Brendan Rodgers has given a non-committal reaction to Mikey Johnston’s impact at West Brom, repeating the phrase that ‘he is not a baby’.
It is almost seven years since Johnston was given his debut by Rodgers in a post split fixture against St Johnston during the invincible season.
There have been more lows and highs for the winger over the seasons but his talent can’t be doubted as demonstrated by the quality of goals that he has scored in the Championship.
West Brom fans can hardly believe their luck at picking up a goal scoring winger on transfer deadline day as they push strongly for a place in the EPL Play-offs.
Discussing the winger’s impact at West Brom, Rodgers told The Herald:
Brilliant, I’ve said before about Mikey’s talent. He has been here a long time. Listen, the shirt is a different weight of shirt when you leave here but Mikey has always shown the talent.
He has had a number of years where he has picked up lots of injuries and he needed to get a run of games. I spoke to him in the summer when he was looking to go on loan, and I said stay and get your training right, because you’ve not had a period of training consistently never mind playing games.
He was able to do that, then he featured in some games for us, and once he trained and featured it was then about getting him game time. He has gone and done fantastic and shown the talent everyone knows he has.
Hopefully he continues with that and then we can look at it again in the summer.
He’s 24 years of age now, he’s not a baby, he is a boy who wants to play. He has lots of talent and you’ve seen that going down into the Championship. He’s scored some fantastic goals but it’s not a surprise. You see him in training, and he has that ability.
It’s all about the consistency and being fit and available. He’s shown that now over this part of the season and hopefully that continues until the end of the season at West Brom.
There were times last month when Celtic’s winger options almost dried up with Liel Abada sold and Nicolas Kuhn struggling to make any impact.
Since returning from the Asian Cup Yang Hyun-jun appears to have discovered a new level, James Forrest has made an impact off the bench with Kuhn starting to show some real class as well as goals and assists.
This summer looks like being another of massive change at Celtic with little certainty over who will be in the manager’s plans for the new season.
How the fcuk can he cut it in a magnificent League like The Championship yet he canny cut it in a League that is The Laughing Stock of world football (The Scottish Premier League) !!!