LJ in "The Times" today; 300th game as manager

[ashton_fan]

I picked up my paper (The Times) this morning and was amazed to see the Sport section has a double-page centre spread on LJ to celebrate his 300th game as a manager. He is described as "one of the brightest young managers".

It goes on to say if he carries on managing till he's 40 (he's 37 now) he'll go into the top ten post-war managers of English League clubs in terms of games managed before the age of 40, the list includes the likes of Brian Clough, Eddie Howe, Steve Coppell and Terry Neill. LJ talks a lot about Lloyd Kelly and says "in fairness to the fans I accept we're not as exciting as last year". He also goes on to praise our fans and says he doesn't get upset by the criticism when we lose as it's balanced by the praise when we do well. Well worth a read.

[ExiledAjax]

So that's why Winter was in BS3 this week.

[East End Old Boy]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lee-johnson-interview-managements-a-wrecker-i-dont-know-if-i-am-sane-but-i-love-it-its-a-drug-3n5xccrb6

[Cloggie]

A very good read.....

[Davefevs]

10 minutes ago, East End Old Boy said:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lee-johnson-interview-managements-a-wrecker-i-dont-know-if-i-am-sane-but-i-love-it-its-a-drug-3n5xccrb6

Worth registering, just for the two articles a week.

i admire his confidence in his own abilities, but it does make me take a sharp intake of breath at some of the things he says.  But I guess you have to have that to believe in what you’re doing.

[East End Old Boy]

LEE JOHNSON INTERVIEW

Lee Johnson interview: Management’s a wrecker; I don’t know if I am sane but I love it – it’s a drug

Henry Winter talks to one of the brightest young managers, Lee Johnson, about the fickleness of football

Henry Winter, Chief Football Writer

December 15 2018, 12:01am, The Times

Johnson takes charge of his 300th game, against leaders Norwich today

Lee Johnson walks proudly through Ashton Gate, stopping in the gleaming home dressing room, explaining all the “relentless” exhortations on the wall, talking excitedly about his ambitions with Bristol City and the quality of young English managers but also reflecting on the pressures on his profession. “My assistant manager keeps telling me I have to get into meditation, to relax,” Johnson says. “I’ll meditate when I’m dead. In the meantime I’ve got to get promoted.”

Formerly in charge of Oldham Athletic and Barnsley, the Bristol City head coach today oversees his 300th game, a tricky test against Norwich City, but an impressive landmark for a 37-year-old. “The challenge is not to burn out,” Johnson continues. “Probably 300 managers have been sacked since I’ve been a manager [in 2013]. It’s non-stop. I do worry about my health.

“The LMA [League Managers Association] are brilliant, I’ve had all my tests done, probably need to lose a stone, and my ‘state of awareness’ was dangerously high during the day, which means I never switched off.”

That’s when Dean Holden suggested meditation. Johnson shrugged and focused on lifting City up the Championship table. “I get up every morning, take a big sniff of air and say, ‘I’m turning up today and going to leave this place better than it was 24 hours ago.’ ”

He is driven. “It has been interesting watching Harry Redknapp in the jungle talking about how lonely it is as a manager, you’re not one of the lads any more. That’s difficult.” Johnson, bright and funny, seems sane. “I don’t know if I’m sane! You’ll have to ask my missus that. I’m lucky I have a good wife, Nic, she’s brilliant, she knows how to deal with me.

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“Management’s a wrecker. You can’t book a meal out. I remember talking to Brendan Rodgers and he said, ‘We [Liverpool] played Stoke, lost 6-1 [May 24, 2015],’ loads of family around his house and he’s gone up to his bedroom and got under the covers. The missus said, ‘Look, you’re going to have to come down, there are 20 people waiting for you, we’re having a party.’ He wouldn’t go down. It’s still only a game but you are so consumed with it.”

