Adam Johnson: 'I left Manchester City to feel loved'

Sunderland winger Adam Johnson has revealed that although he loved his time at Manchester City, he had to leave the club to play more.

The Black Cats face his old club in the League Cup final tomorrow afternoon and Johnson has no hard feelings.

He admitted that he asked then manager Roberto Mancini to play at least every two weeks but did not get the matches he was looking for.

"I loved it at City," Johnson told The Guardian. "It's a great club and but for the circumstances I would still be there now.

"You want to win medals and I did that there. I was disappointed the way it ended. I wanted to go and play more games. I was not asking to play every week - I knew I couldn't - I just asked to play one in four. [The games] weren't getting shared enough.

"So I wanted to play somewhere I could pay week in, week out and feel more loved."

Sunderland take on City at Wembley tomorrow at 2pm.