Ecstasy turns to agony for £100,000 Portsmouth signing after League Two promotion winners let him go

Former Pompey defender Callum Johnson has been denied a return to League One.

The right-back, whom the Blues purchased from Accrington for £100,000 in 2020, has been released by Mansfield Town following their promotion from League Two.

He is one of four players being let go by Stags boss Nigel Clough, who remains in negotiations with seven of the squad that helped the club finish third behind champions Stockport and runners-up Wrexham in this season’s race for third-tier football.

Johnson, who featured 17 times for Mansfield in the league this term, has had his issues with injuries over the course of the campaign. According to Clough, that impacted his decision to let the full-back go after two seasons with the club. He told chad.co.uk: ‘Unfortunately the injuries that Callum Johnson has had has meant we couldn't offer him anything’.

This is the second time the Middlesbrough-born defender has suffered this fate in three years. Johnson was released by the Blues in 2022, when Danny Cowley was in charge, and allowed to join Ross County on a free transfer. The then Pompey boss preferred Kieron Freeman and Millwall loanee Mahlon Romeo over the former Accy defender, who was subsequently sent out on loan to Fleetwood to serve out the remainder of his two-year deal.

Johnson, who featured  47 times for the Blues during the 2020-21 season, later told The News he had no idea why Cowley didn’t rate him. He said: : ‘I’m not really sure why Danny didn’t fancy me, that’s the honest answer.

‘Managers obviously have opinions, that’s what makes football special, but I honestly don’t know the answer to that. You can take it if someone sits you down, talks to you and tells you “Look, I want someone with this, that and the other – but you haven’t got that”. That’s fine.

‘But sometimes you don’t get that, sometimes you don’t get people telling you things, so you’ve just got to get on with it. It was never explained to me.

‘I was only told I wasn’t part of his plans on the day I moved to Fleetwood, although there were a few signs which made me think that it’s probably for the best to move on.

‘I would have stayed at Pompey and tried to play games, I loved my first season there, it’s a great club, but different things happened which ended up making my decision easy to play at Fleetwood instead.’

Johnson featured 35 times for Mansfield following his January 2023 move from Scottish football, with his last Stags appearance coming in the 1-1 draw with Barrow on the final day of the season. He missed the previous 21 games through injury.