Trundle lifts the lid on life under Johnson

Former City forward Lee Trundle has spoken out for the first time about his two-years at Ashton Gate.

Speaking in his latest book - More Than Just Tricks - Trundle recalled his first two strikes for the club at Scunthorpe in 2007: "After the game he [Johnson] was on about how he remembered who I was now; he was full of sarky comments like that, but it can be easy not to take them in the right way and it can get very tiring very quickly."

Those two goals will live long in the memory of City fans but it was to prove the start of a fractious relationship between player and gaffer.

Remembering a training ground spat involving Trundle, Gavin Williams and David Noble all wearing hats to train the scouser wrote: "No wonder you lot never score headers with ******* hats on," said Johnson in the book.

"You just want to do your own ******* thing all the time."

Leaving Trundle to pipe up with: "Oh just shut up, you ******* prick!"

The more pertinent point Trundle made was about Johnson's failure to take the blame for anything and his obvious misuse of strikers.

"The problem was it always seemed to be the strikers' fault as far as Johnson was concerned, it always felt as if the forwards were the ones getting the blame," Trunds continued.

"In my time under him, there were at least a dozen strikers who had come into the side within the space of two years and at least half-a-dozen were shown the door.

"Were all of us as bad as each other? Were we all not up to it?"

Trundle scored eight goals in 28 starts for the City - including memorable strikes against Scunthorpe and in the play-off's against Crystal Palace - and now plays for Neath in the League of Wales.

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