As the debate rages on about the strength of Celtic’s bench after the 0-0 draw with Hibs on Saturday, Brendan Rodgers has revealed that one player in particular has really impressed him in training.
The Celtic manager was holding his usual pre-match conference when he was asked about the future of Mikey Johnston.
The 24-year-old winger has been the subject of much discussion since returning from his loan spell in Portugal and after his cameo against Hibs, the discussions continue on whether he is good enough or not to play for Celtic.
Rodgers said [Daily Record], “Mikey is an interesting one. I played him here when he was 18 and he’s now a 24 year-old man. He hasn’t quite had the run here as he would have liked.
“That’s also been because he’s not been fit enough regularly enough. But he’s done very well in training since I’ve come in and that’s where I’m judging and measuring guys.
“What I said to him was stay to January and prove you can be fit and get yourself to a level where you can train every day, and then make yourself available. The last thing you need is to go out now – you’re not fit – and then you go and break down again.”
Mikey Johnston’s future at Celtic
I mean, I covered this pretty extensively on TBR Celtic yesterday. Hoops defender Greg Taylor believes that Johnston could be one of Celtic’s best players.
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When I covered this story yesterday and published it on social media, the reaction of the Celtic fans was pretty clear. Johnston is not the answer for Celtic.
There were a few who hoped he could make a career at Celtic, but hoping a player is going to succeed after seven years of flirting with first-team football kind of tells you all you need to know.
Johnston in likely to be moved on in the summer. With 18 months left on his contract, he has a lot to do still to prove he is worthy of getting in ahead of guys like Luis Palma, Daizen Maeda and even James Forrest.
In other news, Brendan Rodgers would have never allowed ‘powerful’ Celtic man Ange Postecoglou sold to leave the club