Michael Johnson.....

[Tricky Dickys Right Foot Shot]

i saw him jogging in urmston in full city training gear about 7 oclock tonight. good luck the lad i say. hope he can get a career at a lower level.

Did the kebab shop shut at 7:30 or something?

 

[spam1967]

i saw him jogging in urmston in full city training gear about 7 oclock tonight. good luck the lad i say. hope he can get a career at a lower level.

thats nice to hear.

best of luck M.J.

 

[Anonymous]

If ever a player has reached the crossroads , it's Michael Johnson .....

he either sinks or swims from here on.

 

[mscenterh750]

Grimupnorth, I hope your mate is better and well in oz. Professional sport can be the best job in the world for some, but for many like Michael it can be a life breaker, when struck by injury with nowhere to turn to. I really hope he sorts himself and his problems out.

 

[waspish]

He's still young enough to get a trade and move abroad and have a fresh start

 

[decmancity]

The last time Michael Johnson played for Manchester City, he was only on the field for 13 minutes as a substitute in a Carling Cup tie against Scunthorpe.
In little under quarter of an hour, though, he managed to score from 25 yards and, moments earlier, produce a body swerve so magnificent it was tempting to revive the old football joke about half of the opposition having to pay to get back in to the ground.
It was a classic Johnson cameo. Two moments of real quality to give hope to those who still prayed – back then in October 2009 – that one of City's most naturally gifted young players could breathe life back in to a career that was already in its death throes.

That City took another three years to finally give up on Johnson – it emerged on Tuesday that he was released in December – indicates just how much they thought of him.
Ask anyone who dealt with him during the six years he spent as a City player – from Stuart Pearce to Sven Goran Eriksson to Mark Hughes and Roberto Mancini – they will all tell you that 'Jonno' was a 'really nice lad'.
Certainly he came across that way when I interviewed him shortly after scoring his first City goal, a great effort with the outside of his foot against Derby County in August 2007.

Back then he was a slim, baby-faced teenager still living with his parents in Manchester and a complete stranger to the casinos and bars and clubs that were subsequently to play such a large part in his downfall.
So what did go wrong with Michael Johnson? What did derail a career that seemed ready to offer so much?
Certainly, injuries didn't help. Johnson already had a groin problem when I first met him at a City community event at a school for the deaf five-and-half years ago and went on to have surgery on a hernia and then suffer a knee ligament injury during the Hughes years. By then, however, more serious issues had emerged.

During his periods of inactivity, Johnson was unable to control his weight and one photograph of the City squad taken on a tour of South Africa in the summer of 2009 and blown up to cover a wall of the media room at the Etihad Stadium was notable only for the sheer size of the young midfielder.
Spotted regularly in Manchester's drinking dens, Johnson's reputation as a guy who couldn't resist a night out was hard to control but, in reality, the truth was a little more sobering.
According to many who knew and worked with him, Johnson merely couldn't cope with the pressures of life as a top flight footballer. This, it seems, was the real root cause of his problems.

There were times, for example, that Johnson would break down with abdominal pain only for scans and tests to show no injury. Interestingly, these mini-setbacks – and there were many of them – always seemed to come just as Johnson seemed on the verge of a first team comeback.
One former City coach told Sportsmail today: 'We loved Michael and rated him and wanted him in our team. But he was never quite ready and always seemed to have a problem of some kind.
'It's a hard thing to say but often he would report to us as injured but our medical staff could find nothing actually wrong with him.



'No one ever doubted that he was in pain. We never thought he was making it up. 'But equally there were times when we just couldn't really find anything physically wrong with him.'
In his latter period at City, the club did indeed arrange for Johnson to see a sports psychologist on several occasions in a bid to help him focus his mind clearly on the challenging job of professional football.
Johnson – convicted of a drink driving offence last year - was also given time away from the club to see if he could find his own path back to where his talent really should have taken him.

Ultimately, though, a football club can only do so much. Even a club with as much money as City can't keep throwing £25,000-a-week down the drain every week once the chances of a long-term return on that investment have diminished almost to zero.
The fact that City didn't publicise their decision to terminate Johnson's contract in December says much for the club's affection for him.
Former City manager Sven Goran Eriksson once tipped Johnson to play for England. Five years ago Arsenal and Liverpool wanted to buy him. Now – at the age of just 24 – Johnson is famous today as a young man with a full face photographed this week in a Manchester takeaway shop.
It is hard not to wonder with some alarm as to what the future may hold.

Maybe all the media attention that will come from this might shock him into sorting himself out at least for his own health?
He has flown under the radar quite incredibly really considering all the hype the press create about young english players.

 

[spam1967]

If ever a player has reached the crossroads , it's Michael Johnson .....

he either sinks or swims from here on.

and if he sinks he'll end up like gazza.

this is why he needs a bit of support, nobody would like to see that. especially if it can be avoided.

 

[Rascal]

i see him out and about quite regularly and sadly the stories of his drinking to excess are true. the amount i saw him drink on one particular sunday night, when on loan at leicester was actually quite staggering. such a waste of talent.

The likes of Tony Adams and Niall Quinn drank excessively throught there carrears and on days before games not the day after a game.

I dont get why people think that young lads who are footballers have to behave differently to every other young lad in the country.

 

[CTID1988]

i saw him jogging in urmston in full city training gear about 7 oclock tonight. good luck the lad i say. hope he can get a career at a lower level.

thats nice to hear.

best of luck M.J.

That clearly didnt happen

 

[decmancity]

If ever a player has reached the crossroads , it's Michael Johnson .....

he either sinks or swims from here on.

and if he sinks he'll end up like gazza.

this is why he needs a bit of support, nobody would like to see that. especially if it can be avoided.

If we have only released him I think you can say we have supported him a lot as a club both financially and I don't see why we wouldn't have physically and mentally through physios, dietitians and psychologists etc.