Following a report in one of the Sunday papers, quite a few of you have been asking for confirmation of the rumour that Glen Johnson, the Portsmouth full back, has been at Melwood for a medical.
I can confirm that Johnson was not at the Liverpool training complex at all.
In fact, I don’t think that a serious bid is going to be made for Glen Johnson by Liverpool at this moment in time: the right back position is not a major priority for Benitez and with the Liverpool boss needing to sell before he can buy, why spend between £9 -12 million on that position when other areas are in more pressing need of reinforcement.
In his time in charge at Liverpool, Rafa Benitez has always managed to balance the books incredibly well and his total net spend is somewhere in the region of £9 million. Following the purchase of Albert Riera in the summer, Benitez now finds his transfer kitty is in the red, and he will be looking to offload players in order to free up funds for any potential serious investment in personnel.
Managing his funds and the control of all sporting decisions at the club remains one of the key negotiating points in the ongoing discussions over the manager's new contract at Liverpool - and Benitez would ideally like to be able to exercise a similar level of control as that enjoyed by Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger at their respective clubs.
Rafa’s contract talks are being conducted directly with representatives of Liverpool’s American owners and they have reached agreement on the majority of key points. However, there are more discussions needed before anything will be signed and defining Rafa’s role within the club structure and his level of control at Anfield is high on the agenda.
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