' Cardiff City hero Roger Johnson '
Tue May 05, 2020 9:19 am
The new life of Cardiff City hero Roger Johnson, his septicaemia hell and the sickening incident which threatened his life
In this candid interview the former Bluebirds, Birmingham City, Wolves, West Ham and Sheffield Wednesday defender tells his story
Tuesday 05th May 2020
By Glen Williams
Cardiff City hero Roger Johnson
"It's just catastrophic. The last two years of my f***ing career were just a shambles."
Those are the sad, frustrated words of Roger Johnson.
It shouldn't have happened like this, not for someone who gave his all every time he crossed the whitewash.
He left many a striker quite literally trailing in his blood, sweat and tears during his career, which, frankly dropped off a cliff all too soon.
Johnson speaks to WalesOnline the day after his 36th birthday. It seems almost criminal someone with so much talent has not played league football for four years.
Because, for three years, he was a colossus at the heart of Cardiff City's defence, ousting captain Darren Purse in his first season there and striking up a tremendous partnership with Glenn Loovens.
But that very nearly didn't happen and Johnson recalls being just one day away from signing for bitter South Wales rivals Swansea City, who had tabled a £100,000 bid to take him from Wycombe.
"I spoke to Kenny Jackett and it was, well, I'm not going to say it was done, but I am a man of my word, I was on my way up there," he says.
"I'm sure it would have happened if Cardiff didn't hijack it. I had a call from my agent and he told me about Cardiff, I said, 'Cardiff? Are you f***ing going mad? You said it was Swansea the other day?'
"He said, 'No, no, Cardiff have joined the hunt!'
"So, obviously, Swansea were in League One at that time and Cardiff were in the Championship, so it was an absolute no-brainer.
"I was due to go there (Swansea) the following day!"
Johnson, who was plying his trade in League Two at the time, concedes a jump up to Swansea was big for him, but heading to Ninian Park was a golden opportunity for him to better himself.
Roger Johnson of Cardiff City
But, £275,000 and a chat with Dave Jones later, he was a Bluebird, and what a signing it would prove to be.
It was an exciting time for the club, an ambitious side who had their sights set on Premier League promotion with a new, all-singing, all-dancing stadium on the horizon, this was a far cry from League Two.
The longer he was there, though, he felt a surge and a fervour around Cardiff City, that something was bubbling beneath the surface and these lofty aspirations were tangible.
He modestly tries to put into context his own contributions, but many City fans will remember him as a far bigger influence than how he remembers.
"I wouldn't have missed a game, other than when that idiot elbowed me across the throat, I almost bloody died from that," he says, but more on that later.
"Without blowing my own trumpet, I was performing so well, I think the other lads did look up to me. And there were some big names there, too.
"I gave my all and I was generally a solid seven every game I played."
We all know, though, that a solid seven doesn't win two Player of the Season awards in three years at the club. He was more than that and Cardiff fans will know that, too.
The life-threatening throat injury
It was at Cardiff where Johnson experienced the first of his potentially life-threatening injuries.
In April 2009, playing away against Crystal Palace, Claude Davis connected with the defender's throat while challenging for the ball and the impact was suddenly cause for grave concern.
"It was bad... bad," he remembers. "I was worried, really worried.
"Fans knew if I stayed down then, 'F***ing hell, he's hurt', you know?
"It was a weird one. He got his punishment (a three-match ban), it should have been more.
"He tried to do too much to stop me, I doubt he meant to catch me bang across the larynx but you take that gamble swinging your arms about.
"I couldn't breathe, it was scary. They weren't far off putting the pipe in my throat because I was gasping, very worrying.
"It's like there's a squash ball stuck right in your throat and you're just gasping for air. Dr Len Noakes said he was not far off putting a pen into my throat to get air."
Johnson was rushed to hospital, where Cardiff's players drove to see him after the game, testament, Johnson says, to how close the bond between the players was back then.
But the scans were concerning and the doctor's words sent a chill right through his core.
"I had scans on my throat and they were just black," he recalls. "My whole larynx was black.
"The doctor afterwards said to me, and I'll never forget it, 'I have only ever seen this in the morgue when we do biopsies.'"
