| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gary Johnson | ||
| Date of birth | 28 September 1955 | ||
| Place of birth | Hammersmith, London, England | ||
| Playing position | Winger | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1965–1969 | Walton & Hersham | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1969–1973 | Walton & Hersham | 57 | (20) |
| 1973–1975 | Tooting & Mitcham United | 19 | (9) |
| 1975–1978 | Newcastle Town | 11 | (2) |
| 1978–1979 | Crawley Town | 8 | (2) |
| 1979–1980 | Storfors AIK | 20 | (5) |
| Total | 115 | (38) | |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1992–1995 | Cambridge United | ||
| 1995–1997 | Kettering Town | ||
| 1999–2001 | Latvia | ||
| 2001–2005 | Yeovil Town | ||
| 2005–2010 | Bristol City | ||
| 2010–2011 | Peterborough United | ||
| 2011 | Northampton Town | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Gary Johnson (born 28 September 1955) is an English football manager and former player. He was most recently the manager of Npower League Two's Northampton Town.
Johnson was formerly with Cambridge United, Kettering Town, Watford (as director of their youth academy), the Latvian national team, Yeovil Town, Bristol City and Peterborough United.
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Johnson enjoyed an eleven year stint as a semi-professional football player, representing Walton & Hersham (whom he joined as a ten-year-old in 1965 and made his debut for at the age of just 14), Tooting & Mitcham United, Newcastle Town and Crawley Town in the English non-league divisions between 1969 and 1979. He spent a year on the books of Swedish fifth-division side Storfors AIK in 1980, scoring five goals in 20 league appearances before retiring at the age of 25 through injury. In total, Johnson scored 38 goals in 115 career league games.
After retiring, Johnson would spend the next six years training to earn his coaching badges and he took his first managerial job at Newmarket Town in 1986.
Johnson was manager at Newmarket Town when he was persuaded to join Cambridge United as reserve team manager in 1988. Appointed as assistant manager in 1990, Johnson helped John Beck organise the U's remarkable rise in the early 1990s, in which they came within two matches of becoming the second club to rise from the old Fourth Division to the top flight in successive seasons (after Northampton Town in 1966). Johnson was briefly caretaker manager in late 1992 and then took charge from 1993 until 1995. Under Johnson's stewardship, the U's were contenders for a play-off place in Division Two in 1993/94, before eventually finishing tenth. The following season saw the club battle, ultimately unsuccessfully, to avoid relegation and Johnson was sacked in March 1995.
After being sacked by Cambridge, Johnson took over as manager of Kettering Town, but was sacked in the 1996–97 season and moved to Watford, as director of their youth academy.
He was approached by the Latvian football authorities for help, and became coach of their national team for two years from 1999 to 2001.
Whilst coaching Latvia, he spotted the potential of Marian Pahars and recommended him to Southampton's manager Dave Jones, who invited Pahars for a trial before signing him in March 1999. He also recommended Igors Stepanovs to Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger.
He resigned after a 1–1 draw with San Marino, signalling an end to a reign which is widely recognised as the most unsuccessful in the country's history.[1]
Returning to England, Johnson was appointed manager of Yeovil. In his first year in charge the Glovers won the FA Trophy and finished third in the Football Conference; the following year they won the greater prize of the Conference championship and promotion to the Football League. Yeovil were immediately contenders in the League and were Division Three champions at the second attempt.
During a League Cup game against Plymouth Argyle, Johnson's son (Lee Johnson) accidentally scored a goal after attempting to play the ball back to Argyle's keeper (who had kicked the ball out because of an injury to a Yeovil player). In a show of good sportsmanship Gary Johnson told his players to allow Argyle to walk the ball into the net to level the score at 1–1, avoiding controversy. Yeovil went on to win the game 3–2, with Lee Johnson scoring a hat-trick.
