£17 million for Glen Johnson?

The big news today is that Liverpool have had a £17 million offer for Glen Johnson accepted by Portsmouth. I can honestly say, I’ve never felt so excited about the potential signing of a right-back!

Johnson is a player who has really developed since swapping the bench at Stamford Bridge for Fratton Park and his Man of the Match performance for England against Andorra had me thinking “I wish he was at Anfield”. Yes, it was only Andorra but I didn’t see Ashley Young, Theo Walcott, Fat Frank Lampard, David Beckham or even Steven Gerrard continually slicing open their backline with incisive passing. Against the same opposition, Johnson shone when others did not.

The fact that the likes of Chelsea and Man City, for whom money is no object, also want to sign him shows how highly he is rated but the word is the player favours a move to Anfield. Good lad.

When the news broke in work, the Bluenose behind me immediately said “He’s not worth £17m.” Firstly, Liverpool wouldn’t be paying £17m as Portsmouth still owe money for Peter Crouch. Secondly, £17m is the player’s valuation; not his worth. The difference? Well let’s be honest, with people starving in parts of the world (such as the ‘Girls Aloud’ dressing room) how can anyone justify £80 million being spent so that Cristiano Ronaldo can play football for a different team? In real terms that transfer was not worth £1 million let alone £80 million but that was the valuation of the player mutually agreed between Real Madrid and Real Bastards.

The issue is not whether the player is worth £17 million but whether a valuation of £17 million is reasonable in today’s transfer market. £17 million represents less than ¼ of the price of Cristiano Ronaldo; less than a third of the fee Real paid for Kaka, and half the fee Man City paid for Robinho (currently the record fee paid by a British club). The record paid by an English team for a defender is the £29.1 million paid by Man Ure for Rio Ferdinand back in 2002. By that token, paying a fee 40% less than that 7 years later would seem fairly reasonable.

The reason the fee might appear to be on the large side is that Liverpool don’t have a history of paying big fees for players. While the Mancs and Chelsea have been regularly paying upwards of £20 million for players for years, Liverpool’s record transfer was £14 million until Torres was signed for a fee believed to be £21m two years ago. Since then Mascherano and Robbie Keane were signed for big money but at £17m, Johnson would become the fourth most expensive player in the club’s history. Inflation needs to be taken into consideration though. Back in 1994, Liverpool signed John Scales and Phil Babb for £3.5m and £3.6m respectively – fees that look modest by today’s prices but both fees broke the British transfer records for defenders at the time. That makes £17m today the equivalent of £1.25m back then on the basis it is 50% of the current transfer record for a defender. Suddenly the fee looks more reasonable.

By the same logic, the fees paid for the likes of Agger, Skrtel and Arbeloa in recent years look like absolute bargains but then players can generally be signed from abroad for cheaper. As soon as one of the Big Four wants a player from an English club, the price shoots up – especially if the player in question is actually English. Look at the fees Liverpool had to pay for Crouch, Pennant and Keane. In Crouch’s case, he may have subsequently given value for money but at the time he seemed massively overpriced. Meanwhile, Man Ure paid over the odds to sign the likes of Ferdinand, Rooney, Carrick and Berbatov from English clubs and Chelsea paid above the going rates for Damien Duff, Scott Parker, Ashley Cole, etc. The argument goes that for the extra premium you gain a player with a proven track record in the Premiership as well as compensating the selling club for strengthening a rival team.

One reason why that premium might be worth paying in Johnson’s case is that he is English. No, I’m not patriotic but the fact that Michel Platini seems determined to handicap English clubs in Europe by forcing them to field English players means snapping up the few English lads with an ounce of talent could prove a shrewd investment in years to come. Last season, Rafa had to leave big Sami out of his initial Champions League squad due to the ruling on foreign players and instead his place was given to Martin Kelly who played a whole 9 minutes against PSV Eindhoven after qualification from the group stage had been assured. If English players have to be included in the squad, it makes sense that those players have sufficient quality to play regularly in the competition.

Looking around the Premiership, there aren’t too many English players at clubs outside the Big Four who could hold down a place at Liverpool. Joleon Lescott might make the squad but would struggle to oust Carragher, Skrtel and Agger. Ashley Young would be a better sub than Nabil El Zahr but would have to seriously improve his delivery and levels of consistency to fight off competition from Dirk Kuyt, Albert Riera and Yossi Benayoun. Micah Richards has gone backwards this season at Man City. Stuart Downing is crap. Michael Owen is over the hill. Gareth Barry has now joined City but wouldn’t be an improvement on Alonso and Mascherano anyway. Crouch left because he couldn’t hold down a place at Anfield after Torres’ arrival. Bentley is overrated by anyone who thinks he is a useless poser.

As I understand it, with the funds coming from money owed for Crouch and the planned sale of Andrea Dossena, the reported £20 million spending pot Rafa has will still be there to invest on a quality attacking player (David Silva please). Fingers crossed.