Reports are starting to surface that Liverpool have blinked first in negotiations over a new deal with fullback Glen Johnson with the 30-year old being offered a new 2-year deal at Anfield — albeit, it comes on significantly reduced terms.
The experienced defender, who will be free to talk to clubs outside of the Premier League in January ahead of his current deal expiring in the summer, has been offered exactly half of his weekly wages to stay on with the Reds. Considering he’s currently on a whopping £120,000 per week, which he’s done little to justify over the past two seasons, you’d think that’d be an absolute steal for a player that’s past his prime and is now on the outside looking in at the national team, but the talking heads in the media are suggestion that Johnson will reject the deal in favour of a move abroad.
A number of teams, most prominently Italian outfit AS Roma, are said to be interested in securing his signature and it’s believed that he’ll start exploring his options when the January transfer window opens rather than accept the offer on the table. At the tail end of last season and into the summer, Reds boss Brendan Rodgers talked about how Johnson will need to earn himself a new deal, and though he’s barely done that, the Reds are in a bit of a pinch when it comes to fullbacks.
Although they have youngster Javier Manquillo, who joined the Anfield outfit on a two-year loan deal from Atletico Madrid during the summer, an injury to Jon Flanagan has left them light, and lacking in experience, on the right side of their defence. At this time there’s been no official comment from either camp regarding the offer or the negotiations, but we’re sure someone is going to try to spin something soon enough.
And we’ll be here when they do…
