Lee happy to listen and learn

Lee Johnson: if there’s a good idea, he doesn’t mind where it comes from

IT MIGHT surprise a few members of staff who offer their friendly opinions to the manager now and again from within Boundary Park, but Lee Johnson insists he takes EVERY suggestion put to him totally seriously.

Football will always be a learning game for the 32-year-old. Ever since, as a small boy, he hid in dressing room skips to listen to his father Gary’s team talks at Newmarket Town in the late 1980s, Johnson has been running formations, tactics and philosophies in his head.

As a professional in the Championship and Scottish Premier League, he would travel abroad examining continental coaching methods in international breaks.

And even after taking on the Boundary Park role, Johnson hasn’t narrowed his focus.

He recently completed a League Manager’s Association leadership programme and he is currently on stage six of 18 in his UEFA Pro License qualification - the completion of which will see Johnson become the course’s youngest-ever graduate.

With his commitment to a passing, pressing game and as a rounded, intelligent character who is grateful — or if not, hides the fact well — for the chance to open up in front of the the modern media’s spotlight, Johnson appears to perfectly fit the mould of a new breed of football educators.

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke spoke a month ago on the steps already taken in progressive appointments in development positions.

The ethos running through the club is clearly marked out. That’s not to say it won’t be tinkered with, though, at first team level, if the right person — from supporter to chief executive to cleaner — happens to make a good suggestion.

“We learn off everyone, don’t we? It is natural,” Johnson said. “The minute you rule someone out, you are just being stubborn. Everyone has something to offer.

“For example, around this place a lot of people have been watching football for an awful long time. You have to step out and listen. You may take that advice, you may not, but it is always interesting.”