TOMKINS ON JOHNSON AND TRANSFERS

Paul Tomkins 29 June 2009
	While there are a number of journalists I like and respect, I find it's best for my peace of mind to not focus too much on transfer speculation in the newspapers.
I'm sure if you combined just a few different reports, you'd conclude that Liverpool are losing the entire first team to various other clubs, and buying 179 players in their place. While there are good journalists, there are those who appear to have been sampling the kind of mushrooms that aren't really advisable to consume. Obviously there will be truth in some stories; but I think I once saw a stat that only about 10 per cent of transfer gossip tallies with subsequent transfers. Other stories may be true but for one reason or another don't come to fruition, but you do suspect some journos have an 'invent and submit' button on their keyboards that automatically throws a few random names and prices together in time for the print deadline. For my sanity, I find it's best to just wait and see who arrives and who leaves. I don't want any player the manager wants to keep to be sold, and I want him to get his first choice targets, but it's rarely that simple. Stirring the pot is what the media has to do, to hit its own targets. Agents also benefit from creating unrest. Whatever happens will happen. If anyone genuinely wants to leave Liverpool, then I won't lose any sleep; the club needs those who want to stay and fight for that 19th league title. And I'm sure most do. Likewise, if anyone Liverpool are trying to sign wants to earn more money elsewhere rather than compete in the Champions League and contest the title, then however gifted they are, they are no loss. I want players like Fernando Torres, who eschew silly money to be part of a top-class team and play for fans who adore him. I understand the desires of those targets who want regular first-team football, which is rarely guaranteed at a top four club. This summer is vital for a number of internationals, with the World Cup on the horizon – where achievement is the ambition, not money. But Liverpool need those determined to prove themselves in the year beforehand, even if it means fighting for a place in the team. Then there's the issue of transfer fees, and what a player is 'worth'. As each individual is different, there is no set value. It's about how much the selling club need to hold out for, and how much the buying club are prepared to pay. If supposedly overpriced signings lead to success, then they are worth the money. Does Alex Ferguson care that people said Michael Carrick "wasn't an £18m player"? Of course, a transfer merry-go-round appears to have been started in motion by events in Spain. Real Madrid, humiliated by Liverpool last season and envious of Barcelona's historic and über-stylish success, have gone into overdrive, spending more than the entire cost of the current Liverpool squad on just two players, and their largesse won't stop there. The era of the galactico has returned to the Bernabeu, and the repercussions are being felt across Europe. Chelsea are threatening a return to big spending, having slipped to the third best team in the land; Manchester United have £80m for Ronaldo and AC Milan are flush with £60m for Kaka; and Manchester City are determined to be taken seriously, with more money than anyone else, but hampered by a fairly mediocre recent history and no Champions League football to offer. As a result, at a time of widespread economic belt-tightening, several clubs appear to be abandoning anything that holds up their metaphorical trousers. The knock-on effect seems to be general price rises, and an even more frenzied summer of speculation than usual. The hidden factor, as ever, is that of wages. Liverpool pay very good wages, but have only the fourth highest wage bill. Manchester United and Chelsea pay between £30m and £60m more on wages per season (based on the most recently published financial figures). If you want a £30m player, you also have to set aside £30m for the wages of his full contract. The way they are going, Man City, with their apparently bottomless pit of money, will also overtake Liverpool in this area, if they haven't already. The trump cards that the Reds have are: a sixth-successive season in the Champions League; a manager voted the best around by the readers of newspapers in several major European countries; a side capable of challenging for the Premier League title; and a cachet that, with all due respect to City and even Chelsea, puts the club up there with the likes of Barcelona, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Juventus, thanks to serious European success and a massive global fan-base. You can add Anfield and the Kop, too. Who, then? Predictably, I am often asked who I think Liverpool should sign. Like most fans I have my favourites: those who look like good players to me. But this is always the problem with any fan's wishes – it's almost the dreaded 'Director of Football' approach: enforcing your tastes on the manager, telling him (in your mind, or on a forum) what's best for his team. It is the man in charge of the side who knows best what he wants to add to the system, and so my wish is always that the Liverpool manager gets the players he wants, whether they are ones I happen to appreciate or not. Because let's face