Nottingham Forest star Brennan Johnson will leave the club this summer, Lewis McGugan believes. The Reds player has been linked with Brentford, Tottenham and Aston Villa with the season fast approaching.
The man who came through the Forest academy and starred in the Billy Davies era appeared on the Garibaldi Red Podcast this morning. He thinks that the supporters will be left disappointed over Johnson.
Last season was a pretty good one for the 22-year-old. He did struggle a little bit prior to the World Cup but became massively important after the tournament, finishing the season with eight Premier League goals.
It’s not really a surprise that Johnson is attracting interest. He does have a high ceiling and scoring eight times at 22 in your maiden Premier League campaign is not to be sniffed at.
McGugan has a theory over why Johnson will want to leave. He believes that being left out of the team towards the end of last season might have left him wondering what the future holds.
He told the Garibaldi Red Podcast: “Last season there was a time when he was out of the side. He’d scored important goals but then at the business end, he wasn’t involved. I wonder if he was looking at that and wondering, ‘What does this mean for me in the future’.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if in two weeks, something happens and he ends up at a different football club.”
McGugan thinks Johnson will leave Forest this summer
It’s not a particularly bold claim but the reasoning for McGugan making his prediction is intriguing. Johnson doesn’t seem like a bad egg and it’s hard to imagine him wanting to leave at all.
Steve Cooper has a good relationship with Johnson. He doesn’t want him to leave the club this summer and he will know more than most that if he does go, he will take some serious replacing.
If Johnson does go, it would help Forest considerably. Their place against FFP would be a lot more relaxed and it would probably allow the club to go out and strengthen two or three key areas.
Johnson won’t have been happy at missing some key games at the back end of last season. Ultimately, it was only a handful of games though and it’s hard to imagine him wanting out because of that.