Johnson admits that, initially, fears of death consumed him, but as the hours and days went on those worries were slowly allayed.
Being the player, and man, he was, though, he wanted to get back out on to the pitch. City were roaring towards the play-offs and Johnson, the inspirational centre-half, wanted to be back out there with the lads.
The doctors and medical staff told him to have a month off. "Not a chance," he replied.
He came back the following weekend, Preston away, and City were pumped 6-0. It was the start of Cardiff missing out on the play-offs and, ultimately, the beginning of the end of Johnson's Bluebirds career.
In this candid interview the former Bluebirds, Birmingham City, Wolves, West Ham and Sheffield Wednesday defender tells his story
Tuesday 05th May 2020
By Glen Williams
Cardiff City hero Roger Johnson
"It's just catastrophic. The last two years of my f***ing career were just a shambles."
Those are the sad, frustrated words of Roger Johnson.
It shouldn't have happened like this, not for someone who gave his all every time he crossed the whitewash.
He left many a striker quite literally trailing in his blood, sweat and tears during his career, which, frankly dropped off a cliff all too soon.
Johnson speaks to WalesOnline the day after his 36th birthday. It seems almost criminal someone with so much talent has not played league football for four years.
Because, for three years, he was a colossus at the heart of Cardiff City's defence, ousting captain Darren Purse in his first season there and striking up a tremendous partnership with Glenn Loovens.
But that very nearly didn't happen and Johnson recalls being just one day away from signing for bitter South Wales rivals Swansea City, who had tabled a £100,000 bid to take him from Wycombe.
"I spoke to Kenny Jackett and it was, well, I'm not going to say it was done, but I am a man of my word, I was on my way up there," he says.
"I'm sure it would have happened if Cardiff didn't hijack it. I had a call from my agent and he told me about Cardiff, I said, 'Cardiff? Are you f***ing going mad? You said it was Swansea the other day?'
"He said, 'No, no, Cardiff have joined the hunt!'
"So, obviously, Swansea were in League One at that time and Cardiff were in the Championship, so it was an absolute no-brainer.
"I was due to go there (Swansea) the following day!"
Johnson, who was plying his trade in League Two at the time, concedes a jump up to Swansea was big for him, but heading to Ninian Park was a golden opportunity for him to better himself.
Roger Johnson of Cardiff City
But, £275,000 and a chat with Dave Jones later, he was a Bluebird, and what a signing it would prove to be.
It was an exciting time for the club, an ambitious side who had their sights set on Premier League promotion with a new, all-singing, all-dancing stadium on the horizon, this was a far cry from League Two.
The longer he was there, though, he felt a surge and a fervour around Cardiff City, that something was bubbling beneath the surface and these lofty aspirations were tangible.
He modestly tries to put into context his own contributions, but many City fans will remember him as a far bigger influence than how he remembers.
"I wouldn't have missed a game, other than when that idiot elbowed me across the throat, I almost bloody died from that," he says, but more on that later.
"Without blowing my own trumpet, I was performing so well, I think the other lads did look up to me. And there were some big names there, too.
"I gave my all and I was generally a solid seven every game I played."
We all know, though, that a solid seven doesn't win two Player of the Season awards in three years at the club. He was more than that and Cardiff fans will know that, too.
The life-threatening throat injury
It was at Cardiff where Johnson experienced the first of his potentially life-threatening injuries.
In April 2009, playing away against Crystal Palace, Claude Davis connected with the defender's throat while challenging for the ball and the impact was suddenly cause for grave concern.
"It was bad... bad," he remembers. "I was worried, really worried.
"Fans knew if I stayed down then, 'F***ing hell, he's hurt', you know?
"It was a weird one. He got his punishment (a three-match ban), it should have been more.
"He tried to do too much to stop me, I doubt he meant to catch me bang across the larynx but you take that gamble swinging your arms about.
"I couldn't breathe, it was scary. They weren't far off putting the pipe in my throat because I was gasping, very worrying.
"It's like there's a squash ball stuck right in your throat and you're just gasping for air. Dr Len Noakes said he was not far off putting a pen into my throat to get air."
Johnson was rushed to hospital, where Cardiff's players drove to see him after the game, testament, Johnson says, to how close the bond between the players was back then.
