City deals are a page turner says Johnson

City boss Gary Johnson has expressed exasperation with his summer transfer dealings - likening the experience to an Agatha Christie novel.

Christie’s novels include apt titles such as Destination Unknown, The Unexpected Guest, The Secret Adversary and one Johnson will be hoping won’t be apply - And Then There Were None..

The Robin’s supremo has seen record signing Emad Meteb throw his deal into doubt with an unsanctioned appearance for his former club Al-Ahly, following on from a protracted negotiation.

And the City manager is still not able to confirm anything further on the other signatures he is chasing.

The Evening Post understands Johnson has relinquished hope of signing Nottingham Forest’s Nathan Tyson and Crewe Alexandra have slapped a £2million price tag on 21-year-old Nicky Maynard.

Johnson said: “At the moment, until they’re actually physically in front of you, I can’t tell you anything.

“There’s so many twists and turns you know. It’s like an Agatha Christie novel.”

Yesterday the Post revealed City are weighing up a move for Dele Adebola’s former Coventry City strike-partner Michael Mifsud who has handed in a transfer request. After Adebola’s performance against Yeovil on Monday, the temptation to reunite them may have increased.

Johnson was upbeat after watching his 33-year-old, 6ft 3in forward score a brace and win a penalty for Michael McIndoe to hit home a third.

He said: “It’s good for a striker to score a couple of goals. If Dele works hard like he did [against Yeovil], and he had some good balls to run onto, he gets his rewards and that’s good.

“It’s not about people who come in or who are not coming in, at the end of the day it’s about the team you are preparing on the day and he got a good 90 minutes.

“Dele looked tired after 45 but he tends to see it through and it was good because he got a couple of goals.

“There’s no value as such [in pre-season wins] because you don’t pick up any points but it’s nice for our fans to see that our team is going in the right direction from how it looked on tour.”

Adebola was obviously pleased with his performance but admitted it had nothing to do with the possible arrival of Meteb or any other strikers at the club.

He said: “Being totally honest I haven’t thought about it or any sort of competition.

“It’s a good squad, anyone is welcome in it and we’re all trying to do the same thing.

“We want to show that last season wasn’t a flash in the pan so I welcome the addition.

“It was our first 90 minutes against better opposition and I thought we stepped up a little bit, got a bit closer to what we’re looking for.

“There’s still a few games for us to get our game going properly and hopefully we’ll be ready come the start of the season.

“Pre-season games don’t really mean anything but it’s nice to get goals and to get a win and I’m happy with a good day’s work.”