It is not very often that Celtic players are linked with clubs like Atletico Madrid but that was very much the case earlier this summer. Almost out of the blue, rumours emerged that the Spanish giants had an eye on the Hoops’ Croatian international full-back, Josip Juranovic, who had enjoyed a brilliant debut campaign at Parkhead, playing a key role in their double.
Juranovic has been one of Ange Postecoglou’s most reliable players and he has been deployed at right-back, left-back and even on the wings, depending upon the situation. Thus, the Croatian leaving would be a major blow for Celtic.
Fortunately though, after those initial rumours, there has not been a lot of noise surrounding the future of Juranovic, and the suggestion has been that he is very happy at Celtic right now.
And now, as reported by Gianluca di Marzio, Atletico Madrid are close to signing Nahuel Molina from Udinese. The Argentina right-back will soon depart Italy for Spain.
Atletico Madrid hand massive transfer boost to Celtic
It is safe to say that Celtic are a much better team with someone like Juranovic in their line up than without him. His versatility came in very handy last season, especially in the first half of the campaign when the Hoops’ squad was very thin and on top of that, they were struggling with a number of injury problems as well.
Thus, it is great to see that a move to Atletico Madrid might no longer be on the cards for the Croatian although it must be pointed out that he was linked with Premier League clubs as well.
On the other hand, Celtic do have some solid back up for Juranovic as well in the form of Anthony Ralston, who has looked like a player transformed under the management of Postecoglou.