Juranovic sets ‘high bar’ for Ralston and Johnston

Josip Juranovic, who has joined Union Berlin from Celtic, has “set the bar high” for right-backs Anthony Ralston and Alistair Johnston to follow, according to the club’s manager, Ange Postecoglou.

Canada defender Johnston, a recent signing, and Ralston are 24 and the Celtic manager feels there is plenty of room for development.

“With both of them there it gives us an opportunity for growth and improvement but Josip set the bar high, so there’s the challenge for these guys now,” said Postecoglou.

“I think the world of Anthony Ralston. He is still a young man. Unfortunately he has been injured lately.

“When I put the team together 18 months ago I kind of knew there had to be a smattering of different age groups within there, and the guys like Josip and Giako [Giorgos Giakoumakis] to a certain extent, we needed some men in the building, apart from the obvious like Joe Hart and a couple of others.

“Guys like that really fulfilled what we needed to do to get back to where we wanted to be in a short space of time.

“But underpinning that are guys like Tony, who I think has got a fantastic career ahead of him as a full-back for us, and Alistair is 24.

“But my role is to try to make decisions that I think are best for us and our continued growth as a football team, and realising when an opportunity comes along we have to be ready to take it.

“That’s what we have done with Josip. I don’t think there needs to be winners and losers out of this.”