Celtic response to Mikey Johnston at West Brom laughable amid claims he’s ‘found his level’ at The Hawthorns
Mikey Johnston was at it again on Tuesday night, scoring his second goal in West Brom colours to help secure a 3-0 victory away at Plymouth in the Championship.
Since joining on loan from Celtic in the winter transfer window, 24-year-old Johnston has had quite the impact with some Albion fans scratching their heads as to why Brendan Rodgers would let the Republic of Ireland international leave.
Of course, some players are better suited to other clubs, whether it’s because of the manager, the tactics, the other players or whether it’s simply down to someone running their course.
For Johnston, it may have been all of those but more than anything, it was probably the latter.
Other than a 2022/23 loan spell at Vitoria Guimaraes in Portugal, Johnston – a Glaswegian by birth but now a fully-fledged member of the Ireland squad thanks to his Derry-born grandfather – has spent his entire career on the books at Celtic.
However, despite the fact he’ll be turning 25 in several weeks’ time, he’d not even broke the 100-appearance mark for a Celtic side continually playing in Europe and continually winning trophies.
In total, Johnston played 92 times for Celtic, scored 13 goals and supplied 12 assists after making his debut for them against St Johnstone in May 2017 when Rodgers was in his first stint at Parkhead.
What happened to Mikey Johnston for it to all go wrong at Celtic?
Johnstone’s time at Celtic has been blighted by injuries. His biggest involvement in the league came in 2018/19 when he played 14 times and scored five goals to help the Bhoys win their treble of domestic trebles after Neil Lennon replaced Rodgers at the helm.
The following season, he played a role as Celtic won a fourth treble in a row but at that point, injury issues started to creep in.
Johnston has groin issues and a serious knee ligament injury.
In 2020/21, he played just 244 minutes of senior football due to his knee issue and the following campaign, it was a lack of fitness and ankle injuries that cost him game time.
Johnston’s injury problems during this period filled newspaper column inches that would reach to the moon and back – but it seems like the expectations of him never changed.
What are Celtic fans now saying about Mikey Johnston?
Celtic fans demand a 100 per cent win record. It’s a hard concept to get your head around as an English football fan because not even Manchester City supporters would have that kind of expectation, let alone a West Brom fanbase fully aware that their club is hamstrung by financial issues in the Championship.
It’s a whole other world up there in the Scottish Premiership, especially among the two Old Firm clubs. And that’s why there’s such a meltdown going on in Glasgow’s East End right now due to Celtic losing top spot in the league to Rangers.
Rodgers isn’t doing well on his return to Celtic Park with Rangers, guided by Philippe Clement, closing down a huge gap to the reigning champions to take top-spot within the last week.
So for Celtic fans to see their current players struggling while Johnston goes from strength to strength at the Albion must be frustrating for them.
It led to former Hoops star John Hughes saying on X on Tuesday (20 February) that he’d take Johnston back 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 fans asking the question as to why Celtic loaned out a player who’s been at the club his entire career, has been reasonably good for them and signed a bunch of duds, including German forward Nicolas-Gerrit Kuhn.
But in response to the annoyance of some Celtic fans over the loan deal, there’s a bunch of supporters on social media who seem to think that Johnston has “found his level” at The Hawthorns.
Johnston now has goals against Cardiff and Plymouth, two teams who’d probably finish third and fourth if you were to plonk them in the Scottish Premiership right now.
It doesn’t seem like anyone north of the border of a green-and-white persuasion sits on the fence with Johnson. Either loaning him out was the biggest mistake ever, or he was no more than a player who only stepped up when he played against Dundee.
As is always the case when you have two extremities of footballing opinion, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.
Johnston has simply had his day at Celtic. It doesn’t make him a terrible footballer and it doesn’t mean that West Brom can be disrespected as being a level lower. We’re not a stupid bunch, we know Celtic are a much bigger club with more pressure – but there’s pressure here, as well, it’s just not the same.
With the exception of league-leading Rangers, Johnston is going to play against better teams each week in the Championship than he’d play against in Scotland.
As long as he can avoid injury and keep playing well, there’s no doubt that West Brom will try to sign him permanently in the summer transfer window and Celtic should look to sanction that deal.
In other West Brom news, an Arsenal star has reacted to major news at The Hawthorns with a two-word message.
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