Our former superstar from Portugal Jota has been finding life quite tough in Saudi Arabia after his £25 million move to Al-Ittihad from Celtic.

He was reported to be surplus to requirements after only a few weeks in the Gulf State. This seems to have escalated after he was left out of their squad for the upcoming season to make way for incoming signing Luiz Felipe.

This means Jota will be sidelined and facing football wilderness after just a couple of months at his new club. It’s quite bizarre to say the least. It just goes to prove the crazy riches on offer in Saudi when a side can afford the luxury of binning a player they signed for £25 million and are paying the equivalent of £190k a week, after only a couple of appearances from the bench..

Jota of course will still be a very rich young man, but his footballing career will suffer a significant set back while he is sidelined. He is far too good a talent to be wasting away on the sidelines.

Football needs talents such as Jota, an entertainer and all round good guy. Hopefully he keeps his head down and works away and gets a move in the next window. He deserves so much more.

And the Saudi clubs might just find it harder to convince players to move to their league given the treatment that has been dished out to Jota. Other than the global superstars of the game and there are very few of them, players  might think twice before accepting the riches on offer – or maybe just demand more assurances with heavy financial penalties if what has happened to Jota, happens to them.

Just an Ordinary Bhoy

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