with the benefit of hindsight.......

[floyd the barber]

was getting rid of arbeloa and bringing johnson in for crazy money a mistake?

 

arbeloa was a decent player for us and criminaly underated, while he maybe doesnt have the attacking skill of johnson.....he was and still is a far better defender.(saying that, watch the season review from last...arbeloa was involved in many of our attacking plays and goals)

 

We look poor at the back this season and a large portion of the blame has to be placed on our various full backs....(insua deserves a whole other thread)

 

While i hope johnson goes on and becomes a great defender for us...lingering doubts remain, yes his season has been distrupted by injury.....still is it possible for one to learn defensive skills, for me...its more of a natural gift and one of..if not..the hardest position on the pitch...he really is a poor defender, i basically see him as the new riise......the honeymoon period is still out, but come next season...he might be one to get abuse IF he doesnt improve at the back....hes is great going forward, but shouldnt his number 1 concern be defending, with the money spent on someone who can actually attack with pace as a right winger?

 

For the money we let arbeloa go(and from all reports ive read...arbeloa didnt really want to leave).......wouldnt it have made sense to keep him and spend the money in areas far more needed....ie a winger, a quality striker to play off torres??

 

Dont get me wrong, this is not a thread bashing johnson...it just seems a bit of an error in judgement right now..spending so much money on a full back when really....we didnt need to

[Andy @ Allerton]

Crazy money?!

[floyd the barber]

Crazy money?!

 

18million for a full back.......yeah id say thats alot of money, especially when it we needed it elsewhere....its not like we are loaded and can spend the same amount on 4 other positions, right back was not a position i would`ve thought a priority..

[Andy @ Allerton]

18million for a full back.......yeah id say thats alot of money, especially when it we needed it elsewhere....its not like we are loaded and can spend the same amount on 4 other positions, right back was not a position i would`ve thought a priority..

 

 

£18M!? Eh..?!

[FirstDescent]

A good portion of those "18 mill" were money already owed to us by Portsmouth and Arbeloa made it clear very early that he really wanted the move to Madrid didnt he, he had like 1 year left on his contract and I believe he said he didnt want to extend it early on...

[growler]

well another way to look at it is we have a player that better fits the long term face of the team.

 

The general discussion is, we should reduce the player turnover nd invest in players of a higher calibre. With right back, we now have an attacking rightback, english and young. There are not many good attacking right backs around that are available to us, let alone english ones.

 

In terms of formation, I've always seen our formation to evolve based on something like this:

 

Reina

 

---Carra, Agger----

Glojo-Masch- Insua

---------Aqui

---Kuyt,Gerrard,Beni

-------torres

 

With the width coming from the full backs and masch and the back 2 providing the cover.

[ltsharpe]

well another way to look at it is we have a player that better fits the long term face of the team.

 

The general discussion is, we should reduce the player turnover nd invest in players of a higher calibre. With right back, we now have an attacking rightback, english and young. There are not many good attacking right backs around that are available to us, let alone english ones.

 

In terms of formation, I've always seen our formation to evolve based on something like this:

 

Reina

 

-- -Carra, Agger----

Glojo- Masch- Insua

-------- - Aqui

-- Maxi, Gerrard, Beni

----- --torres

 

With the width coming from the full backs and masch and the back 2 providing the cover.

 

Just fixed it for you.

[Zoob]

I thought that Arbeloa did want to leave. Real were his team. He didn't make it there as a youngster but had a chance to try again and took it. I'm sure Rafa was talking about trying to get Arbeloa to sign a new contract, but I don't think Arbeloa was going to. One could argue that it would have been better to keep Arbeloa and let him leave for free a year later, but when a player really wants to leave, keeping him often isn't good for anybody...

[windy city red]

Arbeloa was always going to leave. We were stuck with selling him for some money or no money. Many people were complaining that he wasnt contributing much to our attacking play last season because his crosses were crap and if only we had a more attacking full back....well, their wishes got granted.

 

Bar the last few games, Johnson has shown that he can defend well. Its weird that he seems slower than at the start of the season, but I think its down to confidence. He has been looking shakey esp after that own goal against Arsenal.

