Determining the true value of Mikey Johnston and Adam Idah

Mikey Johnston’s future at Celtic has still to be determined, but reports are circling that he’s a serious target for West Brom, the club he enjoyed an impressive recent loan spell with.

It was widely believed earlier this year that Celtic would want something in the region of £2 to £3 million for the Republic of Ireland international but after his highly successful loan move at West Brom that valuation has rocketed, in a similar way to fellow Irishman Adam Idah’s over at Norwich City after he too had a successful January loan move at Celtic.

Both Celtic and Norwich should quite rightly be getting what they believe is the best price for their player, but what is the true value of Mikey Johnston and indeed Adam Idah? Back in early February there were reports that it would take £3m to sign Idah on a permanent deal from Norwich and let’s be honest, Celtic would also have accepted that sum at the start of the year, for Mikey Johnston.

Both player were having similar struggles at their parent club in the months leading up to their loan moves. Both were glads to get away and play heir football elsewhere.

Mikey is a talented player that is not in question, but his fitness and inconsistency holds him back from being an important player at Celtic. The club know this and so does Brendan Rodgers despite his constant praising of the Irish international winger. This is perhaps Brendan being ‘cute’ as he knows it will increase the value of a player he doesn’t need in his squad going forward.

Or maybe he really does rate Johnston highly as the most talent player that the Celtic Academy has produced in a long time.

The valuation is down to market values and Johnston has shown that he can star in the English Championship, where we scored goals and even won a Championship Player of the Month award. He has real value in that league where he has shown he can make a huge impact.

Realistically Celtic will be looking at much more than the £2-3 million they might have accepted for Mikey in January. Look at it this way, had he gone to West Brom and flopped then his valuation would have decreased so having been a huge success it’s only natural that the asking price goes up.

Some have even suggested he could form part of a deal with West Brom’s championship rivals Norwich in a deal that sees Adam Idah move to Glasgow permanently. Norwich have indeed been credited with an interest in Johnston but the change of manager at Carrow Road might mean that interest will have cooled.

The truth is no one really knows, but something we do believe is that Mikey’s time at Celtic is coming to an end. What fee he will fetch us is anyone’s guess but Celtic understand that they will be forced to pay a higher price for Idah because of his success in Glasgow and also that they can demand a higher fee for Mikey Johnston.

Hopefully one rise can go a long way to offsetting the other. With Oh heading for the exit door at Lennoxtown, Celtic will be down to just one striker, until the Idah deal is sorted or an alternative plan actioned, maybe by looking to the North East of Scotland to the Northern lights of Old Aberdeen.

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