Jonno (The Original One!)

[JonnyAsh]

I can't see what MJ has done wrong, except get injured. He was very much on a learning curve, before his injury, and now he has lost 2 years, so it's hard to tell if he will be the same player, or be able to start again from where he left off.

However, I think there was a lot of promise before, although there were times he wen't missing in games. Still, as I said he was still finding his way. He was the only box to box player we had, and although Ireland could and maybe should have stepped into his place, MJ was a stronger player in my opinion.

As I see it we should back the boy up, we've come this far, and the club have put resources into his recovery, so we should support him and trust to skill and more than a litle luck. I think it will be harder than ever, but I don't know of many bigger 'high's' this year than to see MJ getting back into the team, but only on merit

[brite blu sky]

what about Milner, Young and Adam Johnson though?
Those are the ones he should be compared to. Someone like Cattermole will never be anything but curiosity.

Point I'm trying to make is that he deserves another chance for his natural talent but as things stand, his career is bit in limbo and if he plans to breakthrough next two years are vital for him. Right now only thing he has got are unreasonable expectations on his shoulders.

this is a lot more sensible perspective nqdp.. cant speak for others but personally i only ever advocated that he should be given another chance. I think also that you pin point why there are unreasonable expectations from some quarters.. and that is that he did show a natural talent.. and it is precisely that, that the fans in general have picked up on.

Truth of the matter is he has kind of lost pretty much two years of development.. so in a way if he does make a comeback he is kind of going to be behind his peers in experience and practice. his game needed a lot more to it anyway, so expectations should be dampened. If he can get back fit and get training he still has a lot to 'catch up ' on to even get a chance of fulfilling that potential. That said he has a lot of experience over the lads coming out of the academy.. so if the theory is that they are going to get chances under Mancini, then Johnno surely has got a lot more chance.
Time will tell.

[Grob]

Looking forward to seeing what he can do when back to full fitness.

[sandman]

I love the fact that nobody cares that he was a fat pisshead who was only hampering his own recovery process whilst still taking money off the club during a vast period of his injury..

[Mase]

I love the fact that nobody cares that he was a fat pisshead who was only hampering his own recovery process whilst still taking money off the club during a vast period of his injury..

Come on mate. He was never 'fat'. Wasn't he on a steroid medication for his injury? So obviously he's going to put weight on. But he was never 'fat' as people have called him. On the video of them all getting tailored for the new kit last year he had his top off and his stomach was flat. Exactly the same as Ned's actually.

[ant london]

I love the fact that nobody cares that he was a fat pisshead who was only hampering his own recovery process whilst still taking money off the club during a vast period of his injury..

We had two choices

Be patient and get him fit and have an asset on our hands (either one to be sold or, preferably, one who will be useful to us on the pitch)

or

Cut him loose, let someone else have the asset for nothing (or relatively so) and have it come back and potentially bite us on the arse in the future and in a big way


Do I think most of us would have preferred to see a lean mean Johnno fighting for fitness and never hearing stories about his nighttime activity....yes

Does anyone know whether that ultimately inhibited him resolving a mysterious injury....no

In the grand scheme of things I don't really care to be honest, he's got talent, I'm happy for the club to get him back to a point where he has some value to the club. If we do so, I don't think we will ultimately make an "overall loss" on Michael Johnson

[sandman]

I love the fact that nobody cares that he was a fat pisshead who was only hampering his own recovery process whilst still taking money off the club during a vast period of his injury..

We had two choices

Be patient and get him fit and have an asset on our hands (either one to be sold or, preferably, one who will be useful to us on the pitch)

or

Cut him loose, let someone else have the asset for nothing (or relatively so) and have it come back and potentially bite us on the arse in the future and in a big way


Do I think most of us would have preferred to see a lean mean Johnno fighting for fitness and never hearing stories about his nighttime activity....yes

Does anyone know whether that ultimately inhibited him resolving a mysterious injury....no

In the grand scheme of things I don't really care to be honest, he's got talent, I'm happy for the club to get him back to a point where he has some value to the club. If we do so, I don't think we will ultimately make an "overall loss" on Michael Johnson

We'll see, I bet you he makes less than 20 appearances this season and scores less than 5.

