Celtic are well respected throughout Scottish football for their playing trading model. The club’s ability to buy and then sell on players for huge profit is the envy of the SPFL.
No other club in the league has the ability to do it so successfully and it is one of the main reasons Celtic are financially stable in such a small league.
However, that doesn’t mean mistakes aren’t made. Especially when buying players. But it was the departure of Josip Juranovic that was on pundit and journalist, Mark Guidi’s mind.
The sale of the Croatian international still baffles Guidi and he believes Celtic should have got much more than they did for him in January.
Guidi said [The Go Radio Football Show], “I prefer Alistair Johnston to Josip Juranovic. I like Alistair Johnston. He’s a good character as well. He’s young, he’s only 24 but he’s a leader.
“So yeah that one no problem with that one at all. Celtic got a good bit of business they made a profit, although again, Juranovic we were talking [he could have been sold for] £15 million and he went for what? £7-£8m?
“That was a bit strange.”
Celtic did get short-changed with Juranovic – opinion
I said at the time that I believed Celtic were undervaluing Juranovic. After a successful World Cup where the 28-year-old helped Croatia reach the semi-finals of the tournament, demand for Juranovic was high.
He was being tipped for moves to the likes of Manchester United, Barcelona and Newcastle before Union Berlin swooped in and nabbed him for what turned put to be an initial fee of £7.5m.
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And he has been value for money. At one point the German club where in the running for the Bundesliga title but eventually fell short.
Juranovic chipped in with four goals and three assists in 18 appearances for Berlin and helped them qualify for the group stages of the Champions League.
Was £7.5m a steal for the marauding full-back? I certainly think so. Let’s hope Celtic have a sell-on clause so that if he does move on again, they get a significant chunk of change for him.
In other news, ‘I’ll be honest’: Barry Ferguson didn’t rate £6m Celtic man, he’s now become a ‘man mountain’ for the club