Football’s fickle. Johnson remembers the stresses of 2015. “When Oldham were going to sign Ched Evans, I had a number of death threats. I had Cheshire constabulary around my house, checking under my car for blooming car bombs.” He remembers the furore that followed City signing Matty Taylor from Bristol Rovers last year. “The police were well involved. They told me my address had gone online. I moved house.”

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He remembers drawing 0-0 at home with Burton Albion last year, and being “summoned to the boardroom, walking up there, thinking, ‘I definitely could go here.’ I was voted amongst the ‘eight best managers under 40’ [by FourFourTwo magazine in 2016] and then called ‘the worst manager in history’ [by fans] six weeks later.”

Fortunately, he enjoys a strong relationship with the chief executive, Mark Ashton, and Steve Lansdown, an owner determined to grow the club prudently. A new state-of-the-art training complex moves closer. Ashton Gate looks a Premier League ground in waiting, even if the 13th-placed side in the Championship still have some way to go. “I never get upset when fans get frustrated with me,” Johnson says. “They’re a brilliant bunch of fans, and when I do turn it, like a win at Birmingham, they’ll sing my name for 20 minutes.

“I think I’m doing a great job. I turned Joe Bryan into a left back, sold for £7 million [to Fulham]. Bobby Reid was probably going to get released, I turned him from a No 8 into a No 9, scored 21 goals [last season], sell him for £10 million [to Cardiff City]. When you lose good players it is difficult to adjust the team. In fairness to the fans, I accept we’re not as exciting as last year.”

We meet at Ashton Gate on Thursday afternoon, with the city of Bristol absorbing news of Rovers’ dismissal of a good young English manager, Darrell Clarke. Johnson nods at the brutality of his profession. “It is [brutal] but I also love it. It’s a drug. I was brought up on a council estate in Newmarket — it wasn’t silver spoon! — and I was out all the time from age six, playing with 15-year-olds, Mum calls you in as soon as it gets dark. Her voice bellowed three miles across the estate.”

His father Gary was then assistant to John Beck at Cambridge United. “I used to be ballboy near the tunnel and at half-time I’d race in, get in the skip in the changing room, curl up in a little ball and listen to the carnage. John Beck never knew. I never got caught. I’d wait until they’d gone and then get out. I was obsessed with football. I wore out the 1986 World Cup Hero video. I used to watch Gazza — The Real Me [1990] on repeat four times. My dream as a kid was to lift the World Cup as a captain of England, and that gradually faded away.”

Johnson played mainly for Yeovil Town and Bristol City, and did represent England C. “I’ve probably got more of a chance of doing it [England] as a manager. I wasn’t that good a player and there’s a lot less managers.”

He studied coaching while playing. “I went to Real Madrid to watch sessions in the academy, to Barcelona to watch their B team, to New York City [FC].” He seizes every chance to expand his understanding of the game, especially when Bristol City played Manchester City in the EFL Cup semi-final last January. “I had two hours with Pep Guardiola over the two games, which was great. It wasn’t just me picking his brains, it was 60-40 and he was actually genuinely interested in my ideas. We had a real fierce debate about high back lines and the speed of your back four. They played such a high line, so I created a quick free kick, lifted over the line and nearly got them.

“Man City have been investing in me personally for four or five years. I can’t thank them enough. When I was at Oldham, Man City actually employed somebody as a personality profiler, who used to come and see me every five or six weeks and talked through various scenarios. Man City have always helped me, they’re good people more than anything.

“It’s brilliant. I’ve managed against Guardiola, [Marcelo] Bielsa and José Mourinho this year. Guardiola makes great players even better. When you’ve got Bielsa [at Leeds] coming into the Championship it really does show what level we are at. This is now one of your big leagues.

“Of course, I’m an admirer of Mourinho. He’s a serial winner. The reason Mourinho is getting so stressed out and so difficult to deal with in the media is because he just wants someone to appreciate he’s done a fantastic job finishing second last season with the squad he’s got. As a manager, you can’t say it because you kill your club, your players, but you know it, which leads to frustration, which then makes him look like a grumpy git.”

