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Matt Hughes

The sight of a rather portly Michael Johnson almost rolling onto the pitch for the final minute of Manchester City’s 3-1 win over West Ham United on Monday night served as a reminder that the club’s new-found wealth also has its downside, even allowing for their outstanding start to the season. Johnson, after all, was the shining jewel in City’s youth academy, who as a teenager two years ago played a starring role in a shock win over Manchester United and appeared destined for great things.

Arsene Wenger paid Johnson the ultimate compliment the summer before last by giving serious consideration to signing him for Arsenal, but on his first Premier League appearance for 13 months against West Ham he resembled Richard Dunne’s older, less well conditioned brother. After being hailed as a bright young thing under Sven-Goran Eriksson the 21-year-old has started just three Premier League matches since Sheihk Mansour’s takeover last summer.

Johnson has been hindrered by a niggling abdominal injury that troubled him last season and has not helped himself with a reputedly poor attitude that appears to have caused his excess bulk. However, he deserves some sympathy as a victim of the club’s new ambitions.

With a Champions League place in their sights this season City have no time spare on developing their own players and have instead chosen to follow Chelsea’s route by signing established superstars such as Emmanuel Adebayor and Carlos Tevez. Johnson is not the only one to have suffered, with the likes of Joe Hart and Nedum Onuoha also squeezed out, even if they have yet to console themselves by consuming additional calories. It was the same at Chelsea a few years ago, and it can be no coincidence that the club have not produced a single player for the first time since the arrival of Roman Abramovich.

City should enjoy their new enhanced status while it lasts, but be wary of ignoring the future.

Crossie wrote:I also commented, saying he has a responsibility as a jorno to get his facts right b4 writing shit

The Man In Blue wrote:the sheik should buy all these turgid shitrags and bulldoze the lot of them. how they can get away with publishing such drivel is beyond me. fuck the lot of them, we know the truth. we know why johnno's been out - after all, its us who have been supporting the blues for years, not these cat litter tray liner journo's who didn't give a fuck about us till we got took over.

MaineRoadMemories wrote:It seems that today journalist talk as much crap in the blogs as possible in order to generate a response from fans. No doubt it will be one of the most read pages on the sports section so everyone will think its a good job all round at Times HQ.

I long for days of proper journalism where they'd go out and interview people and give us an insight into how football is run and use the privelage they have to educate others not in their position.

Now its all shock jock writing to provoke an instant reaction and its a real shame.

Ted Hughes wrote: It's as if a lot of them are actually writing their pieces on City to appeal to rag readers & others who bare a grudge rather than being truthful.