137: Seth Johnson, Derby County, Merlin’s F.A. Premier League 2001 Official Sticker Collection

With the football season up and running it’s time to see if the millions that have been splashed about by clubs up and down the pyramid will have been worth it. Liverpool’s marquee signing Darwin Nunez, coming in at a cool £64m, had fans concerned when he failed to make an impact in his new employer’s money spinning 4-0 defeat to Manchester United in Thailand and their equally significant 2-0 victory over a depleted Crystal Palace in Singapore. Just six days later he smashed in four of his side’s five goals away at RB Leipzig and all worries evaporated. Elsewhere Juventus’ returning hero Paul Pogba managed just one questionable warm up game, against Mexican side Chivas Guadalajara in Las Vegas, before his knee gave out on him. Still, at least the Italian giants are only paying him €8m a year compared to the €17m per annum he was apparently raking in at Manchester United.

Footballers’ exorbitant wages have long been used as a stick to beat them with and in the current economic climate some of this ire is understandable. As we have discussed before on these very pages, however, would any of us honestly turn down a dramatically increased pay check to do the same job elsewhere? Such a conundrum faced Derby County’s Seth Johnson back in 2001 when Leeds United, fresh from an appearance in the semi-finals of the Champions League, came calling for the young midfielder’s services. The story goes that Johnson and his agent sat down with Leeds’ chairman Peter Risdale hoping to secure a wage of around £13,000 per week. When Risdale opened negotiations with an offer of £30,000 he was met with stunned silence so quickly added a further £7,000. Although Risdale later denied he ever paid Johnson this much his successor Ken Bates was quick to point the finger of blame at the midfielder when asked to explain the club’s early 2000s financial difficulties.

In reality none of this actually happened. Seth Johnson was not even present as his contract was negotiated by his agent and Peter Risdale and wasn’t even that desperate to leave Derby in the first place. However, the Rams were mired in relegation trouble and Johnson was close friends with several of Leeds’ players so there were genuine footballing reasons for his move and, with Derby keen to cash in, he moved to Elland Road for £7m in October 2001. Over the next four years he made just 59 appearances as injuries plagued him and Leeds were relegated to the second tier. Desperate to prove his doubters wrong Johnson stayed with the club following their drop to the Championship (unlike Alan Smith) and even managed to get himself through pre-season without succumbing to injury but found himself frozen out of first team action due to a clause in his transfer promising further payments to Derby after sixty appearances. When his contract expired in August 2005 he headed back to Pride Park.

This was not the way it was meant to be. Johnson had been spotted by Crewe Alexandra’s Dario Gradi during a pre-season tour of Devon and made his professional debut aged only seventeen. Over the course of three seasons he made over a century of appearances for the club in all competitions and attracted the attention of Premier League sides Liverpool and Derby. Johnson, keen to play first team football, turned down Liverpool and agreed to move to the Rams for £4.1m in 1999 but only once he had played his part in Crewe’s successful fight against relegation from Division One. He went straight into the Rams’ first team and was a mainstay in two campaigns where they fought to maintain their top-flight status. In November 2000 he made his England debut in David Beckham’s first game as Three Lions’ captain when he replaced Gareth Barry and was denied a debut goal by an excellent save from Gianluigi Buffon as Italy ran out 1-0 winners.

Seth Johnson’s return to Derby following his nightmare spell at Leeds gave him a chance to rebuild his career although he returned to a far from harmonious atmosphere at Pride Park. Manager George Burley had quit following the sale of promising midfielder Tom Huddlestone to Tottenham Hotspur and his replacement, Phil Brown, struggled in his first managerial role. A 6-1 loss to Coventry City and an early FA Cup exit sealed his fate and caretaker boss Terry Westley was entrusted to steer the Rams to safety. Incoming manager Billy Davies overcame a slow start to the 2006/07 campaign to lead Derby to the play-offs with Johnson a core part of the side throughout. They snuck past Southampton on penalties following a high scoring semi-final before defeating West Bromwich Albion, boasting play-off specialist Kevin Phillips, at the Wembley showpiece thanks to a solitary Stephen Pearson goal.

Derby’s return to the Premier League was record breaking but for all the wrong reasons. The Rams’ hauls of eleven points, one win, 29 defeats, twenty goals for and 89 goals against all stand as the league’s worst since its reorganisation. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your viewpoint Seth Johnson had nothing to do with County’s annus horribilis. With three minutes left on the clock during the play-off final Johnson injured his knee and, at the age of only 28, brought his career to a premature end. Any career that ends this early will always be one of unfulfilled potential but the stigma attached to his transfer to Leeds made it even harder for Seth Johnson to live up to the hype surrounding his early achievements at Crewe and Derby. Thankfully, over a decade on, the man himself is philosophical about his career stating in an interview with Planet Football: “I played football as a kid in Devon, they don’t produce many footballers down there really, I’m proud of what I achieved and what I did.” Perhaps what’s worst about this is that the use of Seth Johnson as a cautionary tale of footballing greed is based entirely in fiction. Why let the truth get in the way of a good story eh?