Six goals in nine games for Johnston.
Interestingly the same number as Idah had scored in the first six months of the Championship season before swapping divisions with him.
Saw a Celtic fan on Twitter saying that Johnston's form proves that Celtic would walk the Championship seemingly without any consideration of how Idah's move from third pick at Norwich to star man at Celtic might impinge on that argument somewhat.
Love the fact that the defender so clearly showed him the outside and told him have at it. So he did. So he did.
A truly exciting player to watch.
All credit to Mr Kenny for bringing him aboard.
Given that Ogbene would likely have come through anyway, bringing Johnston in may end up being the main (only?) positive of Kenny's time in charge.
Genuinely think if Ogbene doesn’t get chased by Kenny and called up when he did, he wouldn’t be a premier league player now. He grew with the performances against Portugal, Belgium, France etc.Originally Posted by Eirambler
He also gave Luton the belief that he was Premier League player
Yeah, if you took club and international in isolation then I think Kenny called Ogbene up too early in his club arc. However, his development looked to be supercharged by the international exposure and I think that sees his club arc climbing at a faster trajectory than it would or could have had he not been called up. I have to argue that Kenny showed serious conviction there. He also threw him in against Hungary in a fairly toxic environment which could have backfired but Kenny must have trusted the character and rightly so.
I'm not saying Kenny was a great or good manager - I am saying that he showed serious judgement and conviction over Ogbene and Johnston in a way that he didn't always show during his tenure.
I don't know. Ogbene didn't make much noise about wanting to play for Ireland. Kenny wanted to sign Ogbene before he left Limerick. I'd say Kenny reached out to Ogbene about Ireland.
Ogbene has been honest in saying that Nigeria were his first choice. But would he even get a Nigeria call up now, playing down at the bottom of the Premier League? Would agree Kenny sped the process along for him alright. He wasn't up to the job as manager but he did seem to have an eye for a winger to be fair to him.
You generally need a lot of patience to see Irish players score.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Yes, he would get a Nigeria call up now. They have Osho of Luton in there and Championship players.
Opens the scoring for WBA today away against Stoke. Can't wait to see it
7 in 13 now
Championship player of the month for March
https://www.efl.com/news/2024/april/...march-winners/
Kieran Mckenna manager of the month too
Returning to Celtic after his loan to WBA, where he scored 7 goals in 20 appearances.(www.birminghamworld.uk, 22 May)
The price for Idah seems to be about 6 million for Celtic to buy him, would WBA pay that to get Johnston?
Its really not that complicated!!!
Since relegation they've mostly shopped amongst free agents and loans. Spending big only once (€8m) which has burnt them as Dike has spent most his time at West Brom in the treatment room. After him their next big money season was Jayson Molumby (€1m).
Johnston made a big impact at West Brom though scoring 7 league goals to end as joint third goal scorer playing half a season. Their top goal scorer only scored 11 league goals. 0
Probably kicking themselves that they didn't get a buy clause in the transfer. You'd imagine Celtic wouldn't have insisted in much back in January.
Another thing to consider is Corberan mightn't be the WBA manager next season. With Kompany looking like he might be off think Corberan should be someone Burnley considers.
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