Alistair Johnston has produced one of the most honest and refreshing podcasts ever conducted with a current player.
Normally it is past retirement time before a player can really let go with his feelings and thoughts on the game but the Canadian defender is a bit different to most of his contemporaries. He calls things exactly as he sees it.
The F word makes an appearances as does Sh**housery during a brilliant discussion with the host of the Footy Prime podcast and four Canadian football/soccer fans.
Less than two years ago Johnston was a full-back with CF Montreal but now has a few decent tales to tell from appearing in the World Cup, a transfer to Scotland, a Celtic debut at Ibrox, overtaking James Tavernier’s medal tally in just over five months, reaching the semi-finals of the Copa America, experiencing the Champions League and playing under two of the best known managers in the UK.
There is extensive discussion around the head-butting incident from Marcos Lopez of Peru during the summer that went unpunished plus lots more detail in the sort of interview that would have a club Communications Manager butting it to say ‘right, last question’.
You got the impression that Johnston could happily have chatted for hours.
ICE HOCKEY BACKGROUND
Johnston said:
I really loved to hit people, that was something that I really enjoyed about hockey. I managed to bring that into football as well, I really enjoyed the tackle, that was really my bread and butter.
It is sort of my DNA, when I got over there (Scotland) I knew after one match (his debut at Ibrox) that yeah, they re going to enjoy this.
Again my kind of Sh**housery is different to the kind of rolling around (in reference to the head-butt from Lopez) kind of stuff. Mine’s is more to get into a guy, ne physical, maybe wink at the crowd or laugh a bit, you can just see that the crowd plays off that. Sport is an entertainment, as a full back and you have the beating of a winger you like to play on that with the crowd.
IBROX DEBUT
There is nothing quite like that. I went up the day before to see the manager (putting on a decent Aussie accent) he said ‘Look mate you are going to start, I’m going to put you at right-back, are you ready for this?’
We get into the Dressing Room, he(Ange Postecoglou) announced the line up and no-one knew that I was starting! Even the right-back (Josip Juranovic) didn’t know so I thought Oh man I better have a good game here.
There is a little bit of tension. Walking out there you are absolutely behind enemy lines, it was unbelievable. The place was absolutely rocking, we went up (in front through Daizen Maeda) and just that feeling, like Holy Crap this is a proper match this. The people are fully behind this, there’s not a single phone out, there are shirts off, people are jumping, people are calling you every name under the sun and you just live off of it.
For me it is like, Ibrox or Celtic Park, 50,000 at Ibrox, 60,000 at Celtic Park and they are all screaming. At the end of the day it is just noise. It doesn’t matter if it is hateful for you or hateful for someone else I just compartmentalise it as noise and enjoy it.
Johnston adds
There are 60,000 people there watching 22 guys out there and I’m one of them just running around chasing after a ball. So I really enjoy that aspect of it, I remember we scored an equaliser near the end, to make it 2-2 and you see that we only had 750 fans away at Ibrox that match and just what it meant to them.
You just see bottles and coins, everything getting thrown into them and you think ‘Oh my God, someone could get killed in that poor away stand’ but, man, just that feeling like, Holy Crap that was a dose of something that I want again and again and again. And that’s why I think that it was really cool to start off in that match.
The whole podcasts continues in that tone, Johnston holds nothing back with so much detail, when Vicor Wanyama feels that you have the personality to thrive in Glasfgow that is quite an endorsement.
The Kyogo goal at Ibrox on 2 January 2023 was the last time visiting fans have celebrated a goal in the Glasgow Derby. Johnston has thrived in the fixture, winning eight plus a Moral Victory for Phil Clement in April. Five years ago he was finishing a degree and playing in centre midfield
Johnston now has five winners medals in his collection for 18 months as a Celtic player from 67 first team appearances.
Since that podcast Johnstone felt a hamstring twinge during Saturday’s win over the USA that resulted in him being substituted midway through the first half but it seems that it was mainly a precautionary move with the defender now back in Scotland having the hamstring injury assessed.
Hopefully it is just a short term injury with the defender able to be fully involved in the Champions League campaign which this season stretches to at least eight matches running into January for the first time. Celtic open up at home to Slovan Bratislava on September 18 followed by trips to Borussia Dortmund and Atalanta.
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“Fuck it. We’re Canada. Let’s go.”
Alistair Johnston x Footy Prime. Tomorrow. 10AM ET.#CanMNT | ▶️ https://t.co/sdeVo8jtqo pic.twitter.com/0H7ZTNcssI
— Footy Prime The Podcast (@footy_prime) September 5, 2024
