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Former Liverpool defender Glen Johnson believes that Philippe Coutinho has all the attributes to become one of the best place in the world.

The former Inter Milan midfielder was brought to Anfield for around £ 8 million and he has since become one of the important players at the club. Last season, he narrowly missed out on the PFA player of the year award to Eden Hazard. He has once again begin the campaign impressively and has contributed to the team’s 1-0 win over Bournemouth by scoring a spectacular goal. Even thoughhe was unable to repeat the same feat against Stoke City, better performances are expected fromCoutinho.

Johnson reckons that the Brazilian can go on to become the best player in the world in the next few years if he continues at the same rate of development. Johnson’s Liverpool career came to an end last summer after he decided to not extend his contract with the Merseyside outfit. This brought his five-year spell at Anfield to an end. He has retained his status as a Premier League defender by signing for Stoke City. He played in only 1300 minutes of league football last season, but he already has 330 minutes under his belt since joining Stoke.

“In the week building up to it I was telling them, he’s the one. For me, he will be one of the best in the world.He’s one of the nicest boys in the dressing room as well and he’s the sort of player you need when you’re in the last 10 minutes when your back is against the wall, he can produce pieces of magic like that. I’ve got a lot of friends there and spent many years there with most of those players so of course it is weird seeing them so close to you but on the day you’re fighting against them,” said Johnson.

Glen Johnson is one of the high-profile Premier League stars to become a free agent at the end of this campaign after Liverpool confirmed his departure in a statement.

The future of the former Portsmouth defender has been under a lot of speculation. Manager Brendan Rodgers has tried to call it on several occasions by stating that Johnson would stay at Anfield, but the much anticipated contract news never came. It is widely reported that Johnson was not happy with just one year being offered at Liverpool. The defender recently turned 31 and most Premier League clubs have a policy of not offering players about 30 with more than 12 months on their contracts.

This policy is likely to see the England international become one of the few players who have played their football in Turkey. Besiktas have emerged as the favourites to sign him on a free transfer. Rather than move to the North America or the Middle East where Johnson would have had a much bigger payday, the defender has reportedly chosen to join Besiktas where he is expected to get around € 2.3 million per season. This is significantly lower than his current contract and the one on offer from Liverpool. Johnson moved to Anfield in a £ 16 million deal from Portsmouth in 2009.

The former Chelsea defender failed to shine at Stamford Bridge, but he was widely praised for his attacking contributions at Liverpool. Towards the later years of his Liverpool career, Rodgers took advantage of his versatility and often played him at left back. Last season, Johnson was limited to only 28 appearances throughout the campaign and this was seen as a major sign that Liverpool had moved on from the defender. Roma were also looking to sign the player, but it looks like they have lost the race.

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers admits that the club are to discuss with defender Glen Johnson over a potential new contract.

This appears to be confirmation that the club are no longer interested in retaining the services of Johnson, who moved to the club in a £ 16 million deal from Portsmouth in 2009. Since then he has become one of the top defenders in English football. His attacking instincts have made him a force to reckon with, although he may be a little susceptible in defence. These attacking qualities have helped Rodgers utilise the defender in the 3-4-3 formation.

Johnson is coming to the end of his contract at Liverpool. He is already free to discuss terms with foreign clubs, but he will be available for negotiations with English clubs starting from June. Since there is little time to sort over the final details, it was not that Johnson would stay at Liverpool only if the contract talks started a few months ago. This has proved not be the case after Rodgers confirmed that the club are yet to open negotiations with the player. The £ 100,000 per week wage demands of the player appeared to have put the club away. Johnson, though, has been linked with a move to Barcelona to replace Dani Alves.

“I haven’t spoken recently to Glen (about his future). What I know is he’s committed in training, he’s never not wanted to train.He’s been outstanding in training, just waiting for his opportunity. We’ll just have to see what the summer brings,” said Rodgers. The club’s former defender Mark Lawrenson stated that Liverpool should not allow Johnson to leave on a free and that the club should take advantage of the experience within the England international considering that Steven Gerrard is also set to leave in the upcoming summer.

Liverpool failed to make home advantage count in the FA Cup quarter-final against Blackburn Rovers after they could only manage a 0-0 draw, which forces the tie into a replay at Ewood Park.

The Reds have been hoping to make the most out of the FA Cup this season, as it will be the final campaign for their talisman – Steven Gerrard. Since the FA Cup final falls on the 35th birthday for the Liverpool captain, it has become an extra special motivation for the club. However, it did not reflect on the performance against Blackburn, who had the better of chances at Anfield.