it, not all star names will fit the system, and sometimes the manager and his scouts will have spotted something in a more unsung player. Look at Dirk Kuyt: I can think of far more vaunted wide-men, and yet he was the sixth top scorer in the entire Premier League last season, and the league's sixth top assist-maker, with not one single winger ahead of him. Given that he doesn't take the corners and free-kicks that help players rack up assists, that's a great contribution, even before considering his work-rate and general team-ethic. He's not flash, but he delivers. The manager and his scouts will check a player's background, his attitude, his lifestyle. They will be the ones looking into the player's eyes in a negotiation, to find out what motivates him. Bill Shankly always preferred players with less skill if they had more character. A lot has changed in the game, but core attributes, like commitment and temperament, remain crucial. Not tricks on YouTube. We can all drool over superstars, but it can do more harm than good to bring in a top player who'll disrupt the great team spirit; earning big wages – or rather, failing to 'earn' them. Again, you can't quantify such things, but that's why good managers try to buy strong characters who won't upset the apple cart. Of course, a manager can also try and find the solution from within the squad. We might think a certain position needs addressing, but he might know who's ready to step up. Emiliano Insua developed brilliantly last season, and let's not forget Yossi Benayoun's transformation from squad player to one of the league's brightest lights from February onwards. In the coming season, Ryan Babel might yet be considered for more time in his favoured position behind the main striker – that's something only the staff will know. Then there's David Ngog and Krisztian Nemeth, both of whom could be ready sooner rather than later, and also Lauri Dalla Valle and Daniel Pacheco, who also have bright futures ahead of them. My point always comes back to the manager knowing best. Not only does he have a better footballing brain than any of us (and if he didn't, we'd be in the role instead), he also has an infinitely greater amount of information relating to his current team, his budding youth prodigies and his potential targets. By contrast, we're looking through a fog. It doesn't mean that every signing he makes will work out, or that every promising kid he rates will make the grade. But it does mean he is in a far better position to make what are always going to be judgment calls: who to buy, who to promote to the first team, and when. Also, Liverpool are getting to the stage now where there's less scope for improvement. Certainly the spine is hard to better; I wouldn't swap these players for anyone. It's hard to find top players prepared to play second fiddle, so maybe an impact sub is better to find than a bigger name. Above all else, anyone who can improve the Reds' First XI could be worth his weight in gold. You pay whatever it takes to make your team better, within your budget. Glen Johnson fits the bill of what I've been talking about: someone who can add pace, skill and crossing ability from right-back; doubling up as a winger, which a) allows Kuyt to drift into the box and b) takes advantage of the massive space the Dutchman's movement can open up. Johnson's also big enough, and quick enough, to do a job at both ends. His defending is certainly underrated, perhaps because he was in a high-profile team when still very inexperienced (and reputations stick), and because, as an overlapping full-back, he will naturally be caught out of position at times; after all, you can't be in two places at once. All the same, defenders tend to improve under Rafa Benítez, and at 24, Johnson has plenty of scope to get even better. I'm still a big fan of Alvaro Arbeloa (who has also done very well on the left, particularly when man-marking), but Johnson is the perfect overlapping full-back – and if there's one thing Liverpool have lacked in comparison with the other top four teams, it's the ability to get in behind the opposition with very quick marauding defenders who become wingers when in possession. Players like Evra, Boswinga (early last season), Sagna and Cole have been as crucial to the good results of those teams as some of their more illustrious names. Arbeloa, by contrast, is more of a defender who gets forward, rather than one who naturally excels in the final third. Again, there are no guarantees that players who improve the team in theory will do so in practice. They could get injured, or homesick, or wilt under the pressure of a massive club; you just hope that good judgement comes with good luck. In the case of Johnson, he's matured, having been too young when moving to Chelsea, and crucially, is improving rapidly. But his talent has been there for all to see since his West Ham days. He has plenty of big-game experience, and unlike some players, hasn't wilted when playing for England, all of which suggests he can handle the pressure. The fact that Chelsea wanted to buy him again for four times what they sold him for, and that other top clubs were interested, shows his worth. Whatever people think he was worth, others were prepared to meet the asking price. And adding a new dimension to the Reds' play could yet prove priceless.