Like Guardiola and Mourinho, the innovative Johnson uses virtual reality (VR) in training. “You put headsets on, get into the game [you’ve just played] and there are 1,000 different angles which you can look at it,” he says. “One of the camera shots is from 1,000ft in the air, I put VR on that and put VR on my dad. ‘I can only see blue!’ he said. ‘That’s the sky, dad, look down.’ ‘****ing hell!’ Bang. He just hit the floor! I thought I’d given him another heart attack!

“I use VR with Lloyd Kelly, our England Under-21 international at left back. If Lloyd has made a mistake, on match day +2 [two days after the game] we put the VR headsets on, go into the game, and I say, ‘Look Lloyd, for that goal you didn’t check your blind spot for the right winger. Can you recognise the guy about to play the ball is cocking his leg back? You’re dropping. ‘Where’s my man?’

“He’s a great student. He’ll be an England player. He’ll probably be a centre half as he moves forward. He’s the best athlete we’ve got, really composed, sometimes almost nonchalant in the way he plays, like Rio [Ferdinand].” He’s certainly confident. Johnson was trying to get some instructions to Kelly against Stoke. “He went, ‘All right gaffer,’ and gave me one of them [dismissive waves]. Right, bang, you’re coming off.” Johnson subbed him at half-time. “It’s all tough love, trying to get the best out of him.

“Lloyd has had a really tough upbringing, in foster care most of his life, but you couldn’t ask for a better lad. He played for England Under-20, and the manager [Paul Simpson] rang and said, ‘What a fantastic lad.’ When all the lads — some big hitters in there on big finances — left, Lloyd came back in and swept the changing room. He hasn’t done that for effect. He’s done it because that’s what he thinks is the right thing to do. That’s staying humble.”

Johnson enthuses about home-grown talent, playing and coaching. “I want to win the Premier League,” he says. Could he do that with Bristol City? “I think so, yes.” He knows he will have to win promotion if he is to manage in the top flight. “I don’t think a Premier League club would look at me,” he says. “I don’t think English coaches are respected.

“There are some brilliant English coaches, Dean Smith, Gary Rowett, Nathan Jones — British. Darren Way, my best mate at Yeovil, has got no resources, consistently has to sell players, and keeps them going. John Coleman, Chris Wilder — great record. I spoke to Dan Ashworth [the FA technical director] to get the quality English managers to the better clubs abroad. When they do, they mock us. But I’d have no fears going into a different environment. I could pick the language up.”

Johnson believes that he has a future England senior player in KellyALEX DAVIDSON/GETTY IMAGES

Gareth Southgate steering England to the semi-finals of the World Cup was a boon to all English coaches. “Absolutely,” Johnson says. “But is the great job Gareth Southgate has done going to get Lee Johnson the Espanyol job? No. Of course it’s not but definitely that level of respect is rising. I’m English. I want England to do well. I’m also a coach and the big picture is to get England to win the World Cup. This is why I push the likes of Lloyd Kelly a bit more. I was so impressed with Gareth Southgate over the World Cup. Everyone was suddenly proud again of England.

“His style of management for the players was genius. That’s modern. You have to be world class in the way you use your words to encourage and not critique. With the modern player it can actually be quite difficult for them to take criticism. Every time I watched Gareth he was excellent, with his mannerisms, it was a lesson to all of us coaches with how he got the best out of all those players.

“We are now dealing with millionaires. My dad’s a fantastic motivator of players on £1,500 a week because he pushes them, cajoles, gets under their skin, but the question is: would it be the same if he was managing in the Premier League and managing millionaires?