But the scans were concerning and the doctor's words sent a chill right through his core.
"I had scans on my throat and they were just black," he recalls. "My whole larynx was black.
"The doctor afterwards said to me, and I'll never forget it, 'I have only ever seen this in the morgue when we do biopsies.'"
Johnson admits that, initially, fears of death consumed him, but as the hours and days went on those worries were slowly allayed.
Being the player, and man, he was, though, he wanted to get back out on to the pitch. City were roaring towards the play-offs and Johnson, the inspirational centre-half, wanted to be back out there with the lads.
The doctors and medical staff told him to have a month off. "Not a chance," he replied.
He came back the following weekend, Preston away, and City were pumped 6-0. It was the start of Cardiff missing out on the play-offs and, ultimately, the beginning of the end of Johnson's Bluebirds career.
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Re: ' Cardiff City hero Roger Johnson '
Tue May 05, 2020 9:21 am
Another Player of the Year gong, named in the Championship team of the season, Premier League clubs were circling. But he admits it was a horrible feeling having to leave a place and a group of players with whom he had built the foundations for the incredible years which were to come.
"I'd given everything, every minute. I ran through brick walls for that club," he says passionately.
But he knew a higher challenge awaited him with Birmingham City in the Premier League and he hopes the fans appreciate the decision he had to made.
The crazy rollercoaster of life after City
For him, the decision was certainly right. He finished eighth in the Premier League with Birmingham City and went on to receive four England call-ups, although he never earned a cap.
He switched to fellow Midlands outfit Wolves in 2011 before the club endured the double dip of dropping from the Premier League to League One, at which point Johnson was told he was surplus to requirements.
The centre-back enjoyed two impressive loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday, under his former Bluebirds boss Jones, before West Ham offered him a spell in the Premier League.
But it all turned a little "toxic" at Wolves in the end, he says. His contract was paid up in January 2015 and he went to Charlton Athletic on a short-term deal until the end of the season.
That, though, is when the wheels slowly started to fall off.
"Crazy they didn't sign me after that," he says.
"They were in the bottom two. I played 18 games and we won 14 of them with nine clean sheets. They were in a mess with foreign owners, the season finished and that was it.
"I was expecting, because I'd done so well there, that I'd be tied up the next year. But nothing was said. So I was like, 'Ah, right, OK.'"
He ended up jetting out to India for the Indian Super League. "I thought, do you know what? F*** it," he says, remembering his despondency at the time.
Charlton realised the mistake they had made and, in the January, offered him an 18-month deal. But it wasn't the same club when he returned and further physical problems were lurking round the corner.
"I'd given everything, every minute. I ran through brick walls for that club," he says passionately.
But he knew a higher challenge awaited him with Birmingham City in the Premier League and he hopes the fans appreciate the decision he had to made.
The crazy rollercoaster of life after City
For him, the decision was certainly right. He finished eighth in the Premier League with Birmingham City and went on to receive four England call-ups, although he never earned a cap.
He switched to fellow Midlands outfit Wolves in 2011 before the club endured the double dip of dropping from the Premier League to League One, at which point Johnson was told he was surplus to requirements.
The centre-back enjoyed two impressive loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday, under his former Bluebirds boss Jones, before West Ham offered him a spell in the Premier League.
But it all turned a little "toxic" at Wolves in the end, he says. His contract was paid up in January 2015 and he went to Charlton Athletic on a short-term deal until the end of the season.
That, though, is when the wheels slowly started to fall off.
"Crazy they didn't sign me after that," he says.
"They were in the bottom two. I played 18 games and we won 14 of them with nine clean sheets. They were in a mess with foreign owners, the season finished and that was it.
"I was expecting, because I'd done so well there, that I'd be tied up the next year. But nothing was said. So I was like, 'Ah, right, OK.'"
He ended up jetting out to India for the Indian Super League. "I thought, do you know what? F*** it," he says, remembering his despondency at the time.
Charlton realised the mistake they had made and, in the January, offered him an 18-month deal. But it wasn't the same club when he returned and further physical problems were lurking round the corner.
