CELTIC right-back Alistair Johnston has stressed he will not be indulging in any trash talking with Bayern Munich’s wingers on Wednesday night – but insisted that his incendiary comment to Hearts midfielder Blair Spittal was probably justified.
Spittal revealed that Johnston had called him “a b****” when he was playing for Motherwell in a match against the Parkhead club last season when he appeared on the Open Goal podcast earlier this month.
Johnston will find himself up against the likes of Jamal Musiala, Leroy Sane and Kingsley Coman when the Scottish champions take on the German giants in the East End of Glasgow in midweek and will resist the temptation to wind any of them up.
However, the defender admitted that mouthing off at opponents was something he grew up with over in his native Canada and confessed he was tickled when his remark to Spittal was made public.
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“I am reasonably quiet on the pitch,” he said. “I generally don’t talk unless I feel there’s the need to talk. But I do remember this match, I do remember saying it.
“I would need to watch it back to remind myself exactly why I said it. But there was probably good reason. I don’t just say things completely out of the blue. He might’ve thought so.
Johnston added: Growing up, that was something you would always do. I’ve a couple of brothers and playing hockey it was just something that kind of went with the course.
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“I was surprised by how quiet most people are over here. Usually at European level you don’t get a lot of it, especially with the language barriers. But I’ve been surprised a little bit more domestically.
“I guess that comes with a lot of times we get respect from the other teams. They don’t want to say something because then before they know it we’ve put the ball in their net a couple of times.
Asked if he would resort to similar tactics against Bayern in the first leg of the Champions League knockout round play-off at Parkhead tomorrow night, Johnston said: “No, no. As I say, it doesn’t happen in Europe a lot.”
