I remember when Glen Johnson broke into the West Ham team. He was a superb player – skilful, quick, with a good tackle and a good shot on him. He seemed destined to be our right back for years to come. And then we got relegated. After only 15 games he was off to Chelsea for £6 million. And that was it. We all wondered what might have been had he stayed, along with Defoe, Cole, Carrick and the rest. Since then he has played 54 times for England and 270 odd games for Chelsea, Portsmouth and now Liverpool. That’s actually not an awful lot in ten years, but he’s been blighted by quite a few injuries.
We now read he may well be returning to West Ham when his contract finishes at Liverpool at the end of the season. Apparently Sam Allardyce views him as a cut price alternative to Carl Jenkinson, who the press reckon will inevitably return to Arsenal.
Well, we could do a lot worse, but can anyone give me an example of it really working whenever a player returns to his old club to head into retirement? Aren’t we at a stage when we should be doing better than that?