Published>Fri, Sep 10 10 06:17 AM
The success of Manchester City players on the England stage can help the club achieve their ambitions and dispel the notion that it is all about money, winger Adam Johnson said on Thursday.
Six players in the England team that beat Switzerland 3-1 on Tuesday in a Euro 2012 qualifier were from the world's richest club, who are aiming to break into the Premier League top four.
"Playing for the club with five other England lads, it's great going back to the team after two good wins," Johnson told Reuters in an interview at the premiere of a film about the club's 2009-10 season called "Blue Moon Rising".
"I think it's only going to help me as a player, help me progress."
A year ago, the 23-year-old was plying his trade in the English second division with Middlesbrough. Now he is basking in the glory of two goals in two international appearances.
"Playing for your country is the biggest honour of all and to score for your country at Wembley -- it doesn't get any bigger than that for me," he said, referring to his goal in the 4-0 victory over Bulgaria last week.
SPENDING SPREE
Like goalkeeper Joe Hart, who has staked his claim for the England number one jersey, Johnson was not one of City's big-name signings in a spending spree of around 300 million pounds ($464.2 million) since the club was taken over in 2008 by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates.
"I think it's just a credit to City obviously for getting the English players in," said Johnson.
"A lot of the players -- I mean Joe Hart came from Shrewsbury -- and we've obviously progressed ourselves at the club and I think it's not necessarily all about the money.
"We've acquired some great English players and they're playing so well at the minute that they deserve a place in the England squad," he added.
"It's still early days but I think with the squad we have we can go as far as we want."
City have four points from three games this season after beating Liverpool but losing to Sunderland. It is a similar pattern to last season.
"I think we fared well against the top teams, I think it was obviously the lower teams in the league I think we struggled with, some of the times maybe we should have had the three points wrapped up and we dropped points," said Johnson.
"We just need to win more games.
Source: Web Search
0 comments:
Post a Comment