Johnson was a product of the Leeds United, Feyenoord,[2] Crewe Alexandra, Liverpool,[3] Everton and Manchester City youth academies.

His ability to run with the ball, score goals and operate box-to-box caught the eye both locally and nationally.

[citation needed] On 21 October 2006, he was rewarded for his progress and made his Manchester City debut in the Premier League, in a 4–0 defeat by Wigan Athletic at the JJB Stadium.

[8] He returned to action on 29 February 2008, playing the full 90 minutes in City's goal-less home draw with Wigan.

[9] Johnson started the 2008–09 season in good form, linking well with players such as Stephen Ireland and Elano in the first few matches of the season, however after this, Johnson failed to feature for nearly a year due to a recurrence of his abdominal injury after City's League Cup defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion on 24 September 2008.

[10] Johnson made his first appearance of the 2009–10 season on 28 September 2009 in a 3–1 victory over West Ham United, coming on as a sub for Gareth Barry.

[11] On 10 December 2009, Manchester City announced that Johnson had suffered a serious knee injury in training which ruled him out of action until the end of the season.

Then again in June 2012 Johnson was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving at the scene of a collision after he crashed his Mercedes into a parked car while travelling to his girlfriend's house in Urmston.