It always makes me think how lucky he was here, that Mr Cryne probably felt sorry for him. Or maybe he just didn't want to mess about with another managerial sacking and compensation case.
We paid compensation to get him from Oldham. Thankfully, Bristol City were daft enough to pay us for him too.
Thought he was ok,my son went to a fan’s engagement day,when we could interact with him and players,using drones to see how team moved as a unit up and down in training,he was always trying new things,losing Tommy Wright as his right hand man was a big loss for him in his career
I think it was the compo that kept him in a job he did turn it round though and we won 8 on spin and got to jpt final then he ****** off and we got some compo for him so happy ending.
Hibs shouldn't be bottom of the spl outside rangers and celtic there one of the bigger teams. Bet they hate ex barnsley managers hecky had them bottom aswell.
So two former sacked Bristol City managers (Johnson & Holden), both hit the sack again on the same day in 2023. That could be a future pub quiz question lol.
We had a meeting with Patrick when everyone was calling for his head (most of us around the table, to be honest). Patrick gave a very compelling case for sticking with him. He was right, of course. We did document the meeting. Not sure what happened to part 2 (I remember writing it). Some interesting points in Patrick's answers to our questions submitted before hand though. Meeting with Patrick Cryne and Ben Mansford
At fan meetings Cryne and Mansford both admitted that they had not done well with recruitment that summer and had not given Johnson the players he asked for, something Johnson referred to more than once! A wide left sided player, for example. So they were happy to take some of the blame for the results. That’s what saved Johnson. And then when Adam Hammill was let go by Huddersfield and approached Barnsley…after he had first had unsuccessful trials at Bolton and Patrick Thistle…Johnson then got the wide player he wanted, and with the work he and Wright had been doing to improve Hourihane coming to fruition it all came together and we steamrollered through the second half of the season, winning two trophies at Wembley. My son’s first season, the lucky little sod. Although he’s 13 now and wishes it had happed when he was a little older, so he would have more memories of it.
We 'steamrollered' through the latter part of the season due to a competent Head Coach being in place by then. The credit belongs to Heckingbottom, not Johnson.
I wish people would stop with the ‘Hammill was Cryne’s signing’. Hammill was released from Huddersfield after the drunken assault incident and because his performances had been poor. He then went on trial at Partick Thistle and Bolton, both of whom decided they didn’t want him. Hammill, or his agent, approached Barnsley, as well as, presumably, other clubs. When the offer of signing him was passed down to Johnson he said yes please, as he had wanted a wide man in the summer, but Mansford had failed to sign him one. At the start of that season we had Hourihane who ‘couldn’t play in a midfield two’. Johnson said at fan meetings that he and Wright were working on him separately to change his game. And it worked. With Josh Brownhill also brought in to the central midfield, us now able to play with two wide men and a defence that had started to click the team started to look good. I remember talking with my brother in law at Christmas time, who was worried we might go down, but I told him that we were more likely to go up. The team won about 6 on the bounce, got to the JPT final and after Johnson left, Hecky came in, changed nothing (both he and the players said nothing was changed on the training ground) and was lucky in that apart from an injury to Aidy White he was able to field an unchanged team for the rest of the season. So yes, Johnson deserves stick for the poor start to the season and the 8 defeats on the bounce, but he also deserves credit for getting the team playing well, winning 6 on the bounce and doing the work on the team that ultimately got us promoted. I think people had decided Johnson was ***** and thereafter put every bad thing on him and every good thing was done by someone else. People can be more than one thing. Everything isn’t always so black and white.
"I remember talking with my brother in law at Christmas time, who was worried we might go down, but I told him that we were more likely to go up" Yeah, right. You are Mystic Meg and I claim my £5.