非踹倒国阵不可！

作者／唐南发专栏 Jun 30, 2009 04:16:39 pm

【乱石崩云／唐南发专栏】在1900到1997将近一百年间，保守党执政英国的时间达到三分之二，被视为“当然的执政党”（the natural governing party）。到了1997年，保守党连续执政已长达18年，意味着25岁以下的年轻人不曾真正体验过工党执政的滋味。

执 政久了，保守党要员们都染上要不得的习性，丑闻弊案层出不穷。纵使英国在1997年5月的经济形势一片大好，失业率达到世纪新低，厌倦了保守党政客面孔的 选民依然义无反顾地把票投给了工党，使其以狂风扫落叶的姿态上台执政，以至具有两百年历史的保守党在本世纪尚未曾执政。

同样的政治变化也出现在德国。尽管成功促使东西德统一，复兴经济，也为德国在冷战后的欧洲大陆找到了新的角色定位，但基督民主联盟的党魁科尔依然在1998年9月的选举中败给了社会民主党，结束他长达16年的总理任期；原因无他：管你治国功绩如何，人民就是要换人做做看。

当 然，马来西亚“国情不同”，无法与这些成熟民主国家相比；但往深一层思考，除了怪胎式的种族／宗教政治结构以外，这个国家和世界上的任何一个民主体制比较 都没有任何特殊之处。即便我接受英国和德国社会富裕，族群成分单一，民主实践历史悠久，依然不能解释为何其他处在发展中的多元文化／民族／宗教的国家可以 享有稳健的民主进程，我们却不能？

印尼十年深化民主文化

远的甭说，就看看咱们身边的印尼吧！这个全球最大的回教国家在今年有两场重要选战，即四月的立法议会选举和下周三举行的总统选举。各党派人士――包括相对保守的回教势力――都在公开的平台上理性论争，争取选票，至今不曾听闻任何煽动性的种族性言论。

苏 哈多政权垮台以来，印尼在短短的十年间发展出本区域最稳定和成熟民主文化，从形式到内涵都不断深化。四月份的议会选举期间，我身边一些朋友的印尼女佣还收 到寄自雅加达的邮寄选票，提醒她们到印尼驻吉隆坡大使馆履行选民义务，我们那缺乏专业操守的选举委员会还真应该到印尼取经。

国 阵执政超过50年了，从思维到方式都极为僵化。纳吉上台前后，高谈阔论“不改革即灭亡”的次数之多让人生厌，却始终是雷声大雨点小。其巫统同僚，上至慕尤 丁下至莱益斯雅丁，都不断在教育，文化甚至甲型（H1N1）流感课题上为“全民的马来西亚”倒米，而巫统掌控的《马来西亚前锋报》也继续在煽动其读者的情 绪，丝毫不见任何反省。

阁员脑袋都生锈了

其 他内阁成员的脑袋也生锈了。旅游部长黄燕燕呼吁媒体不要炒作甲型（H1N1）流感的新闻，以免吓走观光客，却忘了我们的政府也促请国人没必要莫造访所谓的 流感疫区国家。疫情扩散的非常时刻，保护人命最重要，此时少了旅游收入事小，掩盖真相破坏国家的公信力事大。马来西亚究竟站在哪个道德制高点上“宽以待 己，严以律人”？这样的思维，不就是50年政权不变造成的吗？

这些“当然执政党”的通病已经算是小儿科 了；国阵治下，警队贪污、司法不彰，官僚的种族主义作风都已成了普通常识。巴生港口自由贸易区闹了那么大丑闻，至今不见林良实和陈广材出来交待片言只字， 其他内阁成员都一边冷眼旁观，看翁诗杰能横行到几时。政党和商界利益输送也发挥到了极致，所以你今天高价在一个绿意盎然的地区买了房子，已经无法担保明年 那里不会万丈高楼从地起。

我不敢断言国阵最终不会落实改革。如果目前选民意向不变，民联也一再有所斩获， 为了保住政权，国阵或许会破釜沉舟。不过，纵使这家老店成功转型，人民还是必须让它倒一次，尝尝在野的滋味，也逼使它的成员年轻化。国阵不倒，国家的政治 无法得到新生，也找不回民主的活力。就算到时的民联政府不济，至少换回去的国阵政府不会是看腻了的同一批人，想偷吃还得看看人民脸色。

撒切尔夫人和科尔都已风烛残年，苏哈多也于去年作古。但主导马来西亚政治的，依然是纳吉、慕尤丁、马哈迪这些挥之不去的老世代政客，加上许子根、蔡细历和三美威鲁这些丝毫没有新思维的宫廷小丑。你能不厌烦吗？