There was an element of who and why when Josip Juranovic left Celtic for Union Berlin.
Over the previous month Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester United had all been linked with the full-back but his eventual destination was a little off the beaten track.
A quick check reveals that Union are just one point behind Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga and very much in contention for a Champions League place.
Bringing Champions League football to a city that has more than twice the population of Munich will be a big deal with Juranovic quickly establishing himself in the Union side and contributing assists.
Despite the reasons for choosing Berlin there remains a certain level of attraction about Manchester United even allowing for their recent lack of success.
Juranovic was part of transfer discussions at Old Trafford but in the end they dropped their interest as Fabrizio Romano explained.
. @FabrizioRomano discusses Manchester United’s pursuit of Josip Juranovic ??pic.twitter.com/meBy5VHVUE
— Everything Celtic (@aboutceltic) February 2, 2023
The second transfer secret is about Manchester United – we know they were looking for a new right-back, and that Aaron Wan-Bissaka could have left because he had a difficult first half of the season. But then what happened was that he played well in January and Manchester United decided to stick with him and invest in Wout Weghorst and Marcel Sabitzer instead.
Still, United had a right-back in mind in case Wan-Bissaka was going to leave, and that right-back was Josip Juranovic – the Croatian who moved from Celtic to Union Berlin. He was their preference, top of the list to come in as backup right-back, behind Diogo Dalot, who remains the owner of the right flank at the club.
The United board discussed Juranovic, but they decided to keep Wan-Bissaka and so the deal collapsed and he instead decided to accept the approach from Union Berlin. Still, he was a concrete opportunity.
At the age of 28 with a place in the side currently second in the Bundesliga Juranovic’s career is still heading in the right direction rather than waiting and hoping for a chance ahead of Wan-Bissaka in Erik Ten Hag’s plans.
