Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou firmly shuts down media quizzing on Josip Juranovic comments

By John McGinley

March 4, 2023

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou is refusing to be drawn into the ‘soap opera’ surrounding Josip Juranovic and his exit from the club, after the Croatian defender gave interviews to the Scottish press during the week. Put simply, he doesn’t care about the topic.

As we discussed yesterday, Juranovic’s comments demonstrated the ruthless edge at Celtic that has been cultivated by the Bhoys boss to our benefit. Framed as a negative by some outlets, what was said wasn’t really all that dramatic and certainly didn’t cast the Bhoys in a bad light.

The Union Berlin man is entitled to give his side of the story, of course, but Postecoglou isn’t going to fall into the trap of getting into a back-and-forth or drawing out a saga that produces multiple headlines – something a lot of outlets would relish. He has now defused it all, while also being respectful of Juranovic.

Postecoglou makes it clear he isn’t interested in ‘soap opera’

Asked about the player’s comments, as quoted by The Scottish Daily Mail [04/03 print edition, back page], the Celtic manager said: “I don’t really care, to be honest. Josip was outstanding for us for 18 months. He won trophies and represented his country at a World Cup. Now he has gone on and he is doing fantastically well and I couldn’t be happier for him. We continue on our journey now. The rest of it is just a soap opera for the masses.

“We are a football club that is consistently trying to be successful. I said previously that we have got to be really aggressive in the way that we push this squad to another level because we still believe we need to improve and get better.

“And the only way you can do that is to make sure that you are constantly looking to improve and reinvest in the squad. From our perspective there are players who left in January after contributing to this football club and that is all we want. They have gone on with our best wishes but my role is to reinvest that money and to try to make us a stronger team.”

This isn’t anything Postecoglou hasn’t said before. If those asking the questions had been listening over the last while, they’d know that the manager isn’t really one for reflection in the midst of a season and certainly isn’t going to overdramatise a routine football situation.

There don’t have to be winners and losers in every transfer situation. Celtic did well out of Juranovic. Juranovic did well out of Celtic. Union Berlin look like they’ll do well too. That’s a big positive as far as I’m concerned.

Juranovic made it clear he still loves Celtic in his interviews too – which is something we’ve come to expect of most ex-players. Everyone can move on to bright days ahead, despite a need for some to dig for drama.

In other news, Another version of Jota’s Celtic song goes viral with potential collab in the offing.