Strahinja Pavlovic – the central-defender recently linked with Celtic – has commented on his future.
The Serbian was watched by Neil Lennon as Partizan Belgrade beat Connah’s Quay in the Europa League on Thursday. The Daily Mail reported that Celtic are keen on the 6ft 4in 18-year-old who is highly rated across Europe.
The Daily Record have some quotes from Pavlovic as he spoke about the reported interest from Italian giants Juventus.
He said: “I must admit when I first heard about the interest of Juventus I thought it was a dream, but I’ve been told their interest is serious.
“The club’s management knows what is going on. They will handle any transfer negotiations and I know there have been talks.
“So I am completely relaxed and I’m not thinking about any move for now. I just want to concentrate on playing for Partizan.
“People elsewhere will take care of this.
“I only make my debut last season and have only played 15 games. I have a great deal to learn and I am dedicated to doing that at Partizan until something happens.”
Celtic could offer Pavlovic something good
It sounds like the defender is pretty grounded for an 18-year-old. Celtic are clearly interested to some extent as Neil Lennon wouldn’t have gone out to see him play otherwise.
With Jack Hendry likely to move out on loan in the coming weeks there will be room for one more “project” centre-back at the club. Pavlovic is clearly highly rated if the likes of Juventus are sniffing around but Celtic may be his best option.
We could offer him a chance to play football right away, something the Italians would probably struggle with. We can also offer the examples of Virgil Van Dijk and Dedryck Boyata as players who learned their stuff at Celtic before moving on to a top league.
Having Jullien, Ajer, Simunovic and Pavlovic would leave us pretty well set at centre-back. It will be interesting to see if Lennon liked what he saw and, if so, will we see the club making a move soon?
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
