Currently playing for a high-level team in Portugal, Vitoria Guimaraes, in fifth just behind Sporting Lisbon, though recently lost his starting slot. 

Haven't seen him play in Portugal, but nothing I saw of him in a Celtic shirt would scream wing back. Old fashioned tricky winger is how I'd describe him. Very hard to see him being as heavily involved as Kenny seems to suggest, unless we see a change of tactical approach to some games,  which I would welcome.

Not the most exciting switch of allegiance imo, but he's only 23 and definitely has ability. Good luck to him, hopefully he can stay injury free and kick on in his career.

His club have confirmed his call up to the Ireland senior squad for the March games anyway. Will be interesting to see if he lasts any longer than CJ Hamilton did.

Supposedly already called up to the Ireland squad?

Seems very strange?

I think his club just mean available to play or there is some confusion.

If true doesn't quite sit right that he is getting very special treatment.

It is not like we just convinced Damien Duff to play for us.

Where is he going to play. Formation change would make sense but whatever, wait and see I suppose

Granny rulers always have got special treatment . But suppose Kenny will be trying to paint this as some sort of win. Could be in the long term. Who knows.

I don't think there's any great mystery here. Kenny was always going to pick him, as an under pressure manager he seems to see this as some kind of win he can sell to the public. The clubs get notice of the call ups well in advance, there's just usually an assumed embargo on publishing the details until the national association have done it. Vitória probably haven't realised this and have just gone and released the details anyway.

I suspect he'll win a few caps under Kenny and once Kenny is gone, unless he finds another level in his club career, he'll disappear out of the squad like Curtis, Horgan and many others before him.

Not as weird as this post. Are you really suggesting Kenny picked him (though it is still to be confirmed he will make the final squad) because he plays for Celtic?

Ah yeah extended squads

Still though. Lots of noise being made for this lad.

Him waltzing straight into the main squad would piss me off tbh.

We have young players coming through that have earned a place.

Tbf, what fuss? There's been an article from a sports journalist and a post on the FAI's twitter that he has been cleared to play. We're hardly talking wall-to-wall coverage here, in fact unless you were actually following the Irish team specifically I doubt you'd have a clue what was going on with him.

If he is brought into the squad for the Latvia game, wether to look at him in training or some mins on pitch, then I don't see much issue with that as long as he's not taking the place of someone more deserving in that position. We're not excactly stacked on wingers. 

Exactly, Ive seen no more fuss than there was when Callum Robinson switched for example.

Ireland Football*

In fairness we don't even play with wingers so he will be taking the place of someone more deserving

I don’t know much about Johnston but when you are going to have multiple midfield or attacking options playing for Preston,Wigan,Reading and even Derby County in League 1 it’s hardly a massive crime to be selecting a guy getting reasonable gametime for Vitoria. 

Not that I’m getting carried away with his inclusion. 

I'm not sure he deserves a call up on current form, but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water here. This lad was doing very well up to age 21, when injuries began to blight his career. He won 3rd best player at  the Toulon tournament for Scotland as an 18yo and was doing very well at Celtic over the next couple of seasons until his injury issues flared up.

Is playing as a squad player in a Vitoria side 5th in the Portugese League worthy of a call up? I dont know (Its probably a higher level than McGrath or Knight or Azaz are playing at), but tbf the lad has demonstrated a fair bit of talent in the past and he is a good 4 years younger than CJ Hamilton. I wouldn't personally have him in the squad right now, but I'll reserve judgement on this one., It might be a shrewd move in the medium term.

There was similar eyebrows raised when he first called up Ogbene playing in League One after being out injured for a few months and not exactly pulling up any trees. He was also then playing a RWB. Kenny got him in and played up front and hes been one of our better players.

If it works out, great, if it doesn't, no harm done. One cap wonders have always been a thing.

He'd a good eye for it with Szmodics and Sykes in League One too who then went on to making the step up to the Championship and currently doing very well, they could be decent squad options for us going forward.

Regardless of his inclusion, the level he's playing at the moment(if playing consistently) is much higher than L1.

Agreed the level is higher than L1, but he's only started 8 of 23 games for them and while the traditional top 3 teams in that League are pretty good plus more recently Braga, the rest are pretty meh. Vitoria are 5th. but 12 pts off 3rd and have only scored 24 goals in 23 games. Best of the Rest maybe this year, they have been 6th, 6th, 7th over the last 3 seasons and were knocked out in the early qualifying rounds for the Conference League this season.

The portugese League itself despite Benfica and Porto doing pretty well most years in CL (perennial Last 16 - QF for Benfica this year) isnt ranked much higher than the SPL in the UEFA Ranking system (7th vs 9th), so how much better a team like Vitoria might be compared with a Hearts for example is open to question.

Plenty of it is coming From the FAI twitter...

Where?
 

Literally one post to say he has received international clearance.

Because Scotland have a 'golden generation' at the moment - that is despite them losing 4-2 over two games to our worst ever team...

Because he hasn't shown anything to suggest that he should be in their squad - or ours for that matter.

Yes, nothing other than:

-  playing in 83% of the games of Portugal's fifth best team this season (starting most games) (behind Sporting in the league); 

- playing over 80 games for Celtic by the age of 22;

- 5 SPL medals;

- 3 Scottish FA Cup medals;

- 3 League Cup medals;

- being only 23 with a high ceiling ahead of him; and

- being the kind of tricky winger type player that we don't really have at present.

