THE arrival of Alistair Johnston at Celtic may have portended the end of Josip Juranovic’s time at the club, but the Croatian international has left a parting gift ahead of a prospective move to Union Berlin.
Although it has been felt for some while that Juranovic would move on in this window, particularly after his impressive showings at the World Cup, he has gone out of his way to take Johnston under his wing since the right-back arrived in Glasgow, fresh from Qatar himself.
The quirks of the full-back role under Postecoglou are such that Juranovic has been a hugely valuable resource for Johnston in their short time training together, and while he had hoped to have him around as a sounding board for a little while longer, the Canadian had nothing but good things to say about the dedication and professionalism of Juranovic in the midst of speculation over his future.
“He’s an unbelievable character,” Johnston said.
“No matter what’s been going on behind the scenes, he’s a great guy. He has taken me under his wing which has been really nice of him.
“Even at the World Cup, he talked to me after the match saying he was looking forward to being on the same squad, which was pretty cool.
“He’s been the ultimate professional. He comes in, works hard, trains unbelievably well. He’s another player I look up to, someone that I think I can take so much from and learn from.
“If I can add any bit of that dribbling skill he has, I’d take my game to another level altogether.
“I’m not sure what the future holds for him, but we hope it’s here at Celtic.”
Alas, that is not to be. And for all of the help Juranovic has given him, Johnston admits he still has some way to go to be fully comfortable in his new duties, spending a fair bit of time fighting the instincts he has honed during his career to date in his position.
“It’s definitely been a learning curve, but we have a really good group of full backs here who pulled me aside and talked me through some of the moments where maybe you’re going to want to come inside to fit with what the manager is looking for,” he said.
“The coaching staff have been great with that too. They’ve also been really understanding about the fact that it’s not a simple transition - not only is it a new squad, a new system, but it kind of goes against everything you have been taught as a full back.
“It takes a lot to break those sub-conscious decisions that you automatically make out on the field before it becomes second nature. They’ve been really good at saying, ‘don’t overcomplicate it, don’t over think it - if it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it’.
“Hopefully as the weeks and months progress it becomes second nature to me, but at the same time I don’t want to be out there overthinking things and making the game more complicated than it needs to be for myself.
“The staff are telling me, go out there and play your game, take what the opposition give you but then we’ll go over clips where they’ll say, ‘you could maybe come inside here’. It’s about continuous development.”
Morton come to Celtic Park today looking to pull off a monumental upset in the Scottish Cup, and it wasn’t so long ago that Johnston found himself on the other side of the David and Goliath dynamic.
“I can put myself in Morton’s shoes,” he said.
“It’s an unbelievable opportunity for them, being in the division below you can come out and show what you’ve got, coming to Celtic Park in front of 60,000. What an opportunity that is.
“We understand that will be their mentality. When you’re in that situation, you have the mentality that there is nothing to lose and that anything is possible.
“I was living in those shoes just a few weeks ago with Canada [at the World Cup] when we were going into every single fight as the real underdog, but at the same time you have that confidence within the group that everything is possible if you believe in it.
“Morton are going to pose threats that we potentially haven’t seen over these past couple of matches but we’ll be ready for that. It’s another exciting time, another cup competition.”
