Andrew Johnson has always been a popular Polish name. He took his goals well last weekend, so who knows.
I wouldn't be against Andrew Johnson coming to Liverpool. We're in desperate need of at least two strikers to support Baros, so it will be interesting to see who else Benitez has in mind.
I would be really excited to see Rafa show even the slightest bit of interest in him to the public. It would be even better if we picked him up. He's a strong player on the ball running at defenders, and seems to always be looking for goal, or for an open teammate.
Erm ... what? Let's see what he does for at least a whole season in the top flight before chucking what, at the moment at least, would be a hideously inflated amount of money at Palace to secure his services. Andy Johnson ... whatever next? Andy Cole?
I am still hoping for a player like Morientes, who would be a better foil for Baros and Cisse in any case. Johnson is another smaller, speedy running forward. That would give us four on the books (including Cisse who is big, but does not really play to his size). Morientes is an excellent complementary attacker who scores. I know he will cost a fair bit of money, but we are unlikely to do better (champion contenders have to be willing to pay a considerable price to improve the club, blah blah blah). I would pay up to £10m for him in a heartbeat even if it limited our future (close season) signings somewhat. If we could get Morientes on a 4 year deal - we would be set at the striker position for years and we could turn to signing that enigmatic athletic center-half althemore quickly. I am comfortable with our current options on the wings. If we add Morientes and an athletic center-half - I think that we are ready for any challenge.
You know what Mr Clark it is not often I disagree with you in any threads, you are one of few Liverpool fans thats speak good sense, but sorry I disagree this time. I think Johnson has a bright future, but he needs to move to a bigger club, perhaps allowing him to stay at Palace to the end of the season will be a good idea, but then I feel we may be battling it out with several other teams for his services. Lets see if he can perform against Arsenal this weekend that would be a good test for him even though they are not playing in top gear at the minute Love the Andy Cole quote, have you had the change to read the Roy Evens book yet, and how we missed out on Teddy Sheringham. Not saying that Johnson is anyway near as good as Teddy.
I'm not saying Andy Johnson doesn't have a bright future - he's 22, he's done his time in the lower leagues and now he's producing at the highest level. That's all very lovely. My point is more centred around the fact that plenty of players have, over the years, shown great potential at smaller or even the big clubs - or had great runs in one season (or, to be more accurate for this particular case, one third of one season) but ultimately proven not to have what it takes to really kick on and become the sort of player that a club such as Liverpool should be seriously looking to invest in. Christ, the names one could name are too numerous for words - just off the top of the head from the past few years and out of my fingertips as fast as I can type them, there's Michael Ricketts, Marcus Stewart, Darren Huckerby, Johnathan Greening, Micheal Brown, Micheal Bridges, Chris Riggot, Malcolm Christie, Wes Brown, our own Neil Mellor, Stephen Wright, Titus Bramble, Chris Perry, Ben Thatcher ... loads and loads, I tell yer. Andy Johnson should play for Palace for the remainder of the seaon at the very, very least and prove that he can sustain his early season form through an English league winter. If he can, then he should look to move to a club higher up the pecking order (back into the Premier League following Palace's relegation, most likely) and look to establish himself as a regular performer at that level. Then - and only then - will he have proven himself worthy of such routinely debunked platitudes as "he needs a bigger club to shine". As to Roy Evans and Sheringham, I've gone one better than the book. I was speaking to him at a dinner we both attended recently (namedropnamedrop ) and he told me the whole sorry tale.