Celtic winger Mikey Johnston has spoken about his future at the club, admitting he needs to force his way into the starting 11 before January.
Johnston is currently on international duty with the Republic of Ireland, who face the Netherlands tomorrow night in a Euro 2024 qualifier at the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam.
Johnston joined the Celtic youth setup in 2008, making his first-team debut in 2017. Despite being in and around the first team for six years, he has made very little impact, struggling to become a regular starter.
A loan spell last season to Portuguese side Vitória de Guimarães signaled his challenges in breaking into the first team. This season, he has been able to stay with the squad but has only played in one game against Hibernian. He came off the bench in the second half in a 0-0 draw on October 28th but has since failed to make another appearance.
Johnston said: “I’d like to have done a lot more at this stage of my career, obviously. I had 18 months at one stage of quite bad injuries but I seem to have overcome that now and I’m playing. I would like to have done a lot more. Obviously what happens on the pitch affects your life massively and every footballer will tell you that.
“No player is going to be happy when they’re not playing. Ultimately it’s up to me and I need to try and force my way into that team. I have until January to do that and I will try and give it everything to do that but we just have to see what happens.
“I’m definitely going to have to force my way into the (Celtic) team or see what happens. I’m not sure what’s going to happen in January, but I do want to play.
“It’s not happened yet. Hopefully it does. A big dream of mine would have been to play in the Champions League for Celtic. It’s sort of what I wanted to do as a boy so hopefully it happens but if it doesn’t it’s not the end of the world.”
Johnston’s quotes echo the frustration he has experienced in his career at Celtic so far, despite being only 24 years old. Injuries have plagued him, a worrying sign for such a young player.
Over the years, just when it has looked like Johnston was going to kick on at Celtic, injuries have meant that, despite having all the talent in the world, he wasn’t able to play anywhere near as much as he would have liked.
With Johnston’s contract expiring in the summer of 2025, it really is now or never for the Republic of Ireland international. Celtic are likely to move him on in the next two transfer windows if he doesn’t cement himself in the first team. Time is running out to do that.