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He was a member of Stan's squad as Bury climbed two divisions in two seasons and having reached the First Division was the first choice striker. After 17 league appearances in Division One for the Shakers Stan sold him to Ipswich in November 1997 in a deal that saw Chris Swailes (now at Rotherham) move in the opposite direction. Johnson was valued at £1.1 million.
He was a major success at Portman Road in three promotion bids for Ipswich that finally saw them back in the Premiership after a play off win against Barnsley in 2000. David Johnson lost his regular place in the side although by January last year had made fourteen Premiership appearances although only six of them were starts.
In a search for more regular first team football he joined Nottingham Forest on 12th January 2001 for a massive £3 million fee although it was probably the wrong club at the wrong time. Forest's financial problems are public knowledge and were probably not the best club to join. Besides that Johnson's appearances have been hit by injuries and he has made just 41 league appearances for Forest and scored five goals.
Forest's eagerness to get him off the wage bill has seen him go out on loan to Sheffield Wednesday recently. Yes, hard up Sheffield Wednesday taking a player from hard up Nottingham Forest. After two goals in seven games he returned to Nottingham and was a sub on Saturday, coming on for the last few minutes.
Stan has always said that any loan signings will be with a view to a permanent deal and so there is every chance that David Johnson could be with us for more than a month. As it is he will sign for the Clarets for an initial month, our first outfield loan signing since Gareth Taylor. If the deal goes through tomorrow that will mean him being available for all but the last two games of the season at Grimsby and at home to Coventry.
I rather suspect that should we still have anything to play for then at the very least the loan will be extended to take in that last matches and the play offs. And to David Johnson,
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