Sheffield United's Mikey Johnston interest clarified as Celtic man nears Championship transfer switch

Sheffield United did not submit an official offer for Celtic winger Mikey Johnston, who is closing in on a move to one of their Championship rivals. The 25-year-old was a player of interest to the Blades this summer as they sought some more natural wingers, with Jesurun Rak-Sakyi arriving from Crystal Palace on loan earlier in the window.

Reports earlier this week suggested that the Blades had agreed a fee with the Glasgow giants for Johnston, but we understand that they were wide of the mark and United in fact did not bid for Johnston. He was also of interest to Burnley, but is set to move to England with West Bromwich Albion ahead of tomorrow’s 11pm transfer deadline.

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Blades boss Chris Wilder had been looking for another winger, an extra midfield player and a striker who could run in behind and stretch defences to complement his existing forward options. He had hoped to use United’s two remaining loan slots to supplement his squad and any deal for Johnston to Bramall Lane would likely have been a temporary one.

Johnston spent time on loan at the Hawthorns during the second half of last season, contributing seven goals and two assists in his 20 appearances, before featuring for Brendan Rodgers’ side in pre-season and scoring against Chelsea and DC United.

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Johnston has been left out of the Celtic squad for their last two games and is due in the Midlands for a medical ahead of a £3m permanent move. Speaking recently about Johnston’s future north of the border, Rodgers said: “We’ll just see what happens. He showed a real robustness, he trained right the way through and had some real nice impacts for us in our games.

“He wanted to go out and play more, he did that at West Brom and done really, really well. Clearly, that will bring some attention to him. But we’ll see how the next week goes and take it from there.”