Josip Juranovic is Barcelona’s top target as the Catalonian giants look at signing a right-back in January, Sky Sports is reporting this afternoon, adding that two Premier League clubs and Atletico Madrid are also interested in the Celtic right-back who was perhaps the stand-out right back at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, helping Croatia to a third place finish.
The broadcaster also notes that talks with Celtic over a new deal have stalled as Juranovic looks set to capitalise on his World Cup showing by earning himself a huge move and a massive financial career windfall. It’s hard to argue with that to be honest and such a move, provided Celtic’s valuation of the player is meet has the feeling of being right for all parties concerned.
And that will include the Celtic support IF the funds are made available to Ange Postecoglou to continue his re-build to make Celtic a competitive Champions League outfit year after year.
It should be remembered that Juranovic still has three-and-a-half years left on his current deal but his transfer value is never going to be higher than it is at the moment. And in what appears to have been a pre-emptive move ahead of a possible Juranovic transfer in the January window, Ange Postecoglou signed CF Montreal right back Ally Johnston for £3.5m. Johnston too impressed at the World Cup with Canada.
That would be some money for Celtic to spend on a second or maybe third pick right-back and it would seem an unlikely expenditure from a usually prudent Celtic board, had there not been Juranovic interest on the horizon.
Ange Postecoglou was asked about interest in Juranovic at his media conference on Friday which was attended by The Celtic Star. “It is great he is getting noticed,” The Celtic manager said.
“We want clubs looking at our players, we want people talking about our football club and I think they are all positive things. It is great he is getting noticed. I want our players getting noticed. If they weren’t getting noticed they wouldn’t be doing well.
“I don’t even think about it. At the end of the day, I hope all of our players are getting the attention because it means we have good players here.
“From my perspective, I think all our boys did really well at the World Cup and that’s a reflection of how they are developing as footballers at our football club. I think that is the most important thing. I’m sure a lot of our players are getting attention and will continue to get attention and that’s what we want.”
Celtic might be wary of doing business with Barcelona, who are in a dire financial situation after decades of over-spending finally caught up with them. Celtic would have to look at the downside of allowing Barcelona to drip feed the fee, given the experiences Scottish football had in 2012 when a club spent more than it could afford before going bust owing HMRC £56m in unpaid taxes and with tens of millions due to other creditors.
