EFL • NON-LEAGUE • SCOTLAND

Interview Joe Brewin

IINTERVIEW

GARY JOHNSON

Two decades after irking Graham Taylor and then revolutionising Latvia, the former Bristol City hero is leading Torquay’s bid for a Football League return

How would you describe where the Gulls are as a club right now?

They were 14th in the National League South when I took over in September 2018. People said I was mad, but I’ve always liked the club. I often loaned players out to them in previous jobs, went to their games, and they always looked after me. We got a group that won that league [in 2018-19], but now we’ve got to be a Football League club again. Torquay, Stockport, Wrexham, Notts County – these are all League teams. I try to champion our division, which is now 95 per cent professional, being part of the EFL full-time.

How big a deal was it for you to drop back into non-league?

It wasn’t. As a player, I wasn’t a big name – the first time I went to Yeovil [in 2001], the headline on the local newspaper was, ‘Gary who?’ That was a pretty good start, wasn’t it? [Laughs] I’d been national coach in Latvia, but I could see the potential. If you want to stay in the game as a not-very-famous former reserve-team footballer, then you’ve got to go somewhere that has a chance. When it came to Torquay, it’s all relative –I still put myself under pressure to win promotion.