SLIDING DOORS: How Ireland winger Mikey Johnston came within a whisker of moving to... Flamengo
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What is the concept of Sliding Doors in football transfers?
Off the ball. Rugby. With Lachman and the two young wingers and then you've got Stuart McCluskey. These guys are sort of saying, I've dreamt about this. I've always wanted to play at Twicken. I don't know if I'm going to get another chance, but I'm taking it. I am not letting this day go. I'm grabbing this smuggle by the throat. Join in the obsession.
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Off the ball. Off the ball.
This is Sliding Doors, offering you a view of an alternate footballing universe and some of the transfer market's biggest missed opportunities. Down through the decades, newspaper pages, sports news channel broadcasts, Twitter feeds and podcasts have been absolutely stuffed with talk of transfers that very nearly came to happen. However, this podcast will look at the proposed moves that went beyond mere tittle-tattle and rumour. Transfers that came within a herd's breadth of happening and could well have changed the landscape of football at the time. A fanciful that was almost made flesh. Think Zinedine Zidane to Blackburn, Ronaldo to Rangers, or Mikey Johnston to Flamengo?
Zidane!
Yes, on this edition of Sliding Doors, we're right up to the present day. The summer of 2025 very nearly saw the former Celtic winger become the first Republic of Ireland international to be handed gainful employment in Brazil. However, despite agreeing terms and a willingness from West Brom to sell, fan power ultimately scuppered the deal. But how did it come to that? This is Sliding Doors. In their fourth season back in the Championship, following relegations suffered by them in 2022, West Brom looked to be heading for the playoffs. Ten draws in 11 league games between October and early December left them on the fringes of the top six. Mikey Johnston chipped in with a brace against Bristol City just before Christmas.
Mikey Johnston again, onto the right foot... And as January turned to February, he was also racking up the assists,
In that regard, he was bettering his tally for the previous season. The Glasgow-born player had joined the Baggies initially on loan from Celtic on the winter deadline day of 2024, scoring seven times to help West Brom earn a playoff spot where they were beaten 3-1 by Southampton in the semi-finals. But as they entered the final straight of the 24-25 season, West Brom's form collapsed with five defeats in six games, seeing them fall from 5th to 10th. April's 3-1 defeat to Derby cost manager Tony Mowbray his job, having only taken on the position in January after the Christmas Eve departure of Carlos Corberan, and while Johnston and West Brom were feeling the floor cave beneath them, Flamengo were in dazzling form over in Brazil.
The Rio Giants overcame a sluggish start in the Campeonato Carioca, the Rio State Championship, winning seven of their next eight games without conceding a goal to advance to the semi-finals. A 2-1 aggregate win over Vasco da Gama was followed by a final victory over Fluminense by the same scoreline to secure a 39th Carioca.
Rio de Araujo. Carioca's football continues. Rubro Negro is the champion. Flamengo is the champion. He reaches his thirty-ninth title.
April saw West Brom's season effectively brought to an end as Flamengo helped set the pace in the Campeonato Brasileiro with four wins out of five that month. Wingers Luis Araujo and Gonzalo Plata were helping with the assists with Uruguayan playmaker Georgianda Aracheta their standout player All that is to say, Flamengo seemed to be pretty stacked in terms of wingers and goal creation as they prepared for the recalibrated Club World Cup in the United States, at which they were one of four Brazilian teams to compete. And so it was, with no small amount of surprise, to which the Express and Stars report in the Midlands was met, when they claimed that the three-time Copa Libertadores winners were in talks to sign Mikey Johnston on July 5th.
What? !
The paper said that Flamengo made a formal approach with regards to a £5 million bid for the 15-time capped Republic of Ireland international.
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