Celtic response to Mikey Johnston at West Brom laughable amid claims he’s ‘found his level’ at The Hawthorns
Mikey Johnston was once at it once more on Tuesday night, scoring his 2nd aim in West Brom shades to help secure a 3-0 victory away at Plymouth in the Championship.
Since joining on mortgage from Celtic in the winter transfer window, 24-year-old Johnston has had pretty the impact with some Albion followers scratching their heads as to why Brendan Rodgers would let the Republic of Ireland international leave.
Of course, some gamers are higher perfect to different clubs, whether or not it’s due to the fact of the manager, the tactics, the different players or whether it’s without a doubt down to someone walking their course.
For Johnston, it may have been all of those but greater than anything, it was once possibly the latter.
Other than a 2022/23 loan spell at Vitoria Guimaraes in Portugal, Johnston – a Glaswegian by using delivery however now a fully-fledged member of the Ireland squad thanks to his Derry-born grandfather – has spent his whole career on the books at Celtic.
However, despite the truth he’ll be turning 25 in various weeks’ time, he’d now not even broke the 100-appearance mark for a Celtic facet consistently enjoying in Europe and consistently prevailing trophies.
In total, Johnston performed 92 times for Celtic, scored 13 dreams and furnished 12 assists after making his debut for them against St Johnstone in May 2017 when Rodgers was once in his first stint at Parkhead.
What came about to Mikey Johnston for it to all go incorrect at Celtic?
Johnstone’s time at Celtic has been blighted with the aid of injuries. His largest involvement in the league came in 2018/19 when he performed 14 instances and scored 5 goals to help the Bhoys win their treble of domestic trebles after Neil Lennon changed Rodgers at the helm.
The following season, he performed a role as Celtic received a fourth treble in a row however at that point, injury issues started out to creep in.
Johnston has groin issues and a serious knee ligament injury.
In 2020/21, he performed simply 244 minutes of senior football due to his knee problem and the following campaign, it used to be a lack of fitness and ankle accidents that price him game time.
Johnston’s harm troubles for the duration of this duration stuffed newspaper column inches that would attain to the moon and lower back – however it seems like the expectations of him in no way changed.
What are Celtic followers now announcing about Mikey Johnston?
Celtic fans demand a one hundred per cent win record. It’s a hard notion to get your head round as an English football fan because now not even Manchester City supporters would have that form of expectation, let on my own a West Brom fanbase utterly conscious that their club is hamstrung with the aid of monetary problems in the Championship.
It’s a total different world up there in the Scottish Premiership, particularly among the two Old Firm clubs. And that’s why there’s such a meltdown going on in Glasgow’s East End proper now due to Celtic losing pinnacle spot in the league to Rangers.
Will Brendan Rodgers be regretting his selection for Celtic to mortgage out Mikey Johnston to West Brom?
Rodgers isn’t doing nicely on his return to Celtic Park with Rangers, guided by using Philippe Clement, closing down a huge gap to the reigning champions to take top-spot inside the final week.
So for Celtic followers to see their current players struggling while Johnston goes from energy to strength at the Albion have to be irritating for them.
It led to former Hoops superstar John Hughes saying on X on Tuesday (20 February) that he’d take Johnston returned in a heartbeat with the winger now on two goals in two starts (and three sub appearances) for Carlos Corberan’s Baggies.
There are, understandably, other followers asking the query as to why Celtic loaned out a participant who’s been at the club his entire career, has been fairly accurate for them and signed a bunch of duds, inclusive of German forward Nicolas-Gerrit Kuhn.
But in response to the annoyance of some Celtic followers over the loan deal, there’s a bunch of supporters on social media who appear to suppose that Johnston has “found his level” at The Hawthorns.
Johnston now has goals in opposition to Cardiff and Plymouth, two groups who’d probably end 0.33 and fourth if you had been to plonk them in the Scottish Premiership right now.
It doesn’t appear like all and sundry north of the border of a green-and-white persuasion sits on the fence with Johnson. Either loaning him out was the largest mistake ever, or he used to be no extra than a participant who only stepped up when he played in opposition to Dundee.
As is always the case when you have two extremities of footballing opinion, the fact probably lies someplace in the middle.
Johnston has surely had his day at Celtic. It doesn’t make him a terrible footballer and it doesn’t suggest that West Brom can be disrespected as being a level lower. We’re not a dull bunch, we be aware of Celtic are a a great deal better club with extra pressure – but there’s pressure here, as well, it’s simply not the same.
With the exception of league-leading Rangers, Johnston is going to play towards better groups each week in the Championship than he’d play against in Scotland.
As lengthy as he can keep away from harm and hold playing well, there’s no doubt that West Brom will try to signal him permanently in the summer switch window and Celtic must seem to sanction that deal.
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