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Re: ' Cardiff City hero Roger Johnson '
Tue May 05, 2020 9:24 am
The career-ending knee injury and the doctor who called his serious illness
Johnson had lined up a move to Millwall after agreeing with then-manager Karl Robinson he could leave the club in January 2017.
But, as seems to be the pattern with Johnson in these hellish years, that was far too simple.
"We were so injury struck, Karl said he needed me for the weekend and, again, I'm not that sort of guy, so I agreed to play, even though we'd shaken hands on me leaving," he recalls, with a tinge of regret creeping into his voice.
"It was the last weekend before deadline day, but he wanted me for that Saturday. So I went out to train and I was only doing a glute stretch and my bloody knee locked, I couldn't straighten it.
"I just thought, 'Oh f*** me, surely not?' But this was serious.
"They wanted to send me for a scan straight away but I said, 'Nah, I'm signing for someone on Monday, just give me the weekend and see if it sorts itself out.'
"But I couldn't even walk. It was stupid. So I went in on the Monday and said, 'Nah, it's f***ed' and I had the scan and was in surgery on the Tuesday.
"I spent deadline day in a hospital bed."
Another horrendous misfortune for Johnson, another opportunity to resurrect his career had gone desperately begging.
Could it get any worse than this? Well, yes, it could. A lot worse.
"It was an absolute mess," he says. "I was supposed to be back within 16 weeks, thinking I would catch the back end of the season.
"Ten weeks into it, my knee was just huge, it didn't look right.
"I fell ill, had a blood test and I had septicaemia, it was just eating my knee away.
"So I went in for a lifesaving procedure. My bloods were like 158, when they should be between nought and five.
"The doctor called it. I was sitting in the treatment room and I put my arms through my T-shirt and he asked me what was wrong. I said, 'It's freezing in here.'
"He said, 'Nah, it's not. Let's do a blood test.'
"That night, I was watching the darts, I'll never forget it, and he comes in and says, 'Look, we need to get you to the Cromwell Hospital now to have surgery as soon as you get there. You can die from this so you need to get over there now.'"
Those alarming words still ring as clearly to him as if they were uttered yesterday.
"Then another catastrophe," he begins, as though I could hear his head sink back into his hands. "I managed to get fit by November (2017) and my contract was up in the June but they had a duty of care to look after me and get me fit, so they honoured that, fair play to them.
"So I needed to get other clubs to sign me, so I signed a non-contract form to play for the Under-23s so clubs could see me play.
"Phil Brown (then Southend United boss) was at the game when we played Ipswich and said he wanted to sign me.
"I said it wasn't a problem, I'd signed non-contract forms and I'd spoken to the secretary about it and I was only playing these games so I can go.
"So I rang and said about Phil Brown's phone call but he was worried about the contract I'd signed. The secretary phoned the FA and then phoned me back and said, 'Roger, I'm so sorry, I've f***ed up, the rule changed at the start of the season and I was unaware of it. You are now a registered Charlton player and the window's closed so you can't go anywhere.'
"I said, 'You are f***ing kidding me? I asked you this! The only reason I'm playing the games is so that I can f***ing go somewhere!'
"So I couldn't go to a league club and that's how I ended up at Bromley in the National League."
He wanted to get back to loving his football again, even if it was at a standard way below where his talents really still lay.
"I'd had the world's sh***est year with my knee, just up, down, getting fit and then another kick in the b******s. So I just wanted to enjoy it.
"After that season I had offers from like f***ing Yeovil, miles away but in the league then, and I just couldn't be a***d with the travelling. I just wanted to enjoy it."
Roger Johnson the coach and praying for happier times ahead
Former Cardiff City star Roger Johnson doing his Welsh A badge at Dragon Park
It was at Bromley, though, he got his first taste of life as Roger Johnson the coach. And this, thankfully, is where the story takes a happier twist.
They helped him out with his UEFA A licence, while he undertook all his coaching badges at the esteemed Welsh FA courses, using his connections at Cardiff City to book his place.
"It's f***ing hard," he laughs. "Really hard!
"I'd heard good things about it and bad things about the English one, so I tried my luck and got on it. Very thorough, hard.
"I did my B licence there and I'm due to complete my A this May."
