Josip Juranovic has played every single minute of Croatia’s quest for the World Cup. He was superb tonight, some would say the man of the match and I would not take issue with them.
He has been at the heart and soul of their excellent displays.
Tonight was the high point as that storming display of his got them past Brazil.
Yet this is how Football Scotland greeted that performance on Twitter.
I remember Eddie Murphy joking, in Raw, about how a woman who marries a man with $300 million isn’t going out to work at a boutique at the weekends.
“There Johnny, I went out and made $70 … put that with the rest. Now we have $300 million … and seventy dollars, because I want to do my share.”
That’s what that headline is like.
Did any of you witness The Lesser Spotted Barisic anywhere tonight except picking lint out of his shorts on the bench?
You might as well have written Juranovic And Row Of Fans Sitting In The Stand Help Croatia To Beat Brazil as that bonkers headline.
Barisic has played one game, in the last round, when injuries gave the national coach no other option. And he stunk worse than a dead fish left under a radiator for a fortnight.
I wrote about it after the last round, where he was roundly mocked by the commentators for his fitness, his lack of quality and non-existent pace which saw his marker get by him until the marker was moved to the other side of the pitch, presumably to prevent the Ibrox full-back from getting PTSD.
He wasn’t near getting on to that park tonight and if he plays another second in this World Cup it will be for the comedy value or an act of charity.
You have to hand it to our media for the way they consistently embarrass themselves with this kind of nonsense.
Barisic is in the squad, and he has netted them a few quid for being there and that should be enough to chill out the Ibrox horde who know that’s been about the limit of his contribution.
But it’s as if they can’t help it.
To equate his sitting on the bench watching with Juranovic’s sensational performance on the park just leaves them looking ridiculous and actually draws attention to how little the Ibrox player has played his part in this campaign.
Try as they might, they cannot devalue what Juranovic has done.
This is like Celtic fans (of which I am one) promoting the Real Madrid game by claiming that Celtic & Real Madrid have won the Champions League a combined 15 times! It’s funny because everyone knows who contributed what, and there’s no secret about that.
I think the interesting story that will be developing the rest of the month is how many more games Juranovic will get in a Celtic shirt. As it is he’s guaranteed, at a minimum, advancing to the 3rd place game. He’ll still be in Qatar when Celtic face Aberdeen. And he’s played a lot of minutes over there. Will Ange give him a rest when he finally returns? He gave all the players returning from Euros a 2 week break. If he does the same with Juranovic coming back from the World Cup, that would put his return date already into the January transfer window. Regardless, I have confidence in Ralston to play every match while Juranovic is still gone, and Alastair Johnston should be ready to step into the lineup the minute the transfer window opens in January with a small chance of starting at Ibrox on the 2nd.
Jura was imperious this afternoon. Probably his finest hour in Croatian colours. I hope he stays til the summer, in truth he should, the Canadian RB has to settle in and it makes sense to me to keep Josip til the end of season, allowing AJ to integrate with the team. Anyway whatever happens our RB is cranking up the £££’s with every performance in Qatar.
The huns are all about hanging onto Celtic’s coat tails, Barisic is basicalty doing the same in Juranovic’s shadow, hoping some of the magic rubs off on him. Bless him.
Everywhere you look they try to down us, give us negative headlines or look for any chink of light or favourable comparison for that new club at Ibrox.
They’re pig sick that JJ will be worth a fortune now.
The most powerful thing new Rangers have is a press corps filled with fan boys
who seem to find it harder than that club’s board to accept (i.e.- Oz tour), that Celtic is the only big club left in Scotland.
When the orange order funding stopped, that was it, the last hurrah.
True Espanyolification now resumes.