It is fair to say Brendan Rodgers will have a sizeable Celtic squad to pick from heading into the 2023/24 campaign.
The number of players returning from loans combined with the current crop of first teamers at Parkhead makes for a significant number.
And one such player who is returning from a loan ahead of the new season and will be looking to make an impression on Rodgers is Mikey Johnston.
Notably, it was the Rodgers who handed Johnston his senior Celtic debut back in 2017.
Then, Johnston was just 17 years of age and he has came a long way since then.
Nevertheless, he is a player who has never seemed to hit the heights initially expected of him at Parkhead.
As a result of this and injuries alike, he was loaned out to Vitoria Guimaraes in Portugal for the 2022/23 season.
There, the 24 year old has scored three goals and registered five assists in all competitions and his performances on an international level have more than caught the eye.
A switch to Ireland has seemed to work wonders for Johnston who has been on electric form under Stephen Kenny.
He even bagged his maiden Ireland goal in the most recent international break.
Despite this, his season in Portugal wasn’t a hugely impressive one and at Celtic, he will be playing at a much higher level and there will be significantly more expectation.
Furthermore, the competition for places in the wide areas at Celtic at the minute is vast. It is hard to see Johnston taking a spot in the team off player like Jota, Maeda, Haksbanaovic, Abada or even Forrest.
Therefore unless the Ireland international absolutely lights it up in pre-season, it is tough to see him making a real impact at Celtic in the 2023/24 season.
Hopefully the rat will give him a chance. A great talent needs direction. Need to nurture players like this or will BR just simply spend 8 million on an EPL/Championship, you know the only markets he seems to know. Good to see that Ange’s targets are being chased up. But Rodger’s is primed to do his usual scatter-gun nonsense approach; Ndidi for 9 million, Holding for 8 million. because Celtic can afford to waste 17 million. Exactly the approach that eventually got Leicester relegated with the most expensive demoted squad in History and saw him spend 350 million at Liverpool. Transfers need to be right at Celtic as we don’t have money to waste. A more imaginative manager would have been better than ‘money bags’. It will all end in tears. Support the team, ignore the manager. He won’t be here that long anyway
I’ve a better idea.
Ignore you & yer GB pals and support the team, support the manager.
Im guessing you forgot about the 7 out of 7 trophies won under Brendan?
Speculating about wasting money before he’s even got his feet under the table? You are desperate for him to fail.
Absolute clown
Nice to see that the new manager is uniting support. Great decision board. 7 out of 7 trophies against a Rangers Mark 2 side who had just emerged from the lower leagues is hardly that much to boast about It’s in Europe that Celtic need to improve greatly, and hiring an individual who put the two worst European defeats ever on the club’s record (7 goal thrashings against Barcelona and Paris moneybags), can hardly be called a step in the right direction of addressing the situation. Since Celtic last played a European final in 2003, both Rangers original and Rangers mark 2 have reached European finals. The question is, how is this manager going to succeed in Europe, when his Celtic teams waved the white flag of surrender in the two matches mentioned? They looked scared to even be out on the pitch, let alone play. Last time around, he abandoned the club, and had he been successful, he wouldn’t have given Celtic a second thought, he left Neil Lennon to pick up the pieces of his desertion. Nobody put a gun to his head to make him leave, so he has to live with the consequences of his actions. In the circumstances, it isn’t surprizing that not everyone wants to have his babies, is it.