[Rag_hater]

I can't see what MJ has done wrong, except get injured. He was very much on a learning curve, before his injury, and now he has lost 2 years, so it's hard to tell if he will be the same player, or be able to start again from where he left off.

However, I think there was a lot of promise before, although there were times he wen't missing in games. Still, as I said he was still finding his way. He was the only box to box player we had, and although Ireland could and maybe should have stepped into his place, MJ was a stronger player in my opinion.

As I see it we should back the boy up, we've come this far, and the club have put resources into his recovery, so we should support him and trust to skill and more than a litle luck. I think it will be harder than ever, but I don't know of many bigger 'high's' this year than to see MJ getting back into the team, but only on merit

Perfectly put.
I really hope MJ stays fit this year and is given a chance because from what I have seen of him there is no doubting his talent.

[sandman]

I guess I am the only one on here without the blue tinted specs, I thought he was good, very good, but not a million miles ahead of SWP or Joey Barton. When injured instead of focusing on getting back fit he went out drinking and stopped taking care of himself.

Its like when you're young and courting, you dont mind getting back with an past conquest because you remember she had lovely jubblies and she used to use just the right amount of nibble when munching on your custard chucker, but nobody seems to remember how many games Johnson was nowhere to be seen in or how he would go AWOL for long periods of games?

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

I guess I am the only one on here without the blue tinted specs, I thought he was good, very good, but not a million miles ahead of SWP or Joey Barton. When injured instead of focusing on getting back fit he went out drinking and stopped taking care of himself.

Its like when you're young and courting, you dont mind getting back with an past conquest because you remember she had lovely jubblies and she used to use just the right amount of nibble when munching on your custard chucker, but nobody seems to remember how many games Johnson was nowhere to be seen in or how he would go AWOL for long periods of games?

No, I fully agree with you. In fact, SWP was much bigger prospect when he was coming through and duly ended up having a really good career.

[xavi6]

I love the fact that nobody cares that he was a fat pisshead who was only hampering his own recovery process whilst still taking money off the club during a vast period of his injury..

We had two choices

Be patient and get him fit and have an asset on our hands (either one to be sold or, preferably, one who will be useful to us on the pitch)

or

Cut him loose, let someone else have the asset for nothing (or relatively so) and have it come back and potentially bite us on the arse in the future and in a big way


Do I think most of us would have preferred to see a lean mean Johnno fighting for fitness and never hearing stories about his nighttime activity....yes

Does anyone know whether that ultimately inhibited him resolving a mysterious injury....no

In the grand scheme of things I don't really care to be honest, he's got talent, I'm happy for the club to get him back to a point where he has some value to the club. If we do so, I don't think we will ultimately make an "overall loss" on Michael Johnson

We'll see, I bet you he makes less than 20 appearances this season and scores less than 5.

Considering he won't be fully fit until around Christmas that's a pretty shitty bet.

[sandman]

I love the fact that nobody cares that he was a fat pisshead who was only hampering his own recovery process whilst still taking money off the club during a vast period of his injury..

We had two choices

Be patient and get him fit and have an asset on our hands (either one to be sold or, preferably, one who will be useful to us on the pitch)

or

Cut him loose, let someone else have the asset for nothing (or relatively so) and have it come back and potentially bite us on the arse in the future and in a big way


Do I think most of us would have preferred to see a lean mean Johnno fighting for fitness and never hearing stories about his nighttime activity....yes

Does anyone know whether that ultimately inhibited him resolving a mysterious injury....no

In the grand scheme of things I don't really care to be honest, he's got talent, I'm happy for the club to get him back to a point where he has some value to the club. If we do so, I don't think we will ultimately make an "overall loss" on Michael Johnson

We'll see, I bet you he makes less than 20 appearances this season and scores less than 5.

Considering he won't be fully fit until around Christmas that's a pretty shitty bet.

Fair point, but since he has only had 45 appearances for City in his whole career, 37 in the league, 4 in the Carling Cup and 4 in Europe he's not even done enough games over the 6 years he's been at the club to fill one season.

And if thats not bad enough he's only scored 3 goals in 6 years.

I appreciate he's had problems, but I cant see him ever repaying in performances what the club have already given him financially, and despite a smattering of very good performances with a pittance of genius he still isnt proven at the level city are now at.