In The Know reporter publishes wage details of three key Celtic players

Stephen McGowan has given a detailed breakdown on the wages being paid to three Celtic players and questioned the wisdom of selling Josip Juranovic.

The Daily Mail reporter has strong contacts throughout the club, regularly providing the most accurate information regarding transfer business in and out of the club.

In the summer of 2021 Ange Postecoglou had to put together a new look defence, Greg Taylor turned out to be a survivor while Tony Ralston defied the previous manager, Lee O’Connor and Osaze Urhoghide to demonstrate that he is a more than capable right-back.

With Ralston grabbed his chance, moves were already underway to bring in a more experienced right-back with the trail leading to Poland and a 25-year-old Croatian starting to make waves. During the same window Celtic brought in Cameron Carter-Vickers, initially on loan from Spurs and Carl Starfelt from a lucrative deal in Russia, the Swede wasn’t in Kazan for the scenery.

In the Daily Mail, McGowan picks up the detail:

When he arrived from Legia Warsaw in August 2021 the right-back agreed to sign for £10k a week until 2026.

In a throwback to the days of Cadete,  Di Canio and Van Hooijdonk, there was a verbal undertaking to review his salary after a year or so if he did well.

Celtic kept their end of the bargain before the World Cup. The offer they made fell short of the player’s expectations. Juranovic sees defensive team-mates Carl Starfelt and Cameron Carter-Vickers earning well over twice the sum he makes.

Starfelt’s Sweden failed to make it to Qatar. And while Carter-Vickers made an appearance for the USA against Iran in the final group game, he got nowhere near the last-four.

While Juranovic was happy to accept his current terms 18 months ago he has since become the first choice right- back with the World Cup semi-finalists.

Ange Postecoglou welcomes the attention on his players and has warned fans to brace themselves for the sale of key men, generating funds to make the squad better in Europe.

No harm to Alistair Johnston, a strong performer for Canada in Qatar. But is he really an upgrade on the man he’s replacing?

Or a young player willing to settle for the kind of money Josip Juranovic won’t accept after marking Vinicius Junior out of a World Cup quarter-final?

Selling players isn’t something new at Celtic- in 2019 the previous CEO was delighted to sell Kieran Tierney then bring in Boli Bolingoli and Taylor as replacements, turn to Jonny Hayes then sign Diego Laxalt on loan.

The previous summer Moussa Dembele was sold at the end of August, over the next couple of transfer windows that fee was virtually thrown away on Vakoun Bayo, Patryk Klimala and Albian Ajeti.

Most Celtic fans trust the judgement of Ange Postecoglou to sell players at peak value and bring in replacements to improve the team, unless there is interference from elsewhere in the club which so far seems unlikely.