Source: Daily_Mail
Glen Johnson: McClaren snub spurred me on to succeed with England
Four years ago, England launched a World Cup season with a woeful night in Denmark, where a 4-1 thrashing in a friendly suggested the campaign was highly unlikely to end in glory.
Sven Goran Eriksson's team would go on to reach the last eight in Germany but for Glen Johnson his second-half appearance as a substitute in Copenhagen would prove to be his last England cap for nearly three years.
Johnson did not play a single international under Steve McClaren and left Chelsea in search of first-team experience at Portsmouth but today he boards a plane for Holland as a £17million Liverpool defender and his country's first-choice right back. South Africa beckons.
'I wasn't picked much when McClaren was involved but going through things like that has made me the person I am today,' said Johnson, 24. 'There's nothing worse than not playing football. Some people have outbursts but I tried to keep my head down and stay focused.'
In a four-year cycle when England lurched from potential World Cup beaters to complete no-hopers and back, Johnson has redefined his own career in a similar way. He has even gone some way to banishing the idea that he could be irresponsible and immature, an image enhanced when he was fined for stealing a toilet seat from B&Q in 2007.
It was all a misunderstanding, according to Johnson, although this didn't stop his Portsmouth team-mates cramming his locker with loo rolls and hanging a golden toilet seat on his peg in the dressing room.
'Because we paid the fine, it made us look guilty' said Johnson. 'A couple of incidents got blown out of proportion but that's not for me to worry about. I've put it behind me. I'm more mature now.'
