“It hasn’t been the easiest”.
I reckon that might be one of the biggest understatements I’ve heard but it’s how the super chilled Brennan Johnson described his last 18 months.
Credit: FAW photography.
May 21st 2025.
Johnson, with a huge grin on his face, celebrated on the pitch at the Estadio de San Mamés. He had arrived at the back post, as was becoming his trademark that season, to score the winner in the Europa League final. 15000 official Tottenham fans in the stadium, with thousands of unofficial supporters, celebrated wildly. The trophy drought was over. Manager Ange Postecoglou had delivered the trophy that he told us all he always delivered in his second season. There was a huge homecoming parade, and Johnson was right at the heart of it. Especially as Spurs’ top scorer that season.
Then he packed his bags and arrived on camp with Bellamy’s Wales. The nation enjoying the Bellamy honeymoon and the high hopes for World Cup qualification continued as first Lichtenstein were breezed past and the 24 year old followed that up by scoring an equaliser in Belgium that had the RedWall dreaming of the mother of all comebacks, shortly before Kevin De Bruyne ruined the party.
Perhaps KDB’s gut wrenching goal was symptomatic of how the next 12 months were going to play out for Brennan.
Despite his trophy success Ange Postecoglou was sacked, Thomas Frank arrived at Spurs and very quickly it seemed Johnson’s face no longer fitted. By January the Europa League hero was packing his bags and on the move to Crystal Palace. The transfer done and dusted on January 1st. A move which coincided with Selhurst Park manager Oliver Glasner announcing just a matter of days later he would be off at the end of the season. There was World Cup heartache in March as he and Neco Williams missed penalties against Bosnia in the Play-Off shootout. All the while struggling to find his feet in Glasner’s well oiled machine and ultimately finding himself an unused sub as they lifted the Conference League in May. Pierre Sage arrived at Palace in June and we never got to find out if Brennan could find a starting berth as August brought a move to Everton, with Dwight McNeil going the other way.
Deep breath.
Now can you see why I thought it was something of an understatement that it “wasn’t the easiest”?
You can hear my conversation with Brennan right here:
I guess it’s in these moments that you sink or swim. Or sink for a while, because that’s ok and part of the learning curve, but can you find it within you to swim again.
It was in these times that Brennan leant into his dad, David.
A former footballer who was a striker for Nottingham Forest and Ipswich, and almost played for Cymru.
David was let go by Manchester United without playing a senior game despite winning the FA Youth Cup in 1995. He ended up at Bury but fought his way back to the top, becoming a favourite at the City Ground in particular. Daddy Johnson though had to come back from injuries such as a broken leg and a serious back problem caused his early retirement aged just 30.
“It’s been unbelievable having my dad there. It’s the way he speaks, you instantly know he understands how you feel.”
“He’s played football. He understands the winning games, losing games, scoring goals, missing goals, the injuries. And he understands the mental side”.
It’s that mental side that sometimes those of us not in the game perhaps don’t quite fully understand. A changing room can be a place of fun, banter and friendship. But, also, you’re after each others places and ultimately for you to succeed it means that someone else’s dream isn’t going to happen.
Over the past 18-months Brennan has seen and felt it all.
But with his dad at his side, and perhaps a father figure in David Moyes in the dugout at Everton, he’s surrounded by good people.
“For footballers stability is everything”, Brennan explains “and I’m excited about the future”.
He’ll reach 50 caps for Wales on Saturday, should he be selected, and at just 25 we may yet get to enjoy another surge from Johnson into his prime years.