“Dan Ashworth put together a pilot scheme of people they thought could be potential England managers, people like Darren Moore and me, and it was all around developing leadership. I went to the SAS and the NHS, sat in an A&E ward to learn about decision-making under pressure, because that is life or death.” Johnson’s hunger for knowledge matches his hunger for work. “I have a saying: ‘Relentless in the pursuit of excellence.’ ”

Bristol City v Norwich City
Today, 5.30pm
Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Main Event

[ScottishRed]

10 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Worth registering, just for the two articles a week.

i admire his confidence in his own abilities, but it does make me take a sharp intake of breath at some of the things he says.  But I guess you have to have that to believe in what you’re doing.

Could not agree more Dave, there is a certain air of smugness if the quotes are accurate, not to say arrogance.

The Man City reference is hard to believe.

[nebristolred]

Any great player knows they're a great player. Any great band is seen as arrogant because they know they're great.

I dare say it's a prerequisite of getting there - you have to have the arrogance in yourself because if you don't, you'll talk yourself out of it and not have 100% confidence in your own abilities which is a killer.

Some of those comments made me cringe a bit but I totally understand why he has that perspective.

[GlastonburyRed]

The comment about his Dad, aha, like that!

[Davefevs]

1 minute ago, ScottishRed said:

Could not agree more Dave, there is a certain air of smugness if the quotes are accurate, not to say arrogance.

The Man City reference is hard to believe.

I could pick holes in it, but I’m all mellow at the moment, and trying to be positive.

For me, coming off the back of good results and slightly improving performances, this is the biggest test of LJ and his team (the players).  He’s survived a spell of results by starting a better spell.  4 game runs (either wining or losing, or without defeat, without a win) can be commonplace in the Championship.

I’m hoping he’s worked out (stumbled?) the best way to get this team to perform (balance of results v style) and we see consistency in the next set of games, but also in selection policy too.  I want to hear conviction and commitment in his voice...I don’t want to get the impression it’s a bit made up, bit of a whim.

It will position us so much better for the January window if we are 10th-14th.  Recruitment / Trading can be focussed.  That to me would constitute a bit of progress.

[steviestevieneville]

42 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Worth registering, just for the two articles a week.

i admire his confidence in his own abilities, but it does make me take a sharp intake of breath at some of the things he says.  But I guess you have to have that to believe in what you’re doing.

After reading that he does come across as arrogant. He thinks he’s doing a great job.

Well lee. Self praise is no praise at all.  

[Distortia]

That's probably the best LJ article/interview I've read so far. Thanks for posting it.

I'm frustrated with the football as are many, but I still would love to see him succeed.

[Davefevs]

5 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

After reading that he does come across as arrogant. He thinks he’s doing a great job.

Well lee. Self praise is no praise at all.  

I wonder whether it’s insecurity (not in his job!).  In my work I’ve often thought those who go on about how good they are, often aren’t, and are trying to convince themselves as well as others that they are.  The ones who know they are good, just let their work speak for themselves.

The world of football probably doesn't translate properly.

@Robbored - you’re experienced in this type of thing....you read anything into it?

[Guest]

"Discover why skiing is an integral part of Norwegian family life

Superb snow and fantastic facilities make the country a great choice for family-friendly ski holidays"

You have no idea how much that threw me. 

[One Team]

It’s a great interview and article and very illuminating.

It also highlights LJ’s arrogance (lots of “I” not “we”) which isn’t appealing. Confidence is fine but it doesn’t come across that way reading it. 

You can tell from the assured comments that as many have predicted on many occasions he’s going nowhere any time soon.

 

[BS4 on Tour...]

Well, he thinks he can win the premier league with Bristol City - seems realistic....

[The Nest Egg]

4 minutes ago, Badger08 said:

"Discover why skiing is an integral part of Norwegian family life

Superb snow and fantastic facilities make the country a great choice for family-friendly ski holidays"

You have no idea how much that threw me. 

It's utter rubbish too. Went on a family holiday when I was 10 and we ended up skiing in the pissing rain every day! Everything is obscenely expensive too. No wonder they all top themselves out there

[spudski]

10 minutes ago, Badger08 said:

"Discover why skiing is an integral part of Norwegian family life

Superb snow and fantastic facilities make the country a great choice for family-friendly ski holidays"

You have no idea how much that threw me. 

