Josip Juranovic

Unreal if they manage to win the title.

Actually a great move for him. They will only get better.

 

The better he goes and the higher his team finish, the more likely all his add ons are to be triggered. Would love to see UB win it all and us to be paid the full 2.5m.

 

Nice touch, seems there was a good bond with a lot of the players.

Would love to see Berlin or next best Dortmund win it, but see Bayern winning it starting with putting Berlin to the sword tomorrow.

 

My hopeful Bundesliga winners are:UB, Freiburg or Eintracht. Novelty winners, and the latter 2 have Asian players in there.

 

Aye would be good with that, just I have a wee soft spot for Dortmund.

 

Does jura get a winners medal?

 

Josip Juranovic admits he was hurt that Celticnever pushed the boat out to keep him.

And the right-back knew the writing was on the wall following Alistair Johnston's arrival. Juranovic quit Parkhead for Germany in January after months of speculation surrounding his future.


The Croatian World Cup semi-finalist had been linked with a string of European heavyweights such as Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester United after a stunning tournament in Qatar. In the end, he eventually clinched a £10million move to Bundesliga high-flyers Union Berlin. Juranovic has made an impressive start as his new club fights Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund for the title.


But the 27-year-old believes the Hoops hierarchy should have done more to keep him in Glasgow.

He said: “I had a really good relationship with the fans. I really loved it. It was a tough time to move away, but that’s life.

“I was a little bit sad Celtic didn’t try to keep me as a player there. But that is football. You can’t know your future."


Juranovic was earning the plaudits for his standout World Cup displays when Celtic announced the signing of his soon-to-be successor, Johnston, from CF Montreal.




The news took the former Legia Warsaw star by surprise as Ange Postecoglou added a third right-back to the books.

Juranovic confessed: “To be honest I was a little bit surprised because I was playing in the World Cup and preparing for my next game.

“Some of my friends called me and said they’d signed a new full-back, what’s your opinion about that?

“I was just putting it to the side and concentrating on the World Cup, as it’s the biggest stage in football and I wanted to perform well."




As rumours continued to swirl regarding his next move, Juranovic knew then his time was up at Celtic.

The fans' favourite had no intention of playing second fiddle to Johnston or Anthony Ralston after cementing his place as Croatia's first-choice right-back.

He explained: “In my mind, I was thinking we would have three full-backs and someone will be on the bench and someone in the stands with their family.

“I knew I would maybe not play two games in a row and maybe play the third one



I didn’t like some of that stuff – because of the national team. If you are not playing regularly for your club, you won’t get called up for the national team. That’s the main reason why I left."




So when was Juranovic first made aware of Union's interest?

"Maybe two weeks before the transfer was finalised," he confirmed. "I didn’t think a lot about my situation because first I had the World Cup and I was concentrating fully on that.

"Then I was reading some news that I would be going to, I don’t know, Man United, Chelsea and so on. But we need to be realistic. This was the right move for me from my side.

"In my career, I haven’t ever jumped two steps ahead. I am always going one step then one step, upgrading my career. I want to play football and that is the main reason why I am here."

Although he was upset with the nature of his exit, Juranovic holds no grudges against Celtic or Postecoglou, a manager whom he holds in the highest regard.

He said: "I spoke with Ange one week before I moved. We always had an honest conversation between us. He is a good coach – a really good coach. Try to keep him!

"My 18 months there were unbelievable. What can I say about Celtic? It’s one true love."

Juranovic still keeps in touch with his pals at Celtic and was over the moon to see his former teammates triumph in the Viaplay Cup Final against Rangers.

He said: "I watched maybe 35 minutes because I had a game against Bayern Munich here.

"In my heart, I knew that we - we! – would win the cup. I am still talking with my friends at Celtic.




"I wished them all luck and told them I would be watching them and that I was really happy that they won the first trophy, but not the last one this year.

"I am texting all the time with Joe Hart, Matt O’Reilly, Jota. Who else? Daizen, Abada. I have a lot of friends there and I will keep in touch with them through their life."

With one trophy in the bag, Juranovic - who laughed off Rangers star Fashion Sakala's "other mob" taunt - would love nothing more than to see the runaway Premiership leaders complete a famous Treble.

He said: “I hope so, that means I can have more trophies in my back pocket. It's nine points in front of, how Sakala said... 'the other mob!'.

