Mention the name Seth Johnson to anyone and they will almost certainly tell the same story about his contract at Leeds United.
The legend goes that Johnson, earning around £5,000 a week at Derby County, went into negotiations with Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale hoping for an increase to around £13,000 a week.
Ridsdale, however, offered £30,000, and then immediately upped that to £37,000 when his opening gambit was met with stunned silence.
Ridsdale dismissed it as a myth back in 2007, insisting Johnson was on “at least £10,000 a week less” than had been speculated in the press, but the myth has stuck.
We spoke to Johnson to find out what really happened.
“People don’t know the story,” Johnson says. “When they talk about negotiations for the contract, I wasn’t even there. The contract had nothing to do with me.
“I remember being at home when it got sorted. I’d agreed to go, but my agent rung me up and told me about the deal.
“It wasn’t motivated by money for me. I’d had a good couple of years at Derby and just signed a new deal so I was on decent money anyway, but Derby were bottom of the league at the time, Leeds were near the top, I knew a lot of the lads there, and Derby decided to sell me because they wanted the money.”
Leeds ‘nightmare’
Speaking to Johnson, it is clear it hurts that the story persists. He says four times in total that the move was not motivated by money, but one suspects he holds little hope of the myth disappearing any time soon. “It’s just one of those things,” he sighs.
The myth might not have become so prominent were it not for the fact that Johnson’s four years at Elland Road went so badly.
He made just 59 appearances, suffering injury after injury, and after eventually working his way back to fitness found himself frozen out because one more appearance would trigger a further payment to Derby which Leeds couldn’t afford.
“I’d been fit for a while, and I didn’t know that about my contract,” Johnson says. “I got a lot of stick from Ken Bates in the press, but I never even met the guy. He didn’t know anything about me as a person so that wasn’t nice.
It’s Seth Johnson’s birthday, and to celebrate, here is his first goal for Leeds. Against a West Ham team managed by a sombre Glen Roeder. With a Leeds team managed by El Tel. With a Strongbow sponsor. And a David James cat-save. And a Freddie Kanouté sending off.
Breathe it in. pic.twitter.com/i1RjkXbFM0
— MUNDIAL…
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