Celtic legend Chris Sutton reckons that his former club don't need to feel forced into selling star assets this summer with Champions League football on the horizon.
After manager Ange Postecoglou guided the Hoops to a Premiership title victory in his first season in charge, he's now preparing his troops for a crack in one of the world's elite competitions at the group stage phase. Such progress hasn't come without interest as right-back Josip Juranovic gathers admirers from England's Premier League.
Others like Liel Abada are also likely to gather interest according to Sutton. Defender Cameron Carter-Vickers and goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist have already signed permanently and writing in his Daily Record column, the former striker reckons that because Europe's best competition awaits, Celtic aren't needing to take the first offer that arrives: "Listen, Juranovic will have a right time to leave Celtic. So will talented young boys such as Liel Abada.
"Same goes for the club. They will always have an optimum time to sell their gems. But that time is most certainly not now. In any case, for players such as Juranovic, it wouldn’t make any sense.
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"Clubs in the major leagues, England included, will be looking at the Celtic right-back. That’s just normal practice. Croatia, heading to the World Cup, has a strong reputation for producing top-class players with Luka Modric leading the way in recent times.
"When you can hold down a spot in their national team as Juranovic does, you are going to attract interest. Put it this way, any club who isn’t looking doesn’t have a recruitment set-up worth its salt.
"This goes for all of the new guys that Postecoglou introduced and integrated into Celtic who made a mark. Juranovic looks to be in a superb position in terms of his career.
"Having just moved from Legia Warsaw less than a year ago, he’s got the fans’ backing and he’s settled brilliantly into the squad.
"If someone chaps the door for him, Celtic could ask for in excess of £15million. Which would be some profit on the fifth of what they paid 10 months ago.
"But my basic point is: Where would be the point of that right now? For either party? Celtic won’t let this guy leave. Why would you?"
Such progress could even bring a fee that saw Kieran Tierney head to Arsenal for £25 million, Sutton adding: "If Juranovic is part of that on top of a successful Champions League campaign, Celtic could be reaching their Kieran Tierney levels of asking price by January.
"That also has to be the thought process for the player. He’s in a stable position going into a very exciting six months."
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