Michael Johnson has signed a new five-year deal at Manchester City that will keep him at Eastlands until 2013.

The 20-year-old England Under-21 international midfielder has ended months of speculation that he may be set to leave the club.

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No real shock here, as despite the summer speculation linking him with a move away from the club I doubt Johnson ever considered a move away from the club, and it does seem that whenever contract talks are not swiftly concluded it immediately means a player is set to depart.

All nonesense of course, and I would have expected an earlier announcement but for the recent takeover which no doubt took precedence with the top brass.

It is surprising to me that Johnson's star appears to have waned in the eyes of some City fans towards the end of last seasom, with the 'overrated' tag being applied no sooner than he was annointed as the new Colin Bell.

With a plethora of attacking players in our squad now, for me Johnson has a vital role to play as the bridge between the attacking players and the more defensive minded midfielders (one or two of Kompany, Hamman and Gelson)