‘I can’t believe…’ Jota leaves Celtic-mad pundit shocked after re-joining the club

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Celtic’s forward line has been cooking like never before in recent months.

It wasn’t so long ago that the Celtic Park faithful were frustrated at the business – or lack of – the club conducted during the January transfer window.

Kyogo Furuhashi left for Rennes and Celtic didn’t replace him, even though the powers that be at the club knew that he wanted to go months before.

You could argue that Jota’s return perhaps lifted the mood around the winter transfer window and it was made even better when he scored on his second debut against Motherwell.

Since then, Brendan Rodgers has used the 25-year-old in a sporadic fashion, including putting him on the bench for Celtic’s win at St Mirren on Saturday.

But that’s to avoid any injury or issues that might come up because he has hardly played during the last 18 months.

Jota ‘surprise’ after Celtic comeback

Given that Jota has hardly played, especially this season, only 332 minutes for Rennes before coming back to Glasgow, he has looked and performed a lot better.

Celtic-mad Stephen McGinn wanted to point that out and explained ‘I can’t believe how good Jota has been’, as he told Go Radio.

McGinn, the older brother of Aston Villa captain John, added that Jota has just ‘hit the ground running’, even though Rodgers has tried to ‘protect his minutes’.

“I think Jota has been a top signing,” said McGinn. “I can’t believe how good Jota has been, in terms of his limited minutes. Getting up to speed.

“Geniunely, it has taken me by surprise how good he has been. Brendan Rodgers has actually tried to protect his minutes. He didn’t start the first game against Bayern. But he has just hit the ground running and this is right up there.

“I felt, last season, one of the reasons he struggled in the title race is that he builds his Celtic team, his best Celtic teams have been the two wingers.

“He was relying heavily on one last year and Daizen Maeda. It took until James Forrest came back from injury late last season to really start to look like a Brendan Rodgers team.

“With Kuhn, Maeda and Jota, they look like a real good Brendan Rodgers side.”

Jota’s stats since returning to Celtic

All of this is great news for Celtic and Rodgers because he knows that Jota can hit much higher levels yet.

That’s three goals already to his name, including a Man of the Match award for his performance during the win over Dundee United.

Let Jota have a pre-season under his belt and get settled in even further, then fans won’t get to see the best of him until the next campaign.

Until then, he is just racking up the trophies and entertaining the crowd like he has always done.