Jota will reportedly look to be paid his full salary by Al Ittihad if he remains out of the squad come January. Despite signing the 24-year-old from Celtic for £25m in July, it became apparent that the player’s lucrative move had not panned out quite as he had hoped.
The Jeddah club have decided to cut the Portuguese player from their squad but were unable to offload him in the window. Now, according to transfer journalist Rudy Galetti on Twitter/X, Jota’s position will be reevaluated in the winter but it looks as if he will move on.
🚨❌ #AlIttihad decided that #Jota will stay out of the team list until the winter transfer session.
⏳ The 🇵🇹 is now evaluating either to wait until January hoping that the club’s and Nuno’s decision will change or start talks to terminate his contract, asking for full salary. pic.twitter.com/Kgu16Kn2i6
— Rudy Galetti (@RudyGaletti) September 20, 2023
Al Ittihad likely don’t see much to lose from cutting a player that they’ve only recently spent tens of millions of pounds on. The Jeddah club will likely look to move the player on or simply agree a payout.
For Jota, though, he’s in no-man’s land. He left Celtic for a lucrative proposal but no one will be able or willing to match those wages in Europe. Celtic could be a route back to football but it seems far fetched.
In 83 appearances, 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.
Wouldn’t take him back. Bold enough to make out he was interested in the league and not the money. Anyone who goes there is not interested in the football over there.
If I were the Celtics recruitment team I would offer to buy him back for 10M which would still leave us in profit, plus have 100% of the transfer fee in any future sale. I think Al Ittihad would just cut their losses with an offer like that. I also think Jotta would take the pay cut to be getting regular game time and would have a point to prove. Win,win, if possible to do a deal.
Not interested in signing him. He made his decision and I’m sure he will learn from it. It’s a bit undignified hankering back after players that have left us for whatever reason, good or bad.