The Celtic Star
·22 August 2024
Celtic winger Mikey Johnston set for complete move to Burnley
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Yahoo sportsThe Celtic Star
·22 August 2024
News emerged yesterday of Burnley’s interest in the Celtic Academy graduate who was a huge success at West Brom during his loan spell last season. While Johnston was a huge hit with the WBA supporters the club has financial issues and have not been able to fund a move to bring him back to the Hawthorns.
Money isn’t a problem for Burnley who will have their parachute payments after dropping out of the Premier League. And the Turf Moor side has recently sold Wilson Odobert to Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham.
Brendan Rodgers was asked about Mikey Johnston situation this season ahead of the match at Celtic Park against Hibs last weekend. The Celtic manager hinted that a move was in the offing.
Republic Of Ireland Squad Training, FAI National Training Centre, Blanchardstown, Dublin 25/3/2024 Adam Idah, Mikey Johnston and Jake O Brien. Photo INPHO/RyanxByrne
“I’m open at the moment in terms of where things are at, I gave Mikey his debut when he was 18 and played him. So we’ve got a good relationship and we talk openly,” Brendan noted.
“I think he’s at the stage where he’ll probably want to play more. But he’s worked hard over pre-season and put himself in a really good position. There are some clubs that have shown interest in him, but we’ll see what happens over the next couple of weeks.”
It’s unlikely that Mikey will force his way into the wide positions at Celtic unless there were several injuries at the same time. That being the case, and as an established international at the age of 25, he is going to want to play. The English Championship seemed to suit him and Burnley will be a team on the front foot, looking at bouncing back into the Premier League.
Mikey Johnston of West Bromwich Albion scores his team’s first goal during the Sky Bet Championship match between West Bromwich Albion and Cardiff City at The Hawthorns on February 13, 2024 (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
If Mikey can deliver the goods the way he did at West Brom then he could play a crucial role in delivering promotion for The Clarets, and in doing so earning himself a crack at the Premier League next season.
Celtic should also achieve a decent transfer fee from this deal, adding to the support’s demands for a busy end to the transfer window in terms of incomings.
Best of luck to Mikey, he’s probably going to go on and show himself to be a top quality player. For some reason it just never properly clicked into top gear at Celtic.
In other news Celtic yesterday offloaded Yuki Kobayashi to Portuguese side Portomonense. While Ange Postecoglou’s signings usually hit the mark for Celtic, it’s fair to say that the Japanese defender struggled to cope with the physical nature of Scottish football. Can’t win them all, not even Ange!
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