"The whole team is perfect. [Reo] Hatate is scoring and assisting. Oz [Aaron Mooy] is unbelievable... a baldy guy! Celtic are doing great and I am really happy to see that."




In fact, Juranovic is already eyeing up a quick-fire return to Celtic Park - as a Union Berlin player in the Champions League.

He added: "I am fighting here for the Champions League. I was playing there at Celtic and I want to stay there




That’s the main reason why I moved here because it is a top-five league and we are third in the table now.

"We want to improve on that still. And I want to hear the music again soon (couldn’t make out what he said here, improvising)

"I like Celtic, I love the club and I had 18 beautiful months there. If the Champions League gave me a reason to go back to Celtic Park then I would really love that.

 

Came across so much better in his interview than Giakoumakis did gonna miss juranovic


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Loved his aura around the club but that's a load of pish, imo. I think he was angling for a move in the summer, I can't imagine we'd sign AJ if he wasn't already half way out the door.

 

He seemingly told the club in the summer he wanted a move after the WC. Plus Romano had been planting stories since the 3-0 game. To say he knew his time was up after we signed AJ is a bit ridiculous. The real truth is he was probably wanting a ridiculously high wage to stay

 

I think he's just saving face with the fans with his comments, which he doesn't really need to do. I always say it but if a player really wants to stay, they'll stay. It's the same with any player who leaves the club.

I wish him well.

 

Really like him but not sure I buy that to be honest. The fact Ange chucked him on about 20% fit and clearly checked out mentally suggests he would have kept him given half a chance.

He showed in the World Cup how good a player he is, but he let himself down in the champions league and the reality is, at 27 we were never going to break the bank to keep him.

Wish him well but we move on, reckon we’ve unearthed a gem in Johnston too.

 

Yeah you are probably right tbh. And like you said he doesn't need to save face with the fans because we weren't bitter or upset about him moving.

 

That's about as dishonest an interview as you get. Been angling for a move since he arrived, and puts in half-hearted performances at best this season and then comes out with that pish.

Pretty breathtaking. Don't normally (never) get annoyed by this sort of thing but it's as two-faced as I've seen so well rid of him.

Definitely says he threw the game against the Huns when he was asked to play whilst giving the "I'm tired" pish. Unforgivable.

Giakoumakis was gullible, and badly advised, this guy's something else.

 

Way over the top there mate

 

I get what you're saying mate but I don't think it's as simple as that.

I've said for a long time I see the situation as this:

Both he, and Giakoumakis, were signed on relatively low value contracts with the agreement being that if they do well we will either

1. Improve the contract significantly or
2. Allow them to leave for a reasonable/smaller fee so they can pursue the improved contract.
(And if they do poorly, they had the long term deal so they hold a bargaining chip)

I think both Juranovic and Giakoumakis would've preferred option 1 but Celtic ultimately decided not to pull the trigger on that option. I think that adds up with what JJ is saying, i.e. at any time he thought Celtic might bang the big contract down, but instead they went for AJ.

I don't think this is a case of a player being greedy and I think it's actually very impressive business from Celtic.

They've worked the deals so they always have the option of what happens next. i.e. bang down the contract and keep the player or take the profit and bring in someone new. I emphasise that second part. Celtic worked the deals with Giakoumakis and JJ in such a way they could easily force the players to leave so we could get the money and refresh our squad with new targets Ange wanted.

I firmly believe both players wanted to stay and are gutted to have been forced to move, but it's excellent work from Celtic and something we should be doing from now on, although we have to invest even more in scouting to make it work.

 

I think it's the case that our wage bill is fairly high, at over £50 million every year since Rodgers first season, higher than any Belgian, Swiss, Austrian, Scandinavian, and Dutch side outwith Ajax, who have moved beyond us a bit.

But looking at Club Brugge as an example, they brought in roughly £50 million from player sales and spent roughly £45 million this year. So while some of these clubs are paying bigger transfer fees than us, it's due to bringing in more from player sales, which also stops wage bill creeping up


So basically I think you're right about it being something we should be doing from now on,

 

There was an interview in the Croatian media he gave after moving. He said it was his priority to play for Croatia, and thus he rejected big clubs, so that his playing time remained plentiful. I think Ange really fancied Johnston, and thus Juranović was under threat of having his NT position taken over with time.