Other than that, he's brutal and it's a disgrace that we should be considering him for our squad. 

Really need to be picking Daryl Horgan for that spot in the squad.

Or, to put it another way, he's achieved far more already than Ray Houghton had when Jack initially picked him.  

If Johnston ultimately achieves even half of what Houghton did, his selection will have been a very good move.

If not, it's no loss.

I'm looking forward to seeing him play for us - he's an exciting player - and I expect he'll be a positive squad addition.

Celtic dont deem his fit for purpose. Never stood out when i watched him play for them before either. Ill hold my judgement but i wont be holding out hope hes going to turn into a world beater. 

I agree with the gist of your post but just to clarify - He has started 8 of their 23 games in the League this season with 7 sub apps, so has featured in 15 of their 23 League games. He has registered 1 goal and 2 assists in 742 minutes, so has played about 35% of the available 2070 minutes in the League.

I highly doubt Kenny gives two f**ks who he plays for. Also, “Celtic obsession”?? Not in this forum, that’s for sure; I’ve seen plenty of anti-Celtic vibes here, most of them completely unnecessary.

Can't say I know anything about him myself but surely can't be worse than some of the fringe players we have in that position.

Who are our fringe players in his position though - Ogbene? Robinson? He's not as good as either of them. He's probably no worse than Horgan, Curtis or Hamilton but they don't get in the squad anyway so that's not a particularly high bar he's clearing there and doesn't mean he should be fast tracked into the senior squad.

 

 

Grandfather is from Derry/Londonderry

(Runs from cover here)

Hes not that far gone

Yet

His grandfather would say he's from Derry - which pretty much says it all.

f**k out of here with that sh*t. 

What a c*nt!

Him or me? 

Certainly not you!

Well tbf I’m probably a bit of a ****, lol, but I’m away down the scale from f**kface above ^ 

I'd say he'll get about half a dozen caps and then never be seen again to be honest.

I doubt it seeing as he’s streets ahead of numerous lads who, in the last 10 years or so, have received more caps than that. 

Question marks from some over the level he's playing at but, for what it's worth, Sporting - one place ahead of Victoria in the Primeira Liga - have just knocked the PL leaders, Arsenal, out of Europe.

We haven't had a winger with any real sort of skill since McGeady so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. 

Sporting are also 10 points ahead of them with a 26 goal better goal difference. It's a bit like comparing Hearts to the Rangers because they're only one place behind them in the table, but they're miles behind them in reality.

And he's not even a regular starter for them.

This, they are a team that were knocked out of the UEFA Conference League at the qualification stage - 5th or 6th best team in portugal, but just beaten at home by Arouca 2-0. Johnston has started just 8 of their 24 league games.

John Nice wrote: Failed to make if off the bench yesterday in a 5 1 loss to Benfica.

Wasn't even on the bench!

Agree with all of that but I think that from Kenny’s point of view it’s probably a no-brainer to call him up as he’s more technical than most of our players; he offers a wide option, should we require it; and he’s young enough for his end-product to improve. That doesn’t guarantee he’ll do the business for us, but no harm having him in the squad anyway. 

Then again I've a soft spot for dribblers like McGeady so might be a bit biased in this regard if Johnston is similar. I'd nearly always have them in even if they're out of form. They can always get you frees or used as a late subs against tired defences. 

Football isn’t a linear trajectory to the top.

International football is a different ball game for certain players 

He hasn’t “made it” either after one good cameo appearance against Latvia 

Which remains a fair concern as with Kenny’s preferred formation, it is hard to see where a player with his skillset can flourish. 

No, a brief but promising cameo against poor opposition by no means serves as a body of work for declaratory statements, but by the same token, it should point in the direction of those who labelled him as a waste of space as being misguided.

Its a tricky one. We don't really have good enough out and out full backs and we have good CBs so makes a back 5 necessary. And not sure we have the midfield to play a 343 consistently we would get overwhelmed most likely. We've also had poor wingers recently for the most part but hopefully that will change.

The team will evolve when we get the players with the correct skillsets I'm sure.

100%

Cabra Hoop wrote: Did well tonight, his performance was like some for Celtic, does lots of good things but doesn't finish.

He could do with being a little more selfish, tried to square it a few times where he would have been better pulling the trigger himself.

That’s a bit harsh - he came on, looked lovely and set up a goal. 

I know what you’re saying about him at Celtic but I don’t think that applied tonight, tbf, albeit that it was a fairly brief cameo.  

Seems more direct 

Mcgeady would have taken the same fella on three times then lost it instead of having a shot first time 

Bang of McGeady off of him. 

Had he scored after beating three men on the run in from the bye-line, it would have been a goal for the ages. 

Looks like a very positive addition to the squad. 

Shame he couldnt put the gloss on the scoreline with that bit of trickery. Jinky Junior!

You have too wonder why Scotland didn't call him up when he had that bright spell with Celtic years ago. He probably would of accepted it  

Would be surprised if he played any part against France if it’s a defensive performance.

Yep Jinky Johnson indeed 

Any of their young players that I've seen coming through are either full backs or have flopped e.g. Billy Gilmour.

They've a few placeholder players like McTominay and Fraser at big clubs, but we all know they'll be slugging it out near the bottom of the table within the next 1-2 years.

They've no good centre backs coming through, and they don't have a clue how to produce a striker.

Welcome aboard Mikey, who'd want to play for that bigoted shower anyway?