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Thursday, August 28, 2008, 08:00
Johnson admitted he momentarily lost faith with his players after a disappointing performance at Crewe which saw them unceremoniously dumped out of the Carling Cup on Tuesday night.
However, he believes he has a squad which may not need adding to – unless the right man comes along.
Johnson said: "People like you to talk about transfers but sometimes you have to get behind the people who are here.
"They're the ones who have got us here, they're the ones who have got us very disappointed in getting beat at Crewe, but they're the ones that are also very happy with the way we played at Coventry.
"As a manager you've got to keep a bit of a level head. Try and work things when you've lost and try and encourage them when you've won.
"Sometimes players prove that you don't need anyone and sometimes they prove that you do but you've still got to bring in the right people and there's a lot of clubs out there who are bringing in people just for the sake of it."
Johnson has injury concerns of his own with Jamie McCombe, Marvin Elliott, Christian Ribeiro, Jordan Walker, Scott Murray and now Jamie McAllister out of action.
There's no crisis though. Andy Webster has come in as defensive cover for McCombe, Elliott will be back in a fortnight if not sooner, McCombe a month after that, Murray is back training and initial reaction is that McAllister's knock is only skin deep.
Johnson said: "I won't lose faith in these players. I lost faith in them (on Tuesday) and I told them so.
"We know this group of players don't often have two or three bad games on the trot and hopefully we can pick them up ready for Saturday.
"That doesn't mean to say we're not disappointed with them and ourselves for being out of the cup. I've got to explain that to the chairman and that'll be the hardest interview I do."
If the right transfer target does appear on Johnson's radar in the final days of the transfer window then now is a good time to approach the chairman. Chairman Steve Lansdown's company, Hargreaves Lansdown, run with business partner Peter Hargreaves, announced a 42 per cent rise in operating profits yesterday to the tune of £57.8 million.
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