Tottenham Hotspur winger Brennan Johnson has enjoyed a bright season as he currently sits as the club’s top scorer.
Brennan Johnson has registered 17 goals in all competitions for Tottenham this term, along with seven assists.
Johnson has risen above many of his peers at Spurs despite coming under huge criticism from some fans earlier this season.
Former Wales manager Rob Page has now spoken about Johnson in the context of players having to deal with increasing amounts of criticism on social media.
READ MORE: Fabrizio Romano makes big Franco Mastantuono claim amid Tottenham transfer links
Rob Page says it’s ‘not easy’ for players to deal with social media criticism
Page, speaking on the Seaman Says podcast, mentioned Johnson whilst talking about social media criticism affecting young footballers.
For context, Chelsea midfielder Cole Palmer, speaking after his goal drought came to an end against Liverpool commented on social media being full of “idiots” and “trolls”.
Palmer stressed he didn’t take notice of negative comments, but when Seaman asked Page whether he was noticing more and more players getting affected, he said: “Yep, 100 percent.
“I work with Brennan Johnson, know him really well. He went to Tottenham from Forest, so expectations were on him as well because he was expected to go into the Tottenham side and perform straight away.
“With young players you’re going to get inconsistency. It’s not going to be 10 out of 10 every week. And it’s managing that and good managers will, they’ll take him in and out – and I know Ange did that.
“But supporters – they just expect you to perform week in week out, and if you don’t, you’re going to get criticised. And I think he came off it for a bit just to give him of (respite).”
Johnson started scoring again not long after coming off social media.
Page said, when asked about it: “Yeah he did, and I think he might have gone back onto it again now – but, you know, it’s not easy for players.”
What Brennan Johnson recently said about his critics
Johnson previously said there was no specific reason as to why he deleted his Instagram account, it was simply to remove a potential distraction.
More recently, Johnson touched on the subject of social media criticism just a few weeks ago, and he suggested that it doesn’t even register any more.
“To be honest I feel like I switched off from that a long time ago,” he told reporters. “I don’t really care about what other people and the critics are saying.
“I love all the players in the squad, and the management staff. We’ve created a really tight-knit group.
“[Winning the Europa League is] something that we just want to do for each other because we have had some tough times and there would be no better joy to celebrate it with people who have gone through it.”
Tottenham may not have had a particularly good season on the domestic front, but should they go on to win the Europa League final, then it will have been their most successful season for a long time.
Johnson has already had a big say in Spurs’ Europa League run and, if they go all the way, there will no doubt be a lot of people going back on their prior criticism of him.