Defender Glen Johnson, who remains out of contract in the summer, remains defiant even after this poor performance. It was probably the first time Liverpool did not appear close to winning comfortably in 2015. The team has been on such a remarkable run of form that they are now the favourites ahead of Manchester United and Arsenal to finish in the Champions League places. A victory for Liverpool will see them play at the Wembley since the League Cup success under Kenny Dalglish a few years ago. As far as FA Cup goes, Liverpool have not reached the final of this competition since their last victory in 2006.

“We just didn’t play to our best today.That happens sometimes. Blackburn played well and made it tough.We can’t make excuses but the pitch didn’t help us. I know it’s the same for both sides but it slowed us down.Without doubt, it’s the worst it’s been during my time at Liverpool. You have to watch your touch more because it bobbles so much. And it’s harder for the likes of Philippe (Coutinho) and Raheem (Sterling) to dribble with the ball.It slows everything down because the bounce is so irregular. It’s different every time,” said Johnson.

Arsenal suffered yet another defeat from a winning position after losing 2-1 against Swansea in the latest league match. Manager Arsene Wenger finally conceded defeat in the title race after this defeat.

His team have fallen a whopping 12 points behind table leaders Chelsea at the start of November. Arsenal looked to have finally broken the resistance of Swansea after opening the match with a goal from Alexis Sanchez in the second half. However, this goal brought about a strong response from Swansea and Wenger’s team failed to hold on to the advantage.

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has criticised the tactics of the Frenchman by saying that he did not do enough in order to prevent defeat. He has pointed out to the fact that Swansea’s equalising goal came from a counter-attack, which would have never happened given that Arsenal were leading the match at that point.

Once the equalising goal went in, the heads seemed to drop according to Carragher. Several pundits have analysed over the years the lack of response within this Arsenal team, while they have also shown the same naivety that has cost them the lead for a decade. Even though Arsenal have made some big signings like Sanchez, Carragher reckons that the club will not be able to become successful without a change in attitude.

“It’s the same things with Arsenal, it’s nothing new.It’s the way they play, the way they understand the game, what’s coming from the sidelines and how they allow themselves to get in these situations week after week, season after season.

They were winning 1-0 but for the equalising goal they were all pushing forward and got caught on the counter-attack again.Then the winning goal is down to a weakness – not being physically strong enough when the cross comes in,” said Carragher.

Liverpool have been a shadow of the team that finished second in the table last year. They are struggling in the bottom half of the Premier League after a 2-1 defeat against Chelsea prior to the international break.

Defender Glen Johnson, whose future at the club continues to be speculated, says that all the players at Liverpool have been working extremely hard in order to turn down the situation. Johnson’s future at Liverpool appears to be bleak since he is out of contract at the end of the campaign. As one of the established players in the team, he is another contract worth around £ 120,000 per week.

Since he is at the wrong end of 30, Liverpool are not ready to offer him the same kind of wages for his new deal. It is reported that Johnson has been offered only around £ 60,000 a week – half of his current salary – in order to continue his career at Anfield. Sources close to the defender claimed that he is not ready to accept this deal. This is purely because of offers from foreign clubs with the likes of Roma showing tremendous interest. Johnson will be able to discuss terms with foreign clubs from January.

Speaking ahead of the trip to Crystal Palace, he said: “The fans here are great and always support the team. They need to know that the lads are fighting to put the results right. As always, we’ll all be pulling in the same direction. It’s not easy to overcome any defeat. The good thing about football is that usually you have an opportunity to put things right a few days later.The key now is to try to keep doing what we do every day – stay together, work hard and not try to do anything that we don’t usually do.”

Liverpool defender Glen Johnson has admitted that the team faces a tough challenge in order to replicate the success of last season. After several years of failing to even get into the top four, Liverpool almost won the title before failing towards the end. They finished second and returned back to the Champions League. However, the summer has seen the club undergone several changes in terms of its playing staff. One of the major departures has been Luis Suarez, who has joined Barcelona in a £ 75 million deal.

The huge cash injection has seen Liverpool sign close to 10 players during the summer. They have splashed out close to £ 100 million in the process. Johnson says that the signings will help manager Brendan Rodgers to rotate his team. This is a crucial ingredient in order to keep the players fresh over the course of a long campaign. The additional six matches due to the participation in the Champions League group stages may extend his Liverpool reach the knockout stages. Despite the tough challenges that lay ahead, Johnson says that he is confident of Liverpool achieving glory once again.

