When Mikey Johnston did not play during Celtic’s opening-day thrashing of Kilmarnock at Parkhead, he
felt his time at the club was over. At that point, he hurried his departure and returned to West Bromwich Albion in England.
Throughout his loan stint in the second half of the previous season, Johnston lit up The Hawthorns on numerous occasions. Of his seven goals, he scored a brace at Huddersfield Town, one against Cardiff City 30 seconds into his full debut, and a masterful effort against Coventry City.
On the surface, it seemed sense that a return this summer wouldn’t be financially possible. Winger Johnston, who was a mainstay in pre-season, knew he would have to move on and leave his childhood club for the sake of his career as he sat on the bench and watched Brendan Rodgers’ team destroy Killie last month.
To be honest, “I think it was obvious,” he said. “I performed well in the preseason, but I didn’t play a minute in the opening game. I believed that the signs were obvious. Not much, in my opinion, has to bestated following that. At that point, my priorities were to explore my possibilities and attempt to launch a successful career. I want to pursue my goal of building a successful career because I believe I have the opportunity to accomplish it.”
For much of the summer, Albion was just unable to even consider authorizing Johnston’s return, despite the fact that Carlos Corberan was clearly still a great admirer and had kept in touch with Johnston. It was a delicate balancing act because Albion would obviously not be the only contender given the winger’s season-long heroics.
With larger spending caps and parachute payouts, Burnley and Sheffield United arrived sniffing. More than that, Johnston understood in late August that Bramall Lane might end up being his new home. However, as he himself stated, he held out as long as he could because he wanted to give Albion every opportunity.
By the end of August, everything had shifted. Ironically, Albion took a few bucks from Dara O’Shea as he left Burnley. They were now in a position to throw their hats in the ring and try to satisfy Corberan by claiming his coveted asset, thanks to all of their hard work over the summer. It was all Johnston needed for Albion to get into the running.
“To be honest, I kind of assumed it was a coincidence. It was the summer and I knew I was probably going to be leaving Celtic, but you hear all these stuff about FFP or whatever, and I don’t know the ins and outs,” he clarified. “With the options I had, it was going to go until the very last day. Celtic wanted to make sure that I left around the end, which gave West Brom every opportunity to enter and match other bids that were received.”
Upon realizing that the possibilities were in the same league, I concluded that returning to West Brom was the only option available to me. The gaffer and I kept in touch, but initially he didn’t think it would be feasible either because of the FFP regulations, which prevented them from making any purchases. I believe the club was able to obtain the funds from Dara. It was really late because I wanted to give West Brom every opportunity to make a comeback, which is why it happened so late.
“At first, I assumed it would be somewhere else rather than in the Championship. I would unquestionably visit West Brom if it came down to the Championship teams and they were an option.”
As early as May of last year, after the play-off defeat at St Mary’s, Corberan and Johnston talked about what was ahead on the team coach from Southampton back to the West Midlands. That instant demonstrated to Johnston, if it wasn’t already obvious, how much Corberan had
appreciated his influence and his attributes, and that if it were feasible, he would make every effort to bring him back.
“He called me to the front of the bus and said if there was anything they could do to bring me back then they would do and straight away,” Johnston revealed. “To be honest, all a player ever really wants is to be liked, and that’s what it does for you. The £3 million price tag indicates that the management wants me and that everything he said about wanting to bring me back was real. Fortunately, I’m back here.”
Johnston is eager to resume playing, starting with Sunday’s trip to Portsmouth.
week. The possibility of continuing to hone his skills under Corberan on a regular basis without having a set end to his stay with the team, unlike during the summer, excites him.
“Ultimately he’s the one who is going to make me a better player and he just has so much knowledge and so much stuff you can learn from,” Johnston said. “It goes without saying that my friends and fans down here were thrilled to see me return. There were a lot of really good reasons.