[Crazy Horse]

Haven't seen him playing for Real, but I've heard several people say he's doing well at LB.

[John am Rhein]

was getting rid of arbeloa and bringing johnson in for crazy money a mistake?

 

Yes (even without hindsight)

 

But it's been claimed Arbeloa wanted to leave, in which case we'd have had to replace him somehow. Johnson has a lot of limitations but then so do all the other possible right-backs we could have bought.

[muleskinner]

If Johnson wasn't injured this thread wouldn't exist. Arbeloa was a good player for us but wasn't infallible and had a good number of poor/average games for us. He is another who is getting better the longer he has been away from the club.

[Walrus]

I really liked Arbeloa, but I don't think we could've kept him, as he'd decided to go.

[kop205]

As several people have already pointed out, keeping Arbeloa wasn't really a serious option (unless we wanted an unhappy player who we would then lose for nothing), which kind of defeats the whole premise on which the thread is based.

[Eiler99]

I thought Johnson looked like a brilliant piece of business in his first few games. He looked twice the player Arbeloa will ever be. I'm sure he'll get back to form when the team starts playing better and will add a lot to our attacking play - like we saw earlier on when he won MOM week after week. If Arbeloa was here now he'd have suffered the same loss of form as the rest of the team and would be leaving on a free in a few months anyway. At least we know Johnson is class and will stay for a few years. Hopefully.

Edited January 8, 2010 by Eiler99

[Pam]

Johnson is a class player who looked a great buy at the start of the season and was adding a new dimension to our play.

 

Rafa buying a large number of cheaper players rather than fewer expensive (i.e. better) is one of the main criticisms many people throw against him. If the story that Portsmouth owed us money from the Crouch deal (that otherwise we may not have got) and this was used against the fee is true then they buy seems reasonable. Particularly to replace a player who wanted to leave. Surely we should be looking to buy top players in each position - if our owners weren't robbing our club blind we would not be questioning the deal as it would have been the starting point for a summer of investment in the team.

 

if we are stuck with wheeler dealing with frees, loans and offsetting outstanding payments whilst the likes of city spend hundreds of millions and Chelsea are linked with £40m+ players then how are we expected tp compete?

[Dan]

No.

 

Next.

[fred milne]

Johnson is a class player who looked a great buy at the start of the season and was adding a new dimension to our play.

 

Rafa buying a large number of cheaper players rather than fewer expensive (i.e. better) is one of the main criticisms many people throw against him. If the story that Portsmouth owed us money from the Crouch deal (that otherwise we may not have got) and this was used against the fee is true then they buy seems reasonable.

Agree with all that.

[Rimbeux]

Right kind of signing to make, he at least has the clear potential to be worth the investment, ie nailing the position for five years

[Hassony]

Agree with all that.

 

me too

[Swipe]

Johnson just needs to get back to full fitness. Like almost every player in our squad, he'll get back to his best when the confidence comes back.

[anny road]

he briefed TB on the day of the Stoke home game, after the argument with Purslow, saying if he knew that he wouldnt have any money, he would have let Arbeloa run his contract down and not signed Johnson, using the cash elsewhere

 

But in essence, Johnson improves us and we wouldnt have seen the cash from Pompey, let's face it

[Swipe]

he briefed TB on the day of the Stoke home game, after the argument with Purslow, saying if he knew that he wouldnt have any money, he would have let Arbeloa run his contract down and not signed Johnson, using the cash elsewhere

 

But in essence, Johnson improves us and we wouldnt have seen the cash from Pompey, let's face it

 

Interesting that.

 

I reckon we knew full well what was happening at Pompey and how f***ed they were when we launched the bit for GJ.

[Boca]

It boils to whether you believe that Rafa was shafted by the owners or not. Johnson was bought very early in the summer and most of us were thinking it was a great sign that finally we had serious money to spend. We all know how that turned out.

[surf]

Interesting that.

 

I reckon we knew full well what was happening at Pompey and how f***ed they were when we launched the bit for GJ.

 

if we knew they were that f***ed couldnt we have got johnson cheaper?