Despite turning down an approach from Derby County in the summer of 2005, Johnson became Bristol City's target when their manager Brian Tinnion resigned that September. Yeovil agreed compensation terms and he became City's manager on 26 September 2005. Despite a long losing streak through October and November, City's fortunes turned around under Johnson and a good run of form in the second half of the season saw them in play-off contention, eventually finishing ninth. Johnson won the League One Manager of the Month award for April 2006. After an impressive 2006–07 season (including an 18 match unbeaten run), Johnson won the award again in March 2007 after successfully guiding his side to 16 points from seven games the previous month. This had set Bristol City in a good spot to contend for automatic promotion, which they sealed 5 May 2007 with a 3–1 home win over Rotherham on the last day of the season.
On 6 September 2007 Gary Johnson and assistant Keith Millen both signed 2 and a half year contract extensions keeping them at the club until 2010.
Johnson is a popular interviewee for the media because of his ability to come up with good quotes and avoid the usual clichés many managers respond with. He is known as a great man-manager and motivator but with a sense of humour. He famously promised during an interview to bare his backside in Burton's window if Bristol City defender Liam Fontaine ever scored. Fontaine duly netted (possibly with more help than usual from his mischievous team mates though this is hard to prove) but Johnson avoided being window dressing by offering the player shots at his derrière whilst wearing boxer shorts with a target painted on them.
In the 2007–08 season he kept Bristol City in the top six of the Championship for almost the entire season and in the top two for a long time. The team were the surprise package of the season. Bristol City eventually lost the playoff final to Hull City at Wembley and were not promoted to the Premiership. Johnson made his players stay on the pitch after the match and watch the Hull City players celebrate as a motivational experience for the next campaign.
In the summer before the 2008/09 season he broke the club record for a transfer fee in signing 21-year old Nicky Maynard from Crewe Alexandra F.C. for £2.25 million. This was after attempts for Emad Meteb and Michael Mifsud broke down.
Bristol city's famous chant of 'Johnson says bounce around the ground' was inspired by Gary Johnson who was quoted to saying in an interview before a league game that he wanted the fans bouncing around.
In September 2008 Johnson signed a new five-year contract with Bristol City, to keep him at the club until 2013.[2] Big defeats by Cardiff City (0–6) and Doncaster Rovers (2–5) in early 2010 led to much dissatisfaction amongst fans about the manager and on 18 March 2010 the club issued a statement that Johnson had "left his post as manager of Bristol City by mutual consent".[3][4]
He was appointed manager of Peterborough United on a two-year contract on 6 April 2010.[5] Despite the club being in the playoff positions, Johnson left Peterborough on January 10, 2011.[6] The reasons are that he did not get on with the board.[7] | However, Darragh McAnthony, the Posh chairman has stated that they also did not see eye-to-eye on potential transfers, with Johnson's targets not meeting the "young and hungry" policy that had been so successful for Peterborough during the first spell in charge of Darren Ferguson (who was re-appointed as manager the day after Johnson left).
On 4 March 2011 Gary Johnson was announced as the new manager of Northampton Town F.C. signing on a two and a half year deal [8] His first game in charge resulted in a 3-2 loss at home to Shrewsbury Town.[9] His first season in charge saw the club narrowly avoid relegation from the Football League beating Stevenage in the penultimate game of the season.[10] Following a loss to Luton Town in the first round of the FA Cup on 12 November 2011, Northampton Town and Johnson parted company by mutual consent on 14 November.[11]
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| Cambridge United | 22 October 1992 | 1 April 1995 | 135 | 41 | 37 | 57 | 30.37 | |
| Kettering Town | 1995 | 1997 | 46 | 22 | 19 | 5 | 47.83 | |
| Latvia | 5 September 1999 | 26 April 2001 | 14 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 28.57 | |
| Yeovil Town | 19 June 2001 | 23 September 2005 | 221 | 116 | 46 | 59 | 52.49 | |
| Bristol City | 26 September 2005 | 18 March 2010 | 239 | 96 | 69 | 74 | 40.17 | |
| Peterborough United | 6 April 2010 | 10 January 2011 | 33 | 15 | 4 | 14 | 45.45 | |
| Northampton Town | 4 March 2011 | 14 November 2011 | 34 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 20.59 | |
| Total | 664 | 278 | 168 | 218 | 41.87 | |||
2007-8 Play off finalists – Bristol City
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