He sat his badges with the likes of Juan Pablo Angel, Djimi Traore, Tim Cahill and Simon Davies and the ambition now is to push on to ensure his coaching career enjoys the highs his playing career did, for the most part, anyway.
The former centre-back has been told he's an autocratic leader when it comes to coaching, "Firm but fair", he likes to characterise it as.
He lives in Birmingham now and even had a beer with Tony Capaldi just the other week, he still keeps in contact with a handful of his former Bluebirds team-mates.
The likes of Stephen McPhail, Darren Purse, Kev McNaughton and Tom Heaton are in regular contact with him, as was Peter Whittingham before his tragic passing in March.
"I've kind of distanced myself from Chops, he's a bit too hectic for me," he laughs.
But it is Dave Jones and his assistant Paul Wilkinson whom Johnson is in the most regular contact with.
In fact, Jones and 'Wilko', as he is affectionately known, wanted Johnson to join the coaching staff at Bury last summer, where they had teamed up again, but, as Johnson aptly puts it: "That all went t*ts up."
League One Bury, of course, were expelled from the English Football League following insolvency, but Johnson is hopeful the next few years as a coach prove more prosperous than his final years as a player and that his failed attempt to join The Shakers is just a one-off.
"I just took this year to process what I wanted - I could still play now, I know I could - but the Bury thing was heartbreaking, it was perfect," he says.
"I was buzzing, it was like an hour from where I live, Man City's old training ground. I just thought my bad luck was over.
"But then, what happened happened. That was disappointing.
"I'll go again next season, make a few phone calls over the summer and see where it goes. But I 100 per cent want to be a coach.
"We will see what happens, fingers crossed."
Thousands of Cardiff City fans will also be crossing their fingers for him, no doubt.
A man still so revered in this corner of the world, he deserves far more than the last few years have given to him.
Johnson had lined up a move to Millwall after agreeing with then-manager Karl Robinson he could leave the club in January 2017.
But, as seems to be the pattern with Johnson in these hellish years, that was far too simple.
"We were so injury struck, Karl said he needed me for the weekend and, again, I'm not that sort of guy, so I agreed to play, even though we'd shaken hands on me leaving," he recalls, with a tinge of regret creeping into his voice.
"It was the last weekend before deadline day, but he wanted me for that Saturday. So I went out to train and I was only doing a glute stretch and my bloody knee locked, I couldn't straighten it.
"I just thought, 'Oh f*** me, surely not?' But this was serious.
"They wanted to send me for a scan straight away but I said, 'Nah, I'm signing for someone on Monday, just give me the weekend and see if it sorts itself out.'
"But I couldn't even walk. It was stupid. So I went in on the Monday and said, 'Nah, it's f***ed' and I had the scan and was in surgery on the Tuesday.
"I spent deadline day in a hospital bed."
Another horrendous misfortune for Johnson, another opportunity to resurrect his career had gone desperately begging.
Could it get any worse than this? Well, yes, it could. A lot worse.
"It was an absolute mess," he says. "I was supposed to be back within 16 weeks, thinking I would catch the back end of the season.
"Ten weeks into it, my knee was just huge, it didn't look right.
"I fell ill, had a blood test and I had septicaemia, it was just eating my knee away.
"So I went in for a lifesaving procedure. My bloods were like 158, when they should be between nought and five.
"The doctor called it. I was sitting in the treatment room and I put my arms through my T-shirt and he asked me what was wrong. I said, 'It's freezing in here.'
"He said, 'Nah, it's not. Let's do a blood test.'
"That night, I was watching the darts, I'll never forget it, and he comes in and says, 'Look, we need to get you to the Cromwell Hospital now to have surgery as soon as you get there. You can die from this so you need to get over there now.'"
Those alarming words still ring as clearly to him as if they were uttered yesterday.
"Then another catastrophe," he begins, as though I could hear his head sink back into his hands. "I managed to get fit by November (2017) and my contract was up in the June but they had a duty of care to look after me and get me fit, so they honoured that, fair play to them.
"So I needed to get other clubs to sign me, so I signed a non-contract form to play for the Under-23s so clubs could see me play.
