John Hartson is shocked that Josip Juranovic is being discussed as a £7m transfer target.
The defender has an impressive 2022 with Celtic then continued that form over six matches at the World Cup Finals where he helped Croatia to a place in the semi-finals.
At the age of 27 a fee of around £15m seemed realistic, on the back of his Qatar form and additional interest that fee could be pushing towards £20m.
Well into the second week of January interest seems lukewarm with a fee of £7m drawing in Italian strugglers Monza with no sign of the big hitters getting involved.
Hartson appeared on Go Radio with the Daily Record picking up on the Welshman’s puzzled views:
We go back to Juranovic, last week we were talking about £20million. He was one of the best right-backs at the World Cup.
Hakimi (Achraf of Morocco) was fantastic. He’s at PSG, probably on £150,000 a week. He was great for Morocco. Juranovic was equally as good, and you are talking £7million. It’s unbelievable.
I don’t know the structure of the deal, agents fees and blah, blah, blah. I would have thought at least double that. I’m shocked. I’ve listened to some of the comments on social media and Celtic fans can’t believe it.
The fee being discussed suggests that there is a release clause in the contract that was signed when the defender left Legia Warsaw for Celtic in August 2021.
Juranovic was training as usual at Lennoxtown yesterday with Alistair Johnston appearing to be the man in possession of the right-back jersey.