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.
