Sligo Rovers midfielder Greg Bolger has stated that losing Johnny Kenny to Celtic is a “huge loss” for his club as he hailed his work ethic.
Kenny broke into the Rovers side last season and made an extremely positive impression. The youngster played 34 times for his boyhood club and managed 14 direct goal contributions made up of 12 goals and 2 assists [Transfermarkt].
However, only a year after signing his first professional contract with Sligo, Kenny was off to Parkhead. Indeed, Celtic snapped the promising Irishman up for €150k [£125k] [Irish Mirror].
And former teammate Bolger has been reflecting on losing the striker as well as defender John Mahon – both of whom helped them to a 3rd place finish and European qualification.
As quoted by Pundit Arena, Bolger said: “The two lads would get into most teams in the league, if not all of them. They would’ve been a huge loss to whoever. With Johnny, we’ll miss his goals. But it’s up to other lads to step up. We’ve a good few young lads coming through from Sligo, and there’s a few who played their first games last year. Hopefully, we can share the goals after Johnny left.
“Johnny was brilliant. A humble fella, and he came from a good background. A big farmer, but honestly, he’s a good honest, and humble guy who is willing to learn.
“He’s like a sponge taking in stuff from myself, Garry Buckley, the manager and the management. Wrong or right he’d always take it in and on board. He’s good craic, but he was a great teammate to have, and I wish him the best now.”
Johnny Kenny continues to earn plaudits as we await Celtic impact
If there’s one thing Kenny certainly arrives in Scotland with, it’s a reputation. Not just for his goal and assist record with Sligo in was a breakthrough year for the player, but in terms of his work ethic too.
His manager at Sligo, Liam Buckley, was raving about the talent and attitude possessed by Kenny only last week [Dublin Live].
That’s something Ange will be delighted to see. If there’s one kind of player he wants at Parkhead, it’s one that’s willing to learn and improve his game. The fact that Kenny is such a keen student of the game will certainly go down well with the Hoops boss.
Of course, at the moment, we simply await to see what level of impact he’ll make at Parkhead in the coming years. As things stand, he’s clearly set to head down to the B team given he’s only 18 and has far too stiff a level of competition ahead of him at the moment.
But there is genuine excitement over this one. It feels as though we’ll be hearing a lot about Kenny in years to come. The fact he has so little senior football to his name, of course, is something that should be rectified soon with potential loan deals no doubt in his future.
And as he prepares to try and show what he’s got at Lennoxtown, it’ll be great to finally get a sight of him whether that’s in the B team or elsewhere.
In other news, Celtic legend Scott Brown suffers big injury concern in disappointing night for Aberdeen
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