After seeing Downing set up Rooney yesterday for United, I am not suprised at all. This will be a good test of Johnson and Adie is he is called back. I would slap a 1.5-2 miillion bid in for him and test their resolve. Johnson will then have to decide if he wants to stay as a potential back-up player in a team going down or put in a transfer request to join a team who will be player in the Premier league next season. Johnson still has a lot of work to do as a player and would be better off playing regulary in the championship for a winning team and learning more than he would in a poor team in the Premier as an occasional player.
My main worry is he'll go back to Boro on a high and in-form, be under used and played mainly from the bench and then pop up on loan at somewhere like WBA, Charlton or a lower Prem club in January.
We'll have to wait and see. I just think that he might have alerted a few of the lower Premiership clubs to his ability. Given a choice between say a move to Derby or Sunderland on loan for regular football or here I'm pretty certain he'd choose the Prem.
The worry IMO is that AJ has carried us in a few games this season! We'll certainly miss him when he's gone...although I am a fan of McAnuff!
I don't think has carried us by any means, but we will certainly miss him. He is a cut above the rest of the squad at times and his knack for goals is going to be missed should Muff not fill it as efficiently. The competition from 3 quality wingers has been pretty immense.
I expect Johnson to be called back rather soon due to 'boro's poor form but no way will he join someone like Derby on loan as 'boro are going to be in deep trouble of being in the relgation battle. Southgate possibly has till January until he is replaced(most likely by Paul Jewell who can not work for 6 months apparently due to contract terminaton at Wigan). Once January comes, as I have said, we must bid for him. He is a Premier quality player, something that we all agreed that we lacked last season (in abundance!).
Got to test their resolve first though haven't we! I agree, with you especially as we probably potentially payed too much for Ellington and thus clubs will bump the price up a little bit.
Not too bad either. Yes he is a quality player, and probably better than Smith or McAnuff, but he is holding up Jobi, who can certainly get the job done as well.
Yeah definitely worth putting some sort of bid in just to see how they value him. I think Johnson has been great for us, right guy at the right time definitely and if he could be secured for the season or longer, that would be fantastic. However if he does go that gives Mcanuff and McNamee (both of whom have performed to a good level in this division in the past) the chance to stake a claim for the left sided berth so I don't think it's a case of us being left totally in the s#it if Johnson does go back to Boro.
Middlesbrough's next games are at home to Spurs, away to Bolton and at home to Villa. They really should be getting some decent points on the board from those and let's hope they do so that they feel less of a need to call him back. McAnuff is very good and should do the job, but Johnson is even better, particularly in terms of his goalscoring. Hopefully we can hold onto him until January at the very least, by which point we will hopefully be out of sight anyway!
My thoughts as well until I watched the 05/06 season highlights DVD and saw just how many of our goals he assisted or had a vital role in the build up to, was actually quite surprised as I didn't remember him doing that much that year. In this division I still think he can do a decent job if called upon.
imo will never be more than a sub for us to come on towards the end to try and brighten up a lifeless game. He NEVER defends and if comes up against a half-decent fullback often dissappears for long spells.
We should definitely put in a bid for Johnson. The worst that can happen is that we are laughed out of the Riverside. I think he would be a brilliant buy.
yep agree, im sure aidy will try and flash some cash for him come jan, would be a great addition to the squad..
