Johnson reveals Engvall "pact"

The 21-year-old has found first team appearances hard to come by since arriving in BS3 last summer and is currently on loan at Djurgarden back in his native Sweden, where the season concludes in November.

Engvall has proven his ability in front of goal since arriving in the Allsvenskan league, netting six times in 12 appearances – form that earned him a call-up to the UEFA Under-21 European Championships with Sweden.

There has been speculation that Engvall would now see out the entire campaign with Djurgarden, but City's head coach says that has never been on the cards. 

“Gus was obviously frustrated because he wanted to play first team football,” Johnson told BCTV.

“He was very keen on earning a place to get in the European Championships because he wanted that international recognition.

“We sat down and I had to be honest in saying that I couldn’t promise regular starts in games, particularly as we had just signed Matty Taylor.

“It was difficult because he is a good player with great movement, but he had Tammy Abraham in front of him – arguably the best striker in the league last season.”

Johnson will take his squad to T3 (Tenerife Top Training) in mid-July for some warm weather training, which will have everything required for the players to step up their preparations ahead of the season opener with Barnsley on August 5th.

“I made a pact with Gus that he has to come back for our trip to Tenerife,” added the head coach.

“This will give us the chance to see what we’ve got, see how Gus’ form has been and see where we want to go with it.

“The intention is to bring him back in that period, have a couple of weeks with him and then hold further discussions with him regarding next season.”

Engvall was an unused substitute in Sweden’s 3-0 defeat to Slovakia last night, which sees them exit the Under-21 Championships at the group stage.