Johnson completes his move to The Reds with four year deal

England defender Glen Johnson has today finally completed his move to Liverpool Football Club. The defender has signed a four-year deal reveals the official Liverpool FC site. The 24-year-old arrives from Portsmouth and becomes Rafa Benitez's first major acquisition of the summer ahead of the 2009-10 season. His squad number has yet to be decided.

Benitez speaking about the player to the official site, said Johnson “is a winner. I was impressed with the conversations I had with him.”

Rafa also explained the difficulty’s of operating in the current transfer market: “We knew the market was going to be difficult this summer and some of it has been crazy. Manchester City and Chelsea were there - they were making offers. We had to be quick and the club acted quickly. It was down to the player whether he chose us or City or Chelsea and he chose us. It was very clear from talking to him that he wanted to play for Liverpool.”

With the press speculating about Alvaro Arbeloa’s future at the club, Benitez hopes he will sign a new deal: “Arbeloa was a good player for us last year. The thing is, he has one year left on his contract. We have offered him an extension and we're talking. He is our player but if there is a good offer we have to consider it. We have two or three clubs asking about him. He would like to stay but he knows the competition will be hard.”

Rafa also spoke about the prospect of more new signings this summer: “We are working and trying to bring new players in but we are happy with the squad we have at the moment. We were thinking about improving and with Johnson we have improved. Like I have already said, we could buy one more player without selling anyone. We now have to wait.”