At pretty much any other Premier League club, Manchester City’s Adam Johnson would likely be thriving. His speed of thought, confidence on the ball, his tricky feet and direct dribbling make him extremely hard to play against and he certainly doesn’t look out of place in a City side that is absolutely oozing with quality. Despite this, I’d argue that he doesn’t get a fair look in at Eastlands.
The problem, it strikes me, is that there remains some inconsistency in his game. Manchester City are a club who have little time for inconsistent performers and are able to swap in players who can do the job on a regular basis. As a result, Johnson can never accrue the playing time that could take his career to the next level and help him discover more consistency.
He’s got enough talent that he should be holding down a regular starting position and yet he’s featured in only 21 Premier League games this season (10 less than he did last season with just 7 games left to go). Given Manchester City’s bustling squad, there’s every chance that if the right offer for Adam Johnson came in, they’d be willing to sell.
Wingers are a highly sought after commodity in modern football, with the likes of Eden Hazard and Junior Hoillet likely to provoke a healthy amount of competitive bidding this summer. There’s little doubt that Johnson picks up a healthy wage with Manchester City, but should he decide he fancies more game time he may fancy a move to another club.
Manchester United have plenty of options out on the wings and I doubt that Wenger would want to threaten Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s development with a new signing. Tottenham have Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon and will be more concerned with acquiring a striker this summer.
It’s Liverpool who could most use a decent winger and I’d argue that Adam Johnson would make for a perfect fit. Stewart Downing has flopped since his arrival at Anfield and Jordan Henderson isn’t a right winger. It’s time to bring in some fresh blood in an attempt to breathe life into this faltering Liverpool side. He’d also fit into Kenny Dalglish’s ‘young, British and talented’ transfer philosophy.
Whilst Johnson has a better chance of winning silverware by staying with Manchester City (though Liverpool’s recent cup runs are nothing to turn one’s nose up at) I’d argue he has a better chance of holding down a regular place in the England squad through a move to Liverpool. The chance to play Premier League football week in and week out may be too good an opportunity to pass up.
FSG have shown a proclivity to splash the cash in the past and they may well decide that Johnson’s the right player to engineer a change in the Red’s fortunes.
What’s your take? Would you take Adam Johnson at Anfield or would he be too much of a risk?
Follow @ThePerfectPass on Twitter for details on all the latest updates and various football-related musings.
Introducing the neat little app that’ll pay you to view content tailored to your interests:
ThisisFutbol.com are seeking new writers to join the team! If you’re passionate about football, drop us a line at “thisisfutbol.com@snack-media.com” to learn more.
FSG only splashed the cash as you put it but only because they recouped most of it with sales, but they’re unlikely to do so again unless we offload a lot of players.
no goal – no responsibility Downing and Henderson- why does Kenny not make them take responsibility – why why why etc
“Young, British and talented” transfer philosophy of Dalglish? You are one word away from the truth in that Mate, simply remove ‘talented’ and you’ve got it in one! All this talk of Adam Johnson was at a premium last season and he didn’t want to come then so what makes you think he would now? You are simply inventing copy.
Adam Johnson is not the answer for LFC,he is’n’t good enough – greedy,runs round like a headless chook,in circles,same as Diouf was,gets nowhere.
Charles nzgobia we shd of got of Wigan not clown downing he knows how to take a player on and get crosses past 1st man fact wot we need in summer is a new team
PLEASE…we have enough adam and johnson that we can’t w8 to get rid off.
We need to overhaul our squad carefully…. We have some great players and potentially great players who are not getting an opportunity…. i.e. Aqualani (in the summer he was brilliant – player offesive football, guile and good eye for a pass), Pacheco – quick and nimble, Sterling – pace to burn and a good engine, Coates – deserves his chance over Carragher, Connor Coady – steely eyed defensive midfielder, Suso – magician with the ball…. Yet we continue to play the dead beats of Henderson, Carrol, Downing and Adam…. with Carragher no dead beat but past his best a long time ago…. We need players with passion, pride and committment as the four mentioned are bringing everyone else down. If we have no money its time we bought back Aqualani, signed Hollett from Blackburn and buy one decent striker who can finish…. we could get back up the table. Selling Joe Cole, Henderson, Carrol and Adam will bring in much needed revenue and enable us to buy some decent players…. Marin, Swienstigger, M’Villa etc
Get rid of Pepe – replace with
Begovic from Stoke. Buy a
defensive midfielder, winger & striker
.Then KD should use the yougersters.
Young and talented are the likes of Eden Hazard, Marko Marin, Josip Ilicic, Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen, Javi Martinez, Iker Muniain, Jovetic, Miralem Pjanic, Kevin Strootman, Gaston Ramirez, Lucas Moura, Yann M’Villa,etc etc…
TALENTED is Diego Ribhas, Hernanes, Mesut Ozil, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Olivier Giroud, Falcao, Edison Cavani … The list goes on and on ..
YouTube any of the above players and watch REAL talent, skill, determination, potential.. U name it, they got it. And then YouTube videos of Skills and Goals by Charlie Adam, Stewart Downing or Jordan Henderson – u will laugh your head off, there’s nothing there to impress.. I mean media and people mentioned Charlie Adam in the same breath as Xabi Alonso which is an INSULT Adam is not worthy to lace Xabi’s boots- even in his wildest dreams Adam could aspire to playing for the likes of Real, Barca, Milan, Juve, Bayern etc etc.
Truth is the players we bought, Carroll, Downing, Henderson and Adam were already playing at the highest level they could expect to achieve before moving to LFC, there is no potential there! Best of British talent are the likes of Bale, Wilshere, Sturridge and Phil Jones. ( Tottenham are a selling club, maybe £35m would have been too much for Harry and the board to refuse this time last year? Arsenal have sold most of their top talent in recent years for around the £20m so maybe the Downing money would have been better utilised chasing Wilshere, Sturridge would probably be cheaper than Henderson and we should have given the Mancs a proper scrap for Phil Jones ).
And why did we buy Coates?
Sad thing is forget Chelsea, the Manc teams And Arsenal but Tottenham and Newcastle have better players/team than us.. Modric, Van de Vaart, Bale, Lennon, Defoe, Parker, Krancjar etc … Newcastle have Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Tiote, David Santon, Demba Ba, Cisse etc…
Sad thing is I see us falling even farther down the league with Sunderland and Everton finishing above us, some of the recently promoted teams play BETTER THAN US!!!!
Adam not interested in Liverpool last they called in him and probably will not move with form now. What livepool needs is a mixed squad to give best result, hard to read by opponents and garnish will lovely football. These English national team is not Woking at all. Why should be livepool be the club to groan player. English boys are to getting the desired result so go out to look for that flavour.
H
We need to look further than the premier league for players, commolli should have found players across europe who won’t cost loads and aother prem teams won’t know to much about them, newcastle have proved its possible! STOP Paying over the odds, have a target, and a price, if the club won’t sell, move on to some1 else! Simple, £35 m for carroll £20 m for downing £17 for henderson, we were took for mugs! Some 1 needs to be accountable for this! Fsg needs to get answers, so it doesn’t happen again! Y..N..W..A ! Keep beleiving!