DEEMED surplus to requirements during the Valdas Ivanauskas era, former Hearts midfielder Lee Johnson now stands on the verge of world football's promised land, the English Premier League.
If Bristol City defeat Hull City on Saturday in the Championship play-off final, he will also achieve a personal milestone as the second man to be promoted from every division of the English league, since the inception of the Premier League. It's all
a far cry from the day he learned his Hearts career was over whilst perusing the Evening News.
Ivanauskas told this newspaper in June 2006 that Johnson and Chris Hackett were being released after less than six months in Edinburgh. Except he avoided telling the players in question.
That day, Johnson set out on a personal quest to prove his capabilities on the grandest stage, an ambition which has helped drive City to the brink of their greatest modern-day achievement.
"I had to find out via the Evening News that I wasn't going to play for Hearts again," he said, recalling that he played for the club only five times in total. "Valdas told you I would be going but hadn't told me. That was symptomatic of all the politics and strange methods at the place.
"That's when you know you have to get out. Myself and Jamie McAllister left at the right time and it's worked out well for us with Bristol City.
"I don't regret anything because I loved being at Hearts. It was a great move for me at the time. After leaving, I felt I had to prove to myself and everyone else that I was good enough even though I believed in my ability.
"To be on the verge of the Premiership proves a lot, it certainly cements the belief in my mind."
Whilst satisfied to have counteracted the Hearts hierarchy's belief that he was one of Graham Rix's inferior signings, one issue will always niggle at Johnson: Why did those in power take an almost instant dislike to what is clearly a talented footballer?
"That will always remain a mystery to me," he continued. "I think it was a stubbornness on their part. Maybe they didn't fancy a player who came from Yeovil Town. Had I come from a big-name club I might have had more of a chance but the truth is I'll never know why I was freed.
"Who knows why they make these decisions? When I think back to certain medical healers who came in, you just don't know where they get their ideas from. All you can do at Hearts is get on with your job until you're told to play. There doesn't seem to be any method behind the selection.
"I'm beyond it now and looking forward. I just hope the club can sort itself out because it's a magnificent place. I'll always remember it fondly."
Gary Johnson, the Bristol City manager and Lee's father, has effected a quite meteoric rise this season after securing promotion to the Championship only a year ago. There is a sense of déjà vu, though, for his diminutive midfielder.
Johnson was a teenage member of the Watford squad which accelerated through their league campaign in season 1998/99 and secured a Premiership place on the back of promotion from the old second division (now League One]. He also won promotion from England's bottom tier, now League Two, in 2001 and 2005 with Yeovil and Brighton. He said: "I was in the Watford squad for the play-off final in 1999 but I was just a young lad," he said. "If we go up on Saturday I'll be promoted from every league in England.
"That'll be a personal milestone for me, maybe I'll get a broadcasting contract out of it from Sky when I retire. Me and Chris Kamara could present the lower-league coverage," he laughed.
"This game is the biggest in world football in terms of the financial rewards. You have to make sure you stay relaxed and focused, not too tense and certainly not complacent. On the pitch, you have to trust yourself to produce the goods on the day.
"We have a very good team spirit. We went to Portugal for a couple of days to relax, a bit of golf and training, so all the preparations have gone well.
"It's actually a little frustrating because we thought we could push for automatic promotion.
We have a nice mix of pure talent, a bit of speed, power and brain. That breeds good football. We were top of the league and then lost a couple of players through injury, including myself. We all missed a number of games and that coincided with a bad run.
"But we've come back, won the play-off semi and now we have Hull at Wembley with the Premiership in sight."
Whatever fate awaits Johnson this weekend, at least this time he'll know of it before it appears in print.
The full article contains 839 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