Me too then realised it was an advert

[BobBobSuperBob]

53 minutes ago, ScottishRed said:

Could not agree more Dave, there is a certain air of smugness if the quotes are accurate, not to say arrogance.

The Man City reference is hard to believe.

What were my feelings Post Forum 

[East End Old Boy]

10 minutes ago, Badger08 said:

"Discover why skiing is an integral part of Norwegian family life

Superb snow and fantastic facilities make the country a great choice for family-friendly ski holidays"

You have no idea how much that threw me. 

Ha ha, I reformatted the text, which took all the images out and this looks like text from an advertisement!

[spudski]

4 minutes ago, Newquay-Red said:

It's utter rubbish too. Went on a family holiday when I was 10 and we ended up skiing in the pissing rain every day! Everything is obscenely expensive too. No wonder they all top themselves out there

And voted number one country to live in every year...think you're getting your Fins mixed up with Norway.

[steviestevieneville]

9 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I wonder whether it’s insecurity (not in his job!).  In my work I’ve often thought those who go on about how good they are, often aren’t, and are trying to convince themselves as well as others that they are.  The ones who know they are good, just let their work speak for themselves.

The world of football probably doesn't translate properly.

@Robbored - you’re experienced in this type of thing....you read anything into it?

Agree. The delusion is worrying tbh. He thinks he can win the prem  with us ! Along with the Europe in 5 years nonsense that’s right up there . Embarrassing comment . I wish he would shut up about things like that and be more honest in post match interviews rather than trying to bullshit us. I do want him to succeed and used to really enjoy his interviews but he makes me cringe now and find myself picking fault all the time , which I do not want to do . 

[Lrrr]

3 minutes ago, spudski said:

Me too then realised it was an advert

I thought it was to do with trying reduce stress he was talking about 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

Agree. The delusion is worrying tbh. He thinks he can win the prem  with us ! Along with the Europe in 5 years nonsense that’s right up there . Embarrassing comment . I wish he would shut up about things like that and be more honest in post match interviews rather than trying to bullshit us. I do want him to succeed and used to really enjoy his interviews but he makes me cringe now and find myself picking fault all the time , which I do not want to do . 

Oh, here we go! 

[steviestevieneville]

4 minutes ago, Badger08 said:

Oh, here we go! 

What ? 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, steviestevieneville said:

What ? 

You know what. 

[steviestevieneville]

Just now, Badger08 said:

You know what. 

If you’ve got something to say , say it

[And Its Smith]

1 minute ago, steviestevieneville said:

If you’ve got something to say , say it

You want him to say “ I think I can get us to play offs but probably not any further”?

Amusing how fans will use anything they can to talk Johnson down 

[steviestevieneville]

1 minute ago, RedDave said:

You want him to say “ I think I can get us to play offs but probably not any further”?

Amusing how fans will use anything they can to talk Johnson down 

Not at all . Is it realistic to say he thinks he can win the prem with us ? 

Why doesn’t he just say . We need to challenge to get out of this league first which would be a huge achievement for the club. We can worry about anything else after that. 

[Davefevs]

17 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

Agree. The delusion is worrying tbh. He thinks he can win the prem  with us ! Along with the Europe in 5 years nonsense that’s right up there . Embarrassing comment . I wish he would shut up about things like that and be more honest in post match interviews rather than trying to bullshit us. I do want him to succeed and used to really enjoy his interviews but he makes me cringe now and find myself picking fault all the time , which I do not want to do . 

That’s me too. As above I’m in a mellow phase, but even trying to remain balanced reading that is pretty tough. 

3 minutes ago, RedDave said:

You want him to say “ I think I can get us to play offs but probably not any further”?

Amusing how fans will use anything they can to talk Johnson down 

Not at all. He himself (LJ) is setting himself up. All we are asking is a bit of sense / humility, whilst probably realising the world of football is all bravado.