Johnson’s position is reportedly under threat since Liverpool are looking to sign a few defenders. Last season, he made only 30 appearances in all competitions due to injuries. “Any team that loses a player like Luis is going to feel it. But we will carry on the way we do, creating chances. I think we were the team who created the most chances last season, we’ve signed some good strikers and I’m sure once they get a chance they will take it. It gets overlooked that we played the first six games of last season without Luis and made a fantastic start, so we can clearly win without Luis,” said Johnson.

While Theo Walcott’s England teammates returned home hugely gutted after not having qualified for the knockouts in the FIFA World Cup 2014, the Arsenal winger was enjoying himself on a golf course many a mile away in Portugal.

Walcott has gone there along with his family for holidays for a brief period before he joins his club for pre season

The 23-year Old player would have definitely flown to Brazil with the Three Lions squad last month had it not been for that nasty injury that he discovered playing in the Premier League earlier this year.

That injury got him out of the game for 6 months which meant that he was not fit enough to travel to South America for the biggest FIFA tournament.

Walcott is believed to have worked very hard on his recovery and it seems that he is completely fine now. While playing golf with one of his buddies there in Portugal the other day, he didn’t have any sort of trouble in his movement.

Walcott had been having a cracker of a last season before that injury setback. By firing in 5 goals in 13 appearances, he had got his team to the top position in the league table at that point of time, but, after his exit, Arsenal couldn’t quite maintain the same rhythm and at the end, they had to fight hard to even finish 4th.

However, this season, there might be a change in Walcott’s position on the pitch. He has played as winger in most parts of his career at Arsenal so far, but, this time around, he would probably be asked to play as the main striker because of the arrival of Alexis Sanchez who is a renowned right winger and is playing some brilliant football presently.

England will be preparing to meet Italy in their opening group match at the World Cup 2014. This will be a rematch of the Euro 2012 quarter finals in which England suffered a defeat on penalties. It was one of the poorest matches in recent memory, as both teams failed to create much chances over the course of 120 minutes. This was largely because England concentrated on preventing Italy to only a few opportunities. Due to this defensive display, they were knocked out of the tournament according to many.

England will be looking to get revenge against the Italians when they take on the Cesare Prandelli managed team in the opening group match. Ahead of this encounter, Liverpool defender Glen Johnson says that this England team are much stronger than before and that they would be proving that it is the case with a good performance against the Italians. Italy come into the tournament on the back of a poor form in warm-up friendly matches, which is also the same with England. Johnson was in danger of missing out on the World Cup due to injury, but he recovered sufficiently during the last few weeks of the league campaign to be included in the squad.

This could be his final World Cup as the former Chelsea man will be 34 by the time next one in Russia kicks off. “We had a good team when we played Italy last time but now we have more players who can hurt them, attacking-wise, and we have a bit more pace in the squad as well, so hopefully we will get further on. I don’t think Italy will have met an England team like this before. The team we had before was a good side but maybe it was slightly defensive. If we can defend well now,” said Johnson.

Liverpool concluded the season with a 2-1 triumph against Newcastle United and a few days later, the team of Brendan Rodgers played a friendly match against Shamrock Rovers and even though there was nothing at stake Rodgers stated that it still was a nice way to finish the season.

“Our actual focus was on this game [against Shamrock] because we needed to focus on here. We had a job to do and we had a duty to our supporters to perform well and work hard. The reflection comes now that this is finished. But my overriding feeling is one of pride. This season we’ve had some incredible performances and we have recovered the soul of the club again for the supporters. They feel pride and enthusiasm in the club and they have a spring in their step because we are heading back in the direction of where Liverpool Football Club should be, and that’s the best.” Rodgers said.

This season saw Liverpool FC being unable on securing any kind of silverware but the fans and performers of the Premier League club have high expectations for the years to come as they made a genuine charge for the league title and a series of impressive performances for Liverpool has given hope for the supporters of the club.

Manchester United also failed on lifting any trophies in this recently concluded campaign but everything seems to be going downhill for the team at Old Trafford after making a number of costly signings such as Fellaini and Juan Mata. There is a lot of work that needs to be done in the club before they can return to their glory days but it’s a completely different story for Liverpool as Rodgers and his players after such an impressive campaign especially for Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard as they turned out to be some of the main influential figures inside of the pitch.