"Phil Brown (then Southend United boss) was at the game when we played Ipswich and said he wanted to sign me.
"I said it wasn't a problem, I'd signed non-contract forms and I'd spoken to the secretary about it and I was only playing these games so I can go.
"So I rang and said about Phil Brown's phone call but he was worried about the contract I'd signed. The secretary phoned the FA and then phoned me back and said, 'Roger, I'm so sorry, I've f***ed up, the rule changed at the start of the season and I was unaware of it. You are now a registered Charlton player and the window's closed so you can't go anywhere.'
"I said, 'You are f***ing kidding me? I asked you this! The only reason I'm playing the games is so that I can f***ing go somewhere!'
"So I couldn't go to a league club and that's how I ended up at Bromley in the National League."
He wanted to get back to loving his football again, even if it was at a standard way below where his talents really still lay.
"I'd had the world's sh***est year with my knee, just up, down, getting fit and then another kick in the b******s. So I just wanted to enjoy it.
"After that season I had offers from like f***ing Yeovil, miles away but in the league then, and I just couldn't be a***d with the travelling. I just wanted to enjoy it."
Roger Johnson the coach and praying for happier times ahead
Former Cardiff City star Roger Johnson doing his Welsh A badge at Dragon Park
It was at Bromley, though, he got his first taste of life as Roger Johnson the coach. And this, thankfully, is where the story takes a happier twist.
They helped him out with his UEFA A licence, while he undertook all his coaching badges at the esteemed Welsh FA courses, using his connections at Cardiff City to book his place.
"It's f***ing hard," he laughs. "Really hard!
"I'd heard good things about it and bad things about the English one, so I tried my luck and got on it. Very thorough, hard.
"I did my B licence there and I'm due to complete my A this May."
He sat his badges with the likes of Juan Pablo Angel, Djimi Traore, Tim Cahill and Simon Davies and the ambition now is to push on to ensure his coaching career enjoys the highs his playing career did, for the most part, anyway.
The former centre-back has been told he's an autocratic leader when it comes to coaching, "Firm but fair", he likes to characterise it as.
He lives in Birmingham now and even had a beer with Tony Capaldi just the other week, he still keeps in contact with a handful of his former Bluebirds team-mates.
The likes of Stephen McPhail, Darren Purse, Kev McNaughton and Tom Heaton are in regular contact with him, as was Peter Whittingham before his tragic passing in March.
"I've kind of distanced myself from Chops, he's a bit too hectic for me," he laughs.
But it is Dave Jones and his assistant Paul Wilkinson whom Johnson is in the most regular contact with.
In fact, Jones and 'Wilko', as he is affectionately known, wanted Johnson to join the coaching staff at Bury last summer, where they had teamed up again, but, as Johnson aptly puts it: "That all went t*ts up."
League One Bury, of course, were expelled from the English Football League following insolvency, but Johnson is hopeful the next few years as a coach prove more prosperous than his final years as a player and that his failed attempt to join The Shakers is just a one-off.
"I just took this year to process what I wanted - I could still play now, I know I could - but the Bury thing was heartbreaking, it was perfect," he says.
"I was buzzing, it was like an hour from where I live, Man City's old training ground. I just thought my bad luck was over.
"But then, what happened happened. That was disappointing.
"I'll go again next season, make a few phone calls over the summer and see where it goes. But I 100 per cent want to be a coach.
"We will see what happens, fingers crossed."
Thousands of Cardiff City fans will also be crossing their fingers for him, no doubt.
A man still so revered in this corner of the world, he deserves far more than the last few years have given to him.
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Re: ' Cardiff City hero Roger Johnson '
Tue May 05, 2020 10:46 am
Forever Blue wrote:The new life of Cardiff City hero Roger Johnson, his septicaemia hell and the sickening incident which threatened his life
In this candid interview the former Bluebirds, Birmingham City, Wolves, West Ham and Sheffield Wednesday defender tells his story
Tuesday 05th May 2020
By Glen Williams
Cardiff City hero Roger Johnson
"It's just catastrophic. The last two years of my f***ing career were just a shambles."
Those are the sad, frustrated words of Roger Johnson.
It shouldn't have happened like this, not for someone who gave his all every time he crossed the whitewash.
