Who Cares What James McFadden Thinks Celtic’s Right Back Is Really Worth?

There is a theory within the media which has been discredited more often than the one about our rivals being in “good financial health.”

In spite of that, it continues to persist, and that theory is this; if something comes out of the mouth of an ex-Celtic player or well-known Celtic supporter in the media then we are almost obligated to treat it seriously, and act as if it were true.

But ask anyone who ever read a column by Frank McAvennie how that’s going, or who ever had to sit through a Sky segment with Charlie Nicholas or a commentary from Andy Walker.

Well know “Celtic fans” in the media include Hugh Keevins whose mouth opens and a constant stream of absolute garbage flows out.

So why in God’s name should a single one of us pay the slightest bit of attention, or care about, what James McFadden thinks Juranovic is worth? The only people who will decide that are the CEO’s of the clubs who are in the running to buy him.

This guy is a full international who just played a World Cup semi-final and came back with a bronze medal. He is 26 years old. He is on a long term Celtic deal.

He is being monitored by some of the biggest clubs in Europe … so who gives a toss what his view on it is?

But the press is feeding us this as if we should care because he is, after all, a well know Celtic fan. As if that matters a damn, as if that made his judgement bulletproof. But it does not.

He takes, as so many others do, a very negative view of the game here and what players in it can realistically expect to go for. And it’s as wrong-headed as it is stupid.

Juranovic, in fact, is probably undervalued after the World Cup. If he was playing in Italy or Germany or France the figures being quoted for him would be far in excess of what Celtic think is reasonable, and it is very reasonable.

What McFadden and some others are struggling to grasp is that Celtic already has a reputation for player development and selling on our stars. Now we’re trying to push that to the next level, and that means getting proper value for them … the market knows we’re good for it, they know that we have sold on quality, that this isn’t Ibrox where they’d be getting asked to take a punt on the lousy “in-house” values of players.

Our valuation is neither over-shooting or particularly unlikely to be met.

The clubs named so far are used to paying far more for players than what’s being asked here; there’s a Man Utd fan-site squealing about the Juranovic fee as if their club didn’t pay a stupendously overblown world transfer record fee for a defender when they bought Harry Maguire.

None of these people will ultimately decide this.

In the end, we’re going to get our fee for two reasons. Because he’s worth it and because, ultimately, the other options for some of these clubs are so outrageously priced that they aren’t.

That’s what will decide this, not the ignorant view of some studio talking head, no matter whether he allegedly supports us or not.