It is not possible to hear what’s befallen Mikey Johnston without feeling a profound sense of regret, and yet to have not felt the slightest surprise. This young man’s career seems plagued. It seems cursed. He’s one of those players you get the feeling could get injured bending over to tie his shoelaces. A slight exaggeration, maybe, but not much of one.
I do genuinely feel sorry for the guy. Three months out?
That’s the last thing he needed, and with the club having plenty of money to spend his slim chance of being able to stake a claim for a first team slot is now virtually no chance. By the time he’s fit the window will be closed, the team will be in place and most of it will be well established.
So this is a disaster for him, and no question.
Having returned from Portugal and already being well aware that this was probably his shot, he needed to grab it and really stake his claim. This was his best hope. I said in a piece recently that I thought Mikey was probably going to have to leave Celtic to get football somewhere else; that’s now looking certain, although this also affects his ability to find somewhere to go out on loan.
The timing of this really could not have been worse.
There is no player in the squad who has had such a difficult time. It’s one of the reasons he has not been able to establish himself in the team over the years.
As good as he is – and regular readers will know I think he has so much potential – he is no use to us sitting in the stand, and the truth is that he spends far too much of his time doing just that.
This was supposed to be a massive summer for him, and this is a dreadful way for his close season to come to an end.
He’s 24. He should be miles ahead in his development by now and I really do fear the worst.
This can’t continue and he has to know it, and whilst I really am genuinely sad for him there is a ruthlessness which comes into play at some point and he has to know that Celtic is at the very limit of patience. It might be time to cut our losses.