Mikey Johnston

Johnston subbed off after 20 minutes tonight - hopefully not an injury, it might not be as Vitoria had a player sent off on two minutes, so always going to be a long night for them from there and they may have needed to get a more defensive player on.

Their only result vs the Top 4 teams (Porto, Benfica, Braga, Sporting) in Portugal in 7 matches to date in the League was a 0-0 at home to Benfica early in the season, they lost the return fixture 5-1.

Having watched Aberdeen try to play football for the last two hours, I'm sticking to my guns on this! Says something that they're the third best team in Scotland...

It seems a logical next step for English clubs alright and unfortunately it's probably the most likely way for us to see significant investment in training facilities etc. across the country. If we are waiting on the FAI to get things right, it could take quite some time. English club owners have deep enough pockets that buying up an Irish club would barely register on their balance sheets. Given the success of Ferguson and our underage teams more generally, it would seem a no brainer for an English club or two or three to get seriously involved over here in the not too distant future.

They may be about to become a level above them, but they arent currently on the evidence of the season just gone. I wasnt aware of the large scale investment however and if the intention of the owners is to have them competing at the top end of the Portugese League then that moves the dial obviously. However there is a move across Europe whereby big clubs/owners are buying up these kind of clubs as feeder clubs rather than trying to develop them competitively. Celtic remain a very big club in, unfortunately for them, an uncompetitive League.

Celtic are a much bigger club than Vitoria and will possibly have CL football, EL at a minimum. I'm not a big Celtic fan by any means, but I'm not sure why there seems to be such an attitude in here about lads that are. I'd prefer to see Johnston breaking into the first team at Celtic, I'm not sure why the lifestyle in Portugal is relevant, is Mikey a mate of yours? 

If he was at one of the big three clubs in Portugal, I could see the logic in him staying, but Vitoria didnt even make it through the qualifying stages of the Conference League this season and they are a full 21 points behind 4th spot in the Portugese League with a negative goal difference. Maybe that's Johnston's level, but they are likely no better than a Hearts/Hibs/Aberdeen. I would hope Johnston can develop to a better level than that.

Cullen really benefitted from his two years in Belgium.

Ebosele will hopefully establish himself at Udinese next season. Or at least get a good Serie A loan move.

He's had a decent loan spell, but you would hope that if he's to be as good as we all hope, then Celtic will take him back and play him. They arent exactly well stocked with reliable fit wide players. I'd hope to see him in the first team set up at Celtic next season tbh.