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Andy Johnson
Player
Profile
Andrew "Andy" Johnson (born February 10, 1981 in
Bedford) is an English footballer who plays for Everton F.C. in
The Premiership.
He is a right-footed striker and Johnson's main attribute is his
tremendous turn of pace and, given his small stature, his
impressive body strength. He was referred to by supporters of his
former club Crystal Palace as AJ, and they regularly sang his
name to the tune of 'Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag', by Pigbag
and 'Reach Up' by Perfecto Allstarz, during his time at the
South-London club.
Initially, Johnson's career was held back by the perception that
he was too small to prosper as a top level striker. He began his
footballing career at Birmingham City, where he suffered
heartbreak, missing a deciding penalty, in the 2001 Worthington
Cup Final shootout defeat, to Liverpool.
After only a few noteworthy appearances, he was sold to Crystal
Palace in 2002 as the makeweight in a transfer deal for Clinton
Morrison, taking the value of £750,000 for the purposes of the
transaction.
Whilst his arrival was not greeted with any real excitement at
Palace, the transfer turned out to be a very good move for both
Johnson and Palace.
He made himself very
popular with Palace fans, with his hat-trick in the 5-0 drubbing
of the Eagles' arch-rivals, Brighton & Hove Albion, on 26
October 2002, but still was accused of missing chances
constantly.
Under the aegis of manager and coach Iain Dowie, Johnson's
all-round game improved. Johnson was the top scorer in the
English First Division (now the Football League Championship) in
the 2003/2004 season, scoring 32 goals, helping Palace to reach
the Playoffs from where they were promoted to the Premiership in
2004/2005 - and this would prove to be a season of both joy and
anguish for Johnson.
Johnson helped Palace pull off a shock result, in April 2005, by
scoring the only goal in the home league fixture, against future
European Champions Liverpool, capping off a terrific season for
Johnson as an individual.
Despite Palace's relegation to the Championship, Johnson was the
highest scoring English player with 21 goals in the season.
Although Johnson's detractors note that 11 of these came from
penalty kicks rather than open play (a record for the
Premiership), he himself won 7 of the penalties. Nevertheless,
this is still an impressive tally for a player, in their first
season of Premiership football.
Johnson's fans hope to see him represent his country in more
propitious circumstances in the future.
In the summer of 2005 after
Palace had been relegated Andy Johnson requested a transfer and
there was much speculation as to his possible move from the club.
On August 2, 2005 Andy signed a five year contract with Palace
for an improved wage (believed to be around £20 000 a week) and
pledged to help them regain their place in the top flight.
He was able to play alongside Clinton Morrison, shortly after, as
Morrison joined Palace from Birmingham for a fee of £2,000,000,
just a few years after Birmingham had bought him in a swap deal
for £3,750,000 plus Andy Johnson. Morrison said that he came
back to Palace specifically so that he could play alongside
Johnson. This deal caused widespread amusement among many Eagles
fans who enjoyed ridiculing 'traitor' Steve Bruce for paying them
money to take Andy Johnson.
Due to injuries (to Johnson), and lack of form (of Morrison), the
chances of the pairing playing alongside each other had been
limited in the early part of the season. However, both returned
to their best, and Dowie's first choice pairing as the season
moved into its second half was Johnson and either Morrison or
Dougie Freedman, whose experience added much to the line-up.
Palace comfortably got to the Play-offs, and were on the brink of
the Premiership once again, but were unfortunately beaten on
aggregate by Watford. In 2005, Andy was voted into Palace's
Centenary XI, the only player at the club at the time to be
selected.
However, Crystal Palace's unfortunate failure to secure entry
into the Barclays Premiership once more, meant that a lot of
speculation as to whether Johnson would still be at Selhurst Park
in August began, and the Johnson's departure seemed inevitable.
At first, though, a bid from Everton of £7.25million was
rejected, and it looked like Palace may keep Johnson for another
year, after all. However, following Iain Dowie's departure, it
looked almost certain that Johnson would go, and, on 24 May 2006,
Palace accepted an £8.5million bid from Wigan Athletic for
Johnson. This bid was matched by fellow Lancashire club Bolton
Wanderers, a day later, which was also accepted.
However, Everton improved their offer to £8.6million the day
after that, and looked to have secured Johnson's signature, and
on 30 May, he passed his medical, and completed the move to
Goodison Park, signing a five-year contract. He is believed to be
Everton's highest paid player on £40,000 per week although some
reports say he is only joint highest with fellow striker James
Beattie on around £30,000 a week. Also, By joining Everton for
that fee, he set a new record fee for a player joining Everton as
well as for a player leaving Palace.
Everton fans were both excited and catious in their approach to
Johnson's arrival. Although he came with an enormous price tag,
his previous records and determination were undeniable. Johnson
headed into the 06/07 season with a heavy burden on his
shoulders, being both Everton's top earner, and top transfer, but
there was little doubt in the mind of pundits and fans alike,
especially the ones at Palace who witnessed his exceptional
talent fluorish, that Andrew would finish the 06/07 with a very
generous goal return.
He capped for England U-20
team at 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship, with teamates likes
Stuart Taylor, Ashley Cole, Peter Crouch, Matthew Etherington,
etc. But the team fininsh bottom at group stage, 3 loses without
goals.
In the 2004/2005 season, he was the top English goalscorer in the
Premiership, prompting calls for him to be selected for his
nation. He got his first call-up against the Netherlands on
February 9, 2005, replacing Wayne Rooney in the 61st minute.
Bizarrely, however, England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson elected
to play Palace's lone striker out of position on the right wing,
where he gamely fought to impress, but was clearly out of
position.
Theories accounting for this obvious tactical blunder range from
simple managerial inadequacy, to the rather Macchiavellian idea
that in playing Johnson on the wing Eriksson was bowing to
widespread pressure to see him play for England, without actually
wanting to give him a chance to excel, himself favouring better
established names like Newcastle United striker Michael Owen. A
more benign, although logically weaker explanation sees Eriksson
value overall participation in international friendlies over
specific performance.
On 9 May 2006, Johnson was put on stand-by by Sven-Göran
Eriksson in his squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, in Germany. He
was also an unused substitute in the England B game against
Belarus and the first team's win over Hungary, who included
former Palace team-mates Gábor Király and Sándor Torghelle in
their side. Unfortunately for Johnson, Tottenham's Jermain Defoe
was chosen as standby to Wayne Rooney and was taken on the flight
to Germany.
