Josip Juranovic Celtic to Chelsea transfer slapped with a big 'nope' in Croatia

Celtic's Josip Juranovic was linked with a transfer to Chelsea earlier on Wednesday with Thomas Tuchel reportedly eyeing up the right-back.

The Stamford Bridge club have England international Reece James as first choice on the right hand side of defence but their manager is claimed to want extra cover. That's where Juranovic seemingly came in, with Manchester United also named as an interested party by 90min ..

The 26-year-old has become a firm fan favourite at Parkhead since his move from Legia Warsaw last summer, emerging as a highly reliable presence but with that touch of attitude and edge supporters quickly take to. The prospect of losing him to the Premier League is a painful one, if fan reaction on social media is anything to go by.

Supporters have, of course, been here before. Juranovic was linked with Atletico Madrid earlier in the summer but the player himself was quick to play down the prospect of a move to La Liga.

We've yet to hear from him on the latest rumours but they've been given a short shrift in his native Croatia. Sport outlet germanjiak.hr were first to break Juranovic's move to Celtic in summer 2021 and while Chelsea's interest may be genuine, journalist Ižak Ante Sučić gave the prospect of an imminent move to London a big "noup" on Twitter which, as you'll probably have gathered, translates to.... "nope".

Given Chelsea have just spent in excess of £60million on Brighton full-back Marc Cucurella and Juranovic's contract at Celtic running until 2026, any interest from the English capital would likely be met with a response that contained plenty of zeroes.

That plus the fact we're approaching that stage of the transfer window where clubs' reluctance to sell their top players only