Mikey Johnston ended a 16-year association with Celtic over the summer as he penned a four-year deal at West Brom.
The 25-year-old spent the second half of the 2023/24 campaign on-loan at the Hawthorns and caught the eye by scoring seven times from 20 appearances.
He returned to Celtic in June and even featured in Brendan Rodgers’ first team squad for the first two Scottish Premiership games of the season.
But his 14 minute cameo as a substitute against Hibernian on August 11 would prove to be his last.
Johnston joined West Brom for a reported £3million but has had to remain patient for gametime this time around.
Despite that, teammate John Swift is just delighted to have him back at the club after believing the Republic of Ireland international was never going to return.
“Everyone knows how important he was when he came in," Swift said of Johnston’s influence on the English Championship team.
"He's a great guy around the place, he gets on with everyone.
“He needs to wait for his chance, because KG [Karlan Grant] is doing really well at the minute.
“It did seem unlikely he was going to come back, from the outside for the players, but once it got closer it felt like it was actually going to happen.
"He went to [Jayson] Molumby's at 2am, so that was a nice message to wake up to.
“I think he's in a hotel at the minute, looking for a place. I wouldn't have him at mine!"
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Discussing how the permanent transfer came about earlier this month, the ex-Hoops winger said: “I thought it was an outside chance (of happening), you know the stuff with FFP and whatever.
”I knew I was probably going to be leaving Celtic. The options that I did have I thought it was going to the last day anyway.
“It was quite late, genuinely, but I tried to give West Brom every chance so it was possible to come back.”
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