The stats on Adam Johnson’s actual performance for Man City and indeed England show he is better value for money than almost any other Premier League player of his type.

In my view he’s the victim of the meanest and most sustained smear campaign from a manager against one of his own players I’ve ever seen.

Mancini even criticised Johnson’s performance after he won man of the match!

The MOTD panel even expressed doubts about Mancini’s apparently baseless and unduly negative criticism of Johnson on MOTD.

Most of the City fans couldn’t give a damn, because all they care about is winning trophies and outdoing Man U.

They couldn’t care less it’s ruined AJ’s career both for City and England, they just buy the “impact sub” argument and accept Mancini’s invalid criticisms just because he has brought them trophies.

As you also said, it’s partly because he’s an English lad from Sunderland and came from Middlesborough cheaply, instead of where the likes of Tevez and Silva came from with all their previous success.

Mancini is a moron in my view who respects people for what they’ve done in the past, as opposed to how good they are now.

Lots of other players he has like Kolarov, Tevez, Milner and others make numerous blunders, but get no criticism. But Johnson misses a shot by a few yards and there’s hell to pay, Mancini is screaming at him from the touch line and barking fresh orders at him.

Johnson is a poor defender, no doubt about it, so if that’s what Mancini wants, he’ll never get it. But his outstanding skills in midfield and attack more than make up for his defensive inadequacies.

After all – how much defending do the likes of Messi and Ronaldo do?

Adam Johnson can’t be chasing over the park flat out for 90mins and still have the edge of acceleration as a winger to go past defenders, and it’s another dumb decision of Mancini to not appreciate this, and keep his defensive role minimal.

But despite limited play given him, Johnson has also got Mancini out of some very tough spots, scored and set up some important key goals. So Mancini has just used him cynically at tough moments, to dig himself out of a hole, and would almost certainly have never won the Premier League without him.

And even then he’s got no gratitude, still belittling Johnson no matter how hard he tries, and he has given it 100% every time he’s played, so all that talk about “poor work rate” is also pure cobblers .

And Mancini accepts no blame for Johnson’s omission for Euro2012. But just tell me then how he managed to have him not even on the bench for the last 3 games of the season, when he must have known that would screw up Johnson’s Euro chances?

I think Mancini has deliberately sabotaged Johnson’s career, I think it’s simply a case of a bullying boss keeping an employee down.

Hoping he can finally escape from the tyranny of Mancini, finally I am delighted to see it seems Adam Johnson himself is finally waking up to how abused he’s been, I think we will see as you say, that Johnson is one of the best English/British footballers of the last 20 or 30 years, when he gets a sensible manager who gives him a proper chance to develop his talent and play his natural game.

I just hope he gets transferred and not loaned, so these ungrateful City fans can see what it is like to have Johnson play against them, and hopefully play a decisive part in defeating them

We’ll see how much of an “impact sub” they still think he is then, when he rattles 2 or 3 goals past them, which it is my belief that given the right managerial and team support he quite likely can.

I do stick to my view that Johnson’s background and quiet demeanour makes him easier to leave out, he doesn’t go to the press, he wasn’t signed for big money, he isn’t a ‘sexy’ name, this, in my opinion, is one of the reasons why he is so often left out.

Johnson didn’t play much last year, so I did see the majority of his displays (City were on tv every week and he only made 5 starts), I was also at the home game vs Villa when Johnson ripped them to shreds.

Granted he is not always on his game, but the stats suggest he delivers despite not being able to gain rhythm by having a run in the team.

I don’t feel he is inferior to most of the other wingers in the top 6 (Walcott, Nani, Lennon), many of which are inconsistent but play enough games to make an impact.

There are not many wingers who are not frustrating, but how many goals and assists do you think Johnson would get if he was given 30 PL starts next year (plus sub appearances)? I think he wouldn’t be far off double figures in both.

Nasri, Tevez, Balotelli, Nani, and Walcott are all inconsistent yet are given more opportunities to make an impact, this is despite the statistics suggesting they are not as productive, so why is Johnson not afforded this?

Again, just my opinions, all comments welcome, I enjoy the debate.

Compare that to Nani and Valencia with 12 goals 26 assists. I’ve been looking at some stats and Adam Johnson has averaged more goals and assists per minute player than any other winger in the league, ahead of the likes of Silva and Gareth Bale. And this is exactly what I have been saying, the fact he’s an ordinary guy from Sunderland makes him easy to leave out but things would be very different if he was an Argentinian called Johnzinho.

OK then – just tell me the last time he went outside a defender? The simple answer is, he can’t. He ALWAYS cuts inside. And, while it’s true that he occasionally scores by doing so, City have others who can do so more consistently. The simple fact is that Adam Johnson, likeable chap though he is, cannot take the ball to the byline and put it across the face of the goal. And that is the definition of a winger. Micah Richards is actually a better winger than Johnson.

The lad isn’t stupid, he knows what he has to do to be picked consistently for the starting lineup, but he just doesn’t do it. The manager can only afford so much patience (and he HAS been patient – based solely on performances the number of appearances he’s made are testimony to that) So I’m afraid your sympathy is wasted…..

As a City fan, I’m going to guess you only really see Adam Johnson on MOTD.

Johnson’s a solid player, but he’s not an upgrade on any player at City when really, he should be in the prime of his career.