As Celtic’s search for a new right back continues, speculation this week that the Hoops are about to sign Croatian international Josip Juranovic was rife throughout the media.
With the Parkhead club reportedly in talks with the Legia Warsaw full back, it seems interest had cooled and the deal was all but dead.
But speaking to the excellent 67 Hail Hail podcast on YouTube today, Croatian journalist Ižak Ante Sučić has given the supporters the background story during an interview with the shows presenter Hamish Carton.
Sučić’s disclosed that although there is no blame to be apportioned to either club for the apparent collapse of the move, he does believe that the move is not dead and with some work behind the scenes, Juranovic could still well be a Hoops player come the end of August, “We have some few info’s from Poland a few info’s from Croatia.
“The current info is that we thought that everything is going okay, and we thought that Legia Warsaw was willing to sell their star player Juranovic, who is certainly is one of them.
“And after their loss against Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia in the Champion League qualification.
“And they decided that they don’t need him in their squad. So, Celtic was the one club that he needed to join.
“There are also few other clubs that are interested in Juranovic such as Fiorentina from Italy.
“But I think that, Juranovic had heard a lot of good things about Scottish football because he plays with Borna Barisic from Glasgow Rangers or I don’t know, maybe some other players like Nicola Katic also.
“Also, Celtic is a massive club. It will be a big honour for him to play for Celtic, but there were some things that nobody expected, nobody anticipated, and I think that a few agents came and they stuffed the deal.
“To be honest I think that it’s a fair deal from Legia. They have their best player and they want to sell him but for a fair amount of money.
“And they know that Celtic is not one of those clubs who can afford anything. So I think that they want something for you to sell him inside that they want to sell him.
“And I wouldn’t say that the deal is off. I think that there is a still chance that Juranovic will eventually sign for Celtic, but it’s going to take some time.”
This would be the second time this window that agent intervention has caused a move to fall through after Sacha Boey‘s proposed move from Toulouse to Glasgow was scuppered in July.
Although the interest has cooled, the hope from Sučić that a deal can be struck will be encouraging news for the Hoops fans.