Brennan Johnson admitted in an interview on Nottingham Forest’s official website that it “would be a dream come true to play for the first team”. Johnson turned 18 on Thursday and has enjoyed a prolific campaign with the u23s, scoring 14 goals in 2018/19. He’ll join the first-team during pre-season training this summer and says he wants to stick around in the senior squad full-time.
Johnson admitted: “It would be a dream come true for me to play for the first team because I’ve lived in West Bridgford all my life and I’ve watched Forest since I was young so I would love to make my debut at some point. At the start of the season I was trying to break into the u23 squad and… thankfully I’ve been in the squad for the whole season.
“I’m really looking forward to going on pre-season tour with the first team. It will be great to train and play with such experienced players and I’m just grateful to the manager for giving me the chance and letting me show what I can do. Knowing that I’ve got the support of the manager and his staff is really good and it gives me extra confidence moving forwards.”
Johnson, who is the son of former Forest striker David Johnson, broke into the reserve team at the age of 17 and was a regular fixture throughout the campaign. The teenager has represented England at u16 and u17 level but is now playing for Wales u19s. He could have a bright future for club and country and has impressed Martin O’Neill in the last five months too.
Johnson will have stiff competition from Lewis Grabban, Daryl Murphy, Karim Ansarifard, Hillal Soudani and Tyler Walker in the first-team squad next season, but his career is certainly going in the right direction. O’Neill will use pre-season to measure where Johnson is at and will decide upon the best course of action to take – another season with the u23s, a loan move away from Forest, or promotion to the senior squad.
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‘Will be good to see’ – fans want defender in the Nottingham Forest first-team next season
