It’ll be a right Boerr if Mikey has to Trot out Derk’s old lines
It became a bit like the famous Del Boy Trotter line.
But instead of this time next year we’ll be millionaires, Derk Boerrigter would come out every summer and proclaim that this was going to be his season.
About two weeks later the Dutchman would be carted back in to the Lennoxtown treatment room only to pop up every couple of months for the odd dive in the box.
Poor Derk became the poster boy for the perma-injured.
A top-class player who was never fit enough to prove it at Parkhead.
Celtic eventually had to write off the best part of £3million when the winger limped out of the country and on to the list of signings fans would rather forget.
It’s a different story with home grown talent Mikey Johnston – but we’ll hear similar Del Boy lines over the next few weeks.
This is a lad who could do with a break – and not the kind that ends up in a stookie.
There’s a sense some Hoops fans are losing a bit of patience with the attacker but they should hold fire for a little longer before lumping the kid in the Boerrigter camp.
Johnston has got bags of ability. He just needs a clean bill of health over a prolonged period of time to show it.
It’s a year since he turned the air blue at Bristol City’s plush training ground.
He hit the deck and cursed the heavens when his pre- season preparations were wrecked by another agonising injury.
‘No again’, he wailed as he hobbled off and his season never really got up and running from that point.
It has been an all too familiar tale.
Johnston has been tipped to become a superstar since before he had bum fluff on his chin.
But all of a sudden he’s 23 years old and the potential hasn’t quite turned into reality.
He’s no longer a youngster, a wonder kid or whatever.
He should be hitting his prime. Johnston’s older than the likes of Leil Abada, Matt O’Riley, David Turnbull. He’s just a month younger than Jota.
He made his debut five years ago and has made just 31 starts since.
In contrast, Kieran Tierney had made more than 150 appearances by the time he got to 23.
It’s time for him to start catching
up. Johnston has been brutally unlucky with injuries but he also has to take his chance.
And he will never get a better one than under Ange Postecoglou.
The Celtic boss is winger daft. He loves them.
But he doesn’t love the old fashioned wide men who’d hang about waiting for the ball and then do a couple of fancy step-overs.
Postecoglou wants f lying machines who can run all day – as well as doing the fancy stuff. Johnston’s got it in his locker and if he stays out of Emergency Ward 10 he will get chances to display his undoubted talents.
Celtic wingers need to get rotated and subbed on and off at times because of the workrate demands put on them.
Johnston should be watching Duracel l Bunnies like Daizen Maeda and thinking that’s the kind of graft he needs to be putting in if he wants to be a bigger part of the Parkhead picture under Postecoglou.
The next few weeks will be revealing.
If Johnston is fit and firing he’ll be in the Postecoglou squad.
If the manager doesn’t see what he needs to be seeing then he’s likely to be standing on a trackside with a scarf above his head talking about the benefit of some loan move.
It doesn’t need to be that way. He can do a James Forrest and put injury problems behind him to become a Hoops mainstay.
And unlike Derk Boy’s vow, this time next year Johnson could save Celtic millions.
This is a lad who could do with a break – and not type that ends up in a stookie