Mikey Johnston At Celtic: The Final Chapter.

Watching the game, the other night against Raith, I said to my friends online that I had never seen a clearer example of the gulf in quality between our new signings and the players they have replaced in the team.

Under any other manager, Mikey Johnston and James Forrest would look like footballers who had a future at Celtic.

Not under this guy. The gulf between them and what Ange expects is absolutely vast.  It will be interesting to see how this impacts the sports betting for Celtic as we look to change our style.

I still like Forrest. On his game, he is a potent weapon. He scores goals. He lays on assists. He has been a sterling servant to the football club. I can no longer say the same about Mikey Johnston. I don’t believe the gulf between the potential and the reality can be bridged now. He is not nearly good enough to be a player in this Celtic side.

Everyone I know wanted this guy to be a success at our club, but time and experience have taught us how limited a footballer he is. The debates on the forums are no longer about should we or shouldn’t we cut him loose, but about whether he deserves some of the slating he’s getting. The key conclusion – that he simply doesn’t cut it – is nearly unanimous.

Even if Johnston were a better performer in the huge games where it mattered – and what made midweek worse is that it was the sort of game in which even a limited Celtic player could have shone and made an impact – his injury record and the news that he’s out again, for an unspecified length of time, is reason enough for the club to ove him on.

I sympathise with any player who goes through this stuff; Simunovic, for all his undoubted talent, was a nightmare with injuries.

But none of these guys, however classy, are any good to us sitting in the stand.

Johnston has spent more time in treatment than on the pitch these last few years, with one setback after another.

Surely enough is enough.

Many of us thought that Mikey might leave during the January window; it would have been greatly to his benefit if he had. A departure in the summer looks like a stonewall certainty; I cannot see any sense in, or value to, the idea of keeping him around.

He so clearly is not up to what Ange demands.

Forrest, who is a much better player than Johnston and has given us much greater service over the years, does not look remotely as good as the options in his position do.

Worse is that this Celtic team just looks way too fast and way too technical for his more direct skill-set. He looked so out of place in it against Raith; indeed, every time he’s played this season so far.

Every evolution at a company or organisation leaves some people behind, including some who were considered essential to the process before. That’s the nature of the beast. This one will be particularly ruthless because the advance of the club is so extreme, perhaps the most extreme we’ve seen at Celtic in decades.

These are the guys who are being left behind.

For Mikey Johnston, that’s way behind.

This is a cold business at times, but we have no room for passengers.