He left many a striker quite literally trailing in his blood, sweat and tears during his career, which, frankly dropped off a cliff all too soon.
Johnson speaks to WalesOnline the day after his 36th birthday. It seems almost criminal someone with so much talent has not played league football for four years.
Because, for three years, he was a colossus at the heart of Cardiff City's defence, ousting captain Darren Purse in his first season there and striking up a tremendous partnership with Glenn Loovens.
But that very nearly didn't happen and Johnson recalls being just one day away from signing for bitter South Wales rivals Swansea City, who had tabled a £100,000 bid to take him from Wycombe.
"I spoke to Kenny Jackett and it was, well, I'm not going to say it was done, but I am a man of my word, I was on my way up there," he says.
"I'm sure it would have happened if Cardiff didn't hijack it. I had a call from my agent and he told me about Cardiff, I said, 'Cardiff? Are you f***ing going mad? You said it was Swansea the other day?'
"He said, 'No, no, Cardiff have joined the hunt!'
"So, obviously, Swansea were in League One at that time and Cardiff were in the Championship, so it was an absolute no-brainer.
"I was due to go there (Swansea) the following day!"
Johnson, who was plying his trade in League Two at the time, concedes a jump up to Swansea was big for him, but heading to Ninian Park was a golden opportunity for him to better himself.
Roger Johnson of Cardiff City
But, £275,000 and a chat with Dave Jones later, he was a Bluebird, and what a signing it would prove to be.
It was an exciting time for the club, an ambitious side who had their sights set on Premier League promotion with a new, all-singing, all-dancing stadium on the horizon, this was a far cry from League Two.
The longer he was there, though, he felt a surge and a fervour around Cardiff City, that something was bubbling beneath the surface and these lofty aspirations were tangible.
He modestly tries to put into context his own contributions, but many City fans will remember him as a far bigger influence than how he remembers.
"I wouldn't have missed a game, other than when that idiot elbowed me across the throat, I almost bloody died from that," he says, but more on that later.
"Without blowing my own trumpet, I was performing so well, I think the other lads did look up to me. And there were some big names there, too.
"I gave my all and I was generally a solid seven every game I played."
We all know, though, that a solid seven doesn't win two Player of the Season awards in three years at the club. He was more than that and Cardiff fans will know that, too.
The life-threatening throat injury
It was at Cardiff where Johnson experienced the first of his potentially life-threatening injuries.
In April 2009, playing away against Crystal Palace, Claude Davis connected with the defender's throat while challenging for the ball and the impact was suddenly cause for grave concern.
"It was bad... bad," he remembers. "I was worried, really worried.
"Fans knew if I stayed down then, 'F***ing hell, he's hurt', you know?
"It was a weird one. He got his punishment (a three-match ban), it should have been more.
"He tried to do too much to stop me, I doubt he meant to catch me bang across the larynx but you take that gamble swinging your arms about.
"I couldn't breathe, it was scary. They weren't far off putting the pipe in my throat because I was gasping, very worrying.
"It's like there's a squash ball stuck right in your throat and you're just gasping for air. Dr Len Noakes said he was not far off putting a pen into my throat to get air."
Johnson was rushed to hospital, where Cardiff's players drove to see him after the game, testament, Johnson says, to how close the bond between the players was back then.
But the scans were concerning and the doctor's words sent a chill right through his core.
"I had scans on my throat and they were just black," he recalls. "My whole larynx was black.
"The doctor afterwards said to me, and I'll never forget it, 'I have only ever seen this in the morgue when we do biopsies.'"
Johnson admits that, initially, fears of death consumed him, but as the hours and days went on those worries were slowly allayed.
Being the player, and man, he was, though, he wanted to get back out on to the pitch. City were roaring towards the play-offs and Johnson, the inspirational centre-half, wanted to be back out there with the lads.
The doctors and medical staff told him to have a month off. "Not a chance," he replied.
He came back the following weekend, Preston away, and City were pumped 6-0. It was the start of Cardiff missing out on the play-offs and, ultimately, the beginning of the end of Johnson's Bluebirds career.
Always loved his never say die attitude on the pitch. Hope he does well in his coaching career
