Mikey Johnston M West Brom b.1999

[SkStu]

A brace for Johnston today against Bristol City (O�Leary, Knight and McNally). A free header and a lovely curler. He�s on fire according to the socials.

[pineapple stu]

Molumby booked too I see. Nothing's changed there!

[Eirambler]

Didn't actually realise he hadn't scored in the league all season before today. He's the 25th Irish player to score in the Championship this season.

[tetsujin1979]

Highlights from the game here
Johnston's goals at 0:35 and 2:15
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Second goal is a cracker

[tetsujin1979]

This is a whole other level of random
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[Eirambler]

Great opportunity for him, but not ideal for Ireland in terms of the amount of travel he'll have to take on during international breaks.

Irish players transferring to Ferencvaros and Flamengo this week, a change from the likes of Fleetwood and Forest Green anyway.

[joey B]

I love it,badly need our footballers to branch out to new football environments ,having them all stuck in the English football system won’t work anymore….

[Fixer82]

How random is this?? Hopefully he makes a great impact and the travel doesn't affect his international prospects too much. Could be a great move

[liamoo11]

How random is this?? Hopefully he makes a great impact and the travel doesn't affect his international prospects too much. Could be a great move


Del8ghted for him. He feels like the closest to our childhood memories of a Brazilian footballer that we have had since mcgesdy and duff. Also pleasantly surprised that the money he can get is been reported as significantly more than he is getting at West Brom as I would have thought a top 10 championship club would be paying better than a top brazilian club. Im delighted for the romance of football that isn't the case. We should still absolutely pick him

[pineapple stu]

Flamengo have the money they've earned from the Club Cup I guess - $27m I think. That'll help

Brave move to be spending it on Mikey Johnston, but it could work I guess. As you say, the most Brazilian player we've had in a long time

[samhaydenjr]

Great opportunity for him, but not ideal for Ireland in terms of the amount of travel he'll have to take on during international breaks.

Irish players transferring to Ferencvaros and Flamengo this week, a change from the likes of Fleetwood and Forest Green anyway.

Shouldn't be too much of an issue - South American internationals fly back from Europe all the time.


Del8ghted for him. He feels like the closest to our childhood memories of a Brazilian footballer that we have had since mcgesdy and duff. Also pleasantly surprised that the money he can get is been reported as significantly more than he is getting at West Brom as I would have thought a top 10 championship club would be paying better than a top brazilian club. Im delighted for the romance of football that isn't the case. We should still absolutely pick him

Yeah, we don't think about the finances in South American leagues that much, with all the focus on the big European leagues, and with the top South American players playing in Europe. But average team revenue in the Brazilian Serie A is nearly double that of an EFL Championship team. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_professional_sports_leagues_by_revenue

[texidub]

What a legendary club to be going to. Very exotic.. taps into childhood romance of football. I know nothing about the way Flamengo plays - is there lots of squad rotation? Is he likely to play many games? Are they patient with new players?

[Eirambler]

Shouldn't be too much of an issue - South American internationals fly back from Europe all the time.



That's more of a level playing field for all the teams involved though. In the context of European international games he's going to be taking on a fair amount of additional travel that the vast majority of Irish and opposition players won't be subject to. Also any games we play in March will take place in pre-season for him. It's not ideal.

[liamoo11]

That's more of a level playing field for all the teams involved though. In the context of European international games he's going to be taking on a fair amount of additional travel that the vast majority of Irish and opposition players won't be subject to. Also any games we play in March will take place in pre-season for him. It's not ideal.

For the world Cup he will maybe be more acclimatised and familiar with the America s in general coukd help us get past a quarter final for first time

[Buckett]

For the world Cup he will maybe be more acclimatised and familiar with the America s in general coukd help us get past a quarter final for first time

We would do well to even qualify for WC26. Reaching a semi-final? That's an impressive level of optimism

[tetsujin1979]

After all that, the transfer might not happen
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[pineapple stu]

Jaysus, that'll be good for the aul confidence! Chased out of a club he never even played for.

[Diggs246]

I think we are better off with him somewhere in Europe. The travel would have effected things surely. He's a lovely little player and Holland might be a good home for him. Look at Troy he hadn't looked back

[Eirambler]

Did his nationality contribute to the supporter backlash I wonder? Would the same thing have happened if he was a national of one of the more successful European nations?

[pineapple stu]

I think it's quite a jump to assume there's racism at play here.

This is a club that's just earned $27m at the World Club Cup; I can imagine their fans being nonplussed at signing a 26-year-old winger who didn't really make it at Celtic and who didn't even light up the Portuguese league if we're honest. Heck, even last season he was in and out of the WBA side more than we'd have liked.

