doing a good job.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Terry McDermotts perm10:33 pm, October 15, 2014

    But if we sell him who's going to jog back for us?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Johnson was good for us in the past but the last 2-2 1/2 years he has greatly declined offensively and defensively often looking uninterested. I think we are ok with Manquillo and Flanagan and spend bigger bucks for a class DM to relieve Stevie from that duty and let him platoon further up the pitch......

    ReplyDelete
  12. B Rodgers needs to ship out these 6 players in January:


    1: GK: B Jones(32) 2: CB: K Toure(33) 3: RB: G Johnson(29)


    4: DM: L Leiva(27) 5: AM: Suso(20) 6: FD: F Borini(23)


    These 6 players should bring in £24-£27M into club on player Sales


    And then he needs to bring in these 4 players:


    Priority 1:


    DM: Y M'Vila(24) Of Rubin Kazan( On Loan at Inter Milan) For £10-£14M to come and displace S Gerrard(34) as DM in side.


    Priority 2:


    GK: K Casilla(28) Of Espanyol for £6-£8M to come and compete with S
    Mignolet(26)



    Priority 3:


    M Reus(25) Of Borussia Dortmund for £24-£30M RWF / LWF and Pedro(27) Of Barcelona for £23-£26M


    Both players would cost the club cheaper than what Manchester United spent on A Di Maria(26), both of these players are at same class, level and quality as Di Maria(26).

    ReplyDelete