Whisper it, but Mikey Johnston is worth a start on Sunday against St Johnstone and what have we to lose giving Rocco Vata a place on the bench?

Firstly I would like to make it clear, I don’t think Mikey Johnston has a future at Celtic. I’ve been pretty honest on the subject a few times. But with the injury problems we currently have, and the inconsistency of Yang we could do worse than turn to Mikey for Sunday’s trip Perth.

James Forrest is also past his best, so it makes sense to start Mikey alongside Kyogo and Luis Palma up top.

Mikey looked bright and confident when he came on against Lazio last night. He did more in his short time on the park than the man he replaced James Forrest did from the start. He ran at players and tried to make things happen, that tells me he is full of confidence so he should be trusted with a starting place on Sunday.

Mikey has a point to prove and wants to show Brendan Rodgers he has a future at the club, so he will be hungry and eager to impress. He needs to convince the Celtic support that he is worthy of a place in the squad after years of failing to achieve adequate fitness or form.

That could work to our advantage, so giving Mikey a starting berth is an idea well worth considering.

Meanwhile Rocco Vata was the star performer as Celtic B team won 2-0 against their Lazio counterparts, a similar result that would have taken the first team through to the last game against Feyenoord needing a win to qualify for the knock-out rounds.

Vata was being linked with Italian clubs again yesterday amid speculation that he’s yet to put pen to paper on a new deal. So it looks like the writing is on the wall with that one and just like Ben Doak before him, our top Academy star is going to walk away from Celtic.

Doak of course wanted to leave, his head was turned by Liverpool and even Ange Postecoglou giving him first team minutes against Dundee United and theRangers – in that never to be forgotten evening kick-off at Celtic Park in February 2022 – wasn’t enough to get him to sign a contract at Celtic.

It’s a different situation with Rocco Vata as despite the wisdom of reporting elsewhere in the mainstream and even the Celtic fan media, we understand that there’s been no contract offer to sign, unless things have changed in the past week or so. Hopefully that is the case as Celtic can ill-afford to lose our best young talent.

Whoever is on fan media duties at the Celtic media conference this week might want to ask the manager for an update on Rocco Vata’s current situation regarding a new contract. Or maybe even one of the hacks reading this will ask the pertinent questions?

Why not have Rocco Vata on the bench on Sunday and give him his chance to show the manager he is more than capable of performing in the Celtic first team?

Just an Ordinary Bhoy