Former Celtic winger Jota is reportedly allowed to leave Al Ittihad this January after a torrid time in Saudis Arabia. The Portuguese winger joined in a deal worth £25m but circumstances have changed drastically and the tricky attacker is now on the periphery in Jeddah.
Now, transfer journalist Rudy Galetti has told his 100k followers on Twitter/X that three teams have enquired about the availability of Jota in the transfer window.
🚨💰 #AlIttihad received 3 official offers for #Jota, one of which – on loan – is from another 🇸🇦 club.
🗣️ The management of the 🟡⚫ and the coach Marcelo Gallardo will discuss the situation of the 🇵🇹 player soon. 🐓⚽ #Transfers pic.twitter.com/dc5shDbIZm
— Rudy Galetti (@RudyGaletti) January 6, 2024
Galetti continued the thread saying that the management at Al Ittihad have decided that they will part ways with Jota, if they can sign a replacement winger.
🚨✅ The management of #AlIttihad and Gallardo decided that – if they sign a suitable replacement – #Jota can leave in this transfer session.
💰 As revealed, the 🇸🇦 club received 3 offers and – in the meantime – will start to discuss with the 🇵🇹 the best option for everyone. https://t.co/ALWmWqM4aI pic.twitter.com/cxGmVFyW54
— Rudy Galetti (@RudyGaletti) January 7, 2024
Steven Gerrard’s Al Ettifaq have reportedly made enquiries about the former Celtic man; however, there are two clubs that are not mentioned by Galetti. Could one of these be Celtic?
Brendan Rodgers didn’t have a chance to work with Jota, the deal to take him to the Saudis league was already in flux when the Irishman returned to Paradise. Although, he did speak about the player’s quality.
In 83 appearances for Celtic, Jota has scored 28 goals and assisted 26 times. The Celtic supporters adore the Portuguese star and if there was a chance at a return then we’d happily welcome this. Ange Postecoglou and Spurs have also been linked as being interested and you would have to imagine that there would be a few clubs interested in bringing him in from the cold.
Celtic are in the market for quality and Jota could represent this if the financials work out. Clearly, Al Ittihad must be aware that they won’t get much of their summer outlay back for the winger but if a loan to buy deal could be negotiated, then the player would likely relish a chance to return to Glasgow.
Curiously, Celtic have been linked with a few wingers in the last few weeks – Rapid Vienna’s Nikolas Kühn – but the chat has calmed in recent days.
Hopefully there is something in the continued links back to Celtic.
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Would have him back in a heartbeat. It is starting to look like they might even be willing to rip up his contract and let him leave for nothing, a very strange transfer all in. Jota does not have to go anywhere, I doubt he will leave if he is going to lose out financially, the only reason he went was for the silly money they offered him. If he is available on a free I would think a English club might go in for him. If he is just available on a loan till the end of the season and we had to cover his wages, Feb to June ? probably talking north of £4 million, a lot of money but he could be the difference in winning the league and gaining access to the CL and the money that would bring with it.
He’s not coming. We will have a sell on clause in the deal that took him there and our board would rather pick up the extra cash than bring him back to Parkhead.