Celtic’s “Named Fee” For Juranovic Is At Least In The Ballpark Of Reality.

According to the hacks, Celtic has “named their price” for Juranovic, and the bidding starts – and of course it does – at £17 million. Torino are supposed to have inquired, and according to the papers they’ve been told they will have to double their current transfer record, which is £8.5 million, before they’re even getting someone on the phone.

That’s exactly how a club in our position is supposed to behave in these negotiations. We have not invited interest, we are not encouraging a sale, we do not need the money to pay a sudden influx of bills or to provide the manager the funds to build a team.

Celtic, if you’ll pardon the use of a much mis-used expression this month, are the ones holding all the cards. The player himself isn’t banging on the door looking for a move, so nobody can force us and time is not a factor here. We can wait. We can hold out.

If these guys want him they will have to pay the going rate for a player who got to a World Cup semi-final playing every minute for his team.

If they wanted a bench warmer who’d played one match and embarrassed himself and his club they would pay a lot less, but that’s not our guy.

Juranovic cost us £2.5 million, so anything over £10 million represents a superb profit and a great return for a guy who has only been at the club a year. But that’s selling him short and ourselves with it, that’s establishing a reputation as a club that will let blue chip assets go for a pittance just because we don’t have a huge pot of money from TV.

And if we continue to act like that then we’ll be treated like that and we can forget ever getting the big fees that clubs like Ajax regularly command for their footballer. We are better than scrambling around in the dirt for chump change.

Juranovic is a wanted man. He’s a sellable asset in what is more and more becoming a sellers market. Good luck to any club that thinks they can do better, on the cheap; if they were shopping in England they’d pay twice that £17 million for an inferior product and they know it and so I don’t even think there will be much debate about it.

He’s worth it, and someone will pay it. He’s proved it and we’ve proved we’re willing to play hard ball. The first genuine interest has been expressed and they know where we stand. The next party to come to the table had better show us, and the player, the proper level of respect and bring with them a big bag full of money.