There is almost nothing worse when a club is trying desperately to sell a player than injury getting in the way.
One of the things that is worse than injury getting in the way is a fellow manager, someone with gravitas and authority, branding the guy injury prone.
Last night, in the aftermath of the 1-0 win over France in Paris, the Croatian national coach poured honey on the outstanding Juranovic, who was superb at left back.
This is a position he’s played at for Celtic, but it is rare to see him in this role for his country. The player who usually plays there, as the press never tired of telling us, was Barisic who, like others at Ibrox, has been getting offered around Europe.
Zlatko Dalic was scathing in his assessment of the Ibrox player, who has forced him to put our footballer in his new slot.
“We don’t care anymore (about that) … Sosa and Barisic are constantly injured, but I will not worry much about that anymore. We have Juranovic, we have a solution. Both stoppers and Stanisic played very well, but not only them but also Juranovic at left back.”
For a national coach to be so damning about a player is exceedingly rare.
It is dreadful news for the Ibrox club, especially during a week when they’ve been at pains to publicise alleged interest in him through their stooges in the Scottish press.
Clubs would have had doubts anyway. Part of Ibrox’s misjudgement here is in the way they’ve talked up Bassey to all and sundry; this suggests that he’s firmly planted himself in the left back role, at the expense of the Croat.
That and Barisic’s performances, and especially against Celtic when he was roasted and subbed at half time, have already done damage.
Dalic’s comments last night do two things; they massively enhance the reputation of our player and they deliver a hammer blow to the reputation of a player Ibrox badly wants off the books.
Hell, they badly want someone off the books … this makes it this one a tough sell.
The media is pretending not to notice this, although It’s all pretty self evident. Good news for Celtic, bad news for the club across the city. The sort of thing the press routinely ignores.
Our club is due to play a high profile friendly for The Holy Goalie soon … how well do you know our Polish players? Take the quiz and find out. It’s a nice way to relieve the boredom of the Silly Season.
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There’s talk of they want £4mill for him,,,wer do they get em valuations from,, pie in the sky,,, fkn clowns