ANGE POSTECOGLOU says he is ignoring speculation linking Josip Juranovic with a move away from the club following his impressive displays at the World Cup with Croatia, and he has backed his player to do the same.
The Celtic right-back has received widespread praise for a series of eye-catching displays as the Croats stormed to the semi-finals of the tournament in Qatar before losing to Argentina, and has been the subject of interest from the likes of Atletico Madrid and Manchester United.
Postecoglou is glad though that his player is getting the attention and the credit he feels he deserves, and doesn’t think it will affect him when he returns to Celtic.
“I don’t even think about it,” Postecoglou said.
“At the end of the day, I hope all of our players are getting the attention because it means we have good players here.
“From my perspective, I think all our boys did really well at the World Cup and that’s a reflection of how they are developing as footballers at our football club.
“I think that is the most important thing and I’m sure a lot of our players are getting attention, and will continue to get attention, and that’s what we want.
“We want clubs looking at our players, we want people talking about our football club and I think they are all positive things.
“He’s been great, like all our boys. He’s done really well against world class opposition and was a key player on his country’s ride to the semi-final of a World Cup.
“That’s something he will have with him forever. He represented his country well, himself, his family and our football club. I’m really pleased for him.”
READ MORE: Alistair Johnston takes Celtic inspiration from Josip Juranovic
Juranovic is unlikely to play in the third-placed play-off match between Croatia and Morocco this afternoon as he is nursing a calf injury, but Postecoglou is looking forward to having him back in Glasgow.
“I don’t think he’s going to play, but he’ll have a week off the same as everyone else and then we’ll get him back into the building on Monday week,” he said.
Meanwhile, Postecoglou has also dismissed concerns about a possible transfer for striker Giorgos Giakoumakis, who has been linked with a lucrative switch to Saudi Arabia.
“What I deal with is what I see every day,” he said.
“He’s here, he’s training well, he’s contributing and I’m not really sure of anything beyond that. It’s not really on my radar.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here