Time & Perspective Quote by Craig Johnston

There is a bracing honesty in Johnston leading with "I was crap" - not the polished myth of the born natural, but the athlete as blunt self-auditor. The phrasing matters: it's pub-talk vernacular, disarming on purpose. By putting failure upfront, he buys credibility. Then he pivots to the real message: not hustle-for-hustle's-sake, but commitment married to understanding. That's the key subtext. He's rejecting the romantic idea that desire alone makes you good, and he's also rejecting the managerial cliche that "work ethic" is a virtue independent of craft. Commitment without a theory of the game is just running in place.

His "basis of football is skill on the ball" lands like a small act of rebellion against eras and cultures that worship physicality, grit, or tactics as a substitute for technique. In British football especially, there's a long shadow of the hard man, the battler, the kid praised for "putting a shift in". Johnston is saying the quiet part out loud: the ball doesn't care how much you want it. Touch, control, repetition - these are the currencies that cash out under pressure.

The final clause, "spend the time with it, you're gonna reap the rewards", is almost anti-motivational-poster because it's specific. Not "believe in yourself", but a concrete prescription: hours with the ball. It's a democratic promise - improvement is available - but also a demanding one. The rewards aren't spiritual; they're earned, mechanical, and measurable.