(I think there's also a suggestion some think he's a forward, in which case his goalscoring record would be pretty sketchy)

[tetsujin1979]

Did his nationality contribute to the supporter backlash I wonder? Would the same thing have happened if he was a national of one of the more successful European nations?
Looks like it was more that the fans were not impressed with his record last season, nothing to do with his nationality

[mark12345]

I think it's quite a jump to assume there's racism at play here.

This is a club that's just earned $27m at the World Club Cup; I can imagine their fans being nonplussed at signing a 26-year-old winger who didn't really make it at Celtic and who didn't even light up the Portuguese league if we're honest. Heck, even last season he was in and out of the WBA side more than we'd have liked.

(I think there's also a suggestion some think he's a forward, in which case his goalscoring record would be pretty sketchy)

All legitimate points. However I still think Mikey Johnson has bags of ability. He showed it at times for Celtic and West Brom and for Ireland in the brief cameos he had. He reminds me of McGeady in that respect and like McGeady (should have been in his time) I feel Johnson should be used by HH as a free role midfielder, given our lack of creativity.

[pineapple stu]

Yep - to be clear, I'm not saying the fan reaction is right, if it is the case they've scuppered the deal. Just that it is a bit of an unusual signing for a side with Club Cup money

[elatedscum]

Spoke to some Flamengo fans in Ireland today. Said he’s basically victim of his own name.

There’s Brazilian club “banter” where Flamengo cited some cups they won in preseason in the US. Fans from other Brazilian teams called these cups the Mickey Mouse Cups and Brazilian fans not being able to distinguish between Mickey and Mikey started calling him the irish Mickey Mouse and Flamengo further became the butt of jokes in that sense.

There’s a secondary issue which is the old director of football leaked transfer info to influencers on social media who cover the club and the board/director of football have stopped doing that, which has led to them being extremely hostile to every transfer to try put pressure on the club for leaks. This was the case with Mikey.

In the end, the pressure mounted so much that the club pulled the plug on the transfer - but they didn’t want to seem like they were caving to fan pressure - so instead they leaked that there was a medical issue which caused the transfer to stall - but there wasn’t, he hadn’t begun his medical cause he hadn’t traveled yet. Journalists there are reporting that, which looks even worse for the club cause it’s obvious they’re lying…

[SkStu]

Its ok. He'll have he last laugh when he scores the winner against Brazil in the WC Final. :)

[Predator]

Spoke to some Flamengo fans in Ireland today. Said he’s basically victim of his own name.

There’s Brazilian club “banter” where Flamengo cited some cups they won in preseason in the US. Fans from other Brazilian teams called these cups the Mickey Mouse Cups and Brazilian fans not being able to distinguish between Mickey and Mikey started calling him the irish Mickey Mouse and Flamengo further became the butt of jokes in that sense.

There’s a secondary issue which is the old director of football leaked transfer info to influencers on social media who cover the club and the board/director of football have stopped doing that, which has led to them being extremely hostile to every transfer to try put pressure on the club for leaks. This was the case with Mikey.

In the end, the pressure mounted so much that the club pulled the plug on the transfer - but they didn’t want to seem like they were caving to fan pressure - so instead they leaked that there was a medical issue which caused the transfer to stall - but there wasn’t, he hadn’t begun his medical cause he hadn’t traveled yet. Journalists there are reporting that, which looks even worse for the club cause it’s obvious they’re lying…
Such a strange sequence of events and fascinating to learn of the ways in which fan power can have a genuine impact on a huge club.

[seanfhear]

Its ok. He'll have he last laugh when he scores the winner against Brazil in the WC Final. :)Probably a. left foot / right foot / header, hat-trick !

[SkStu]

Probably a. left foot / right foot / header, hat-trick !

I like that even better! More realistic.

Johnstinho!

[pineapple stu]

Its ok. He'll have he last laugh when he scores the winner against Brazil in the WC Final. :)
Ah come here - he's not Jason McAteer like!

[elatedscum]

i feel like in some ways this is a premier league parallel: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c23gzevz398o

obviously arsenal aren't going to listen to the fans but it's interesting to see a fanbase so obviously against a signing and so vocal about it

[Eirambler]

I'm not sure a fan base that's been cheering on Thomas Partey from the sidelines for the last few seasons when more or less everyone knew what was coming down the road there are in a position to cast aspersions on any proposed signing this summer.

[pineapple stu]

20 minutes off the bench for West Brom today, but got two assists in that time as they won 3-2 away to Wrexham.

James McClean played the full 90 and also got an assist. Not sure if I'd be more surprised now to see him called up in September or not called up

[SkStu]

Goal for Johnstoninho today! Sounds like a belter.


The home side take the lead!

Former Celtic winger Mikey Johnston marks his first league start of the season with his first goal, as he fires in a quality strike from distance.

Albion on track to maintain their 100% start to the Championship campaign.

[Eirambler]

Decent finish from about 20 yards.

https://x.com/WBAReport/status/1959261317212049896?t=98U2K_G-kaGeMawSKpovPQ&s=19