Nottingham forest in “HEFTY” player transfer of 22 years old at the moment

These past days have been a whirlwind of extreme highs and lows for former Nottingham Forest favourite Brennan Johnson. From social media abuse to a match-winning goal – even shouts to come back to the City Ground – he has experienced it all.

£47.5m is a hefty transfer fee for someone just 22 years old at the time, if there isn’t already enough pressures on Premier League footballers to deliver. Strong doubters may have even commented it was a move correlating with Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) rather than the talent of the individual, whose 10 goals and three assists as part of a relegation-threatened side the season before would serve to prove otherwise

Regardless, his move was secured and a debut campaign in white resulted in a further five goals and 10 assists – steady progression for a youthful, new recruit. But now in the early weeks of the new term the former Forest talent has been a lightning rod for criticism in an underperforming Spurs side.

Sunday’s North London derby proved to be a breaking point. Hooked after 68 minutes, yet to add any sort of contribution in front of goal at that point since domestic football’s return, a torrent of online abuse followed. The result was Johnson deactivating his Instagram account to escape the noise.

“You’re talking about a young guy who is probably lacking a bit of confidence at the moment. Things haven’t gone his way, but he comes here every day, he’s working his backside off, he’s asking for feedback, he’s doing everything right, he’s trying so hard to become the player he wants to be, it’s hurting him a lot,” said his new manager, Ange Postecoglou, rallying behind his player.

“It’s not like he’s out on the town and he doesn’t care and he rolls up late. So what’s his crime? His crime is he isn’t performing at the level that people expect of him. As a professional footballer you’ve got to expect that you’re going to get criticism about that, that’s part of your growth. He’s still a young player and I think there is so much more of Brennan that we’re going to bring out in him.

“It’s sad for me that we’ve kind of normalised that stuff. That getting abuse, and it is abuse and a lot of it personal, is ‘oh well, that’s part of the territory’. I don’t see that.”

The next response was to not let the abusers’ activity diminish the Welshman’s role in the squad. Called upon when his side most needed it, facing an early exit from the Carabao Cup at Championship Coventry City, it was Johnson that found the net to complete an injury time turnaround and send his side through to the next round.

“It was really nice. It is a great feeling to score, especially so late on. Getting into the next round is really important and penalties are a toss of a coin, so getting my goal was very beneficial,” he told Sky Sports afterwards.

Postecoglou would add further support for his player, saying: “Hopefully [it will mean] a great deal. He’s a fantastic young man, a great player. I have a lot of time for him because he works so hard every day. He took his goal well tonight and he made a good impact.”

Those still at Forest who had the opportunity to play alongside Johnson can attest, especially countryman Neco Williams. He piled in with further support for his national teammate with the help of social media: