Josip Juranovic’s first full season at Union Berlin is turning into a nightmare with the former Celtic defender part of a Bundesliga outfit in the midst of 12 successive defeats.
After a couple of seasons in which barely a thing went wrong for Urs Fischer’s side, football’s fairytale club are facing a dose of the harshest reality, Cinderella’s glass slipper shattering into a million pieces and leaving the palace dancefloor covered in a layer of thick red blood.
When Josip Juranovic swapped Glasgow for Berlin in January – Celtic accepting an initial bid of £7.5 million – Union Berlin were flying high near the top of the Bundesliga table. They would secure qualification for the Champions League for the very first time a couple of months later.
And while Union were always likely to hit their limits at some point, few would have expected the bubble to burst quite as dramatically as this. Saturday’s 3-0 home defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt – Union’s once-imperious home form collapsing like a house of cards – was remarkably the club’s 12 defeat in a row in all competitions.
Celtic sold Josip Juranovic to Union Berlin
Fischer, fortunately, has more than enough credit in the bank. He is, after all, a bonafide, 100 per cent confirmed club legend. Since taking charge in 2018, the Swiss guided Union to the Bundesliga for the first time, the Conference League for the first time, the Europa League for the first time and, eventually, the Champions League too.
Make no mistake, this is a ‘Football Manager’ success story, made real. The chants of support from the terraces prove that the fans are still very much behind their head coach, locking arms and puffing out their chests in defiance.
But the signing of Juranovic, one of Europe’s finest right-backs at Celtic, was supposed to herald something different. The beginning of a bold new era. Union moving on from under-the-radar, underappreciated journeymen onto established big names, Juranovic joined in the German capital by former Inter Milan man Robin Gosens and Juventus icon Leonardo Bonucci.
Horror run for Urs Fischer’s side
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
And, with Napoli away in the Champions League and Xabi Alonso’s outstanding Bayer Leverkusen side to come later in the week, 12 straight defeats could yet become 14 in the blink of an eye.
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