‘Not the same player…’ Brendan Rodgers sent Jota message after Celtic return

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Kyogo Furuhashi’s Celtic exit in January was a surprise and a blow to the club, but the mood was lifted by Jota’s return.

For years and years, Celtic have been lauded and applauded for how they have conducted business in the transfer market.

But this whole Jota saga has worked in their favour and proven to be a stroke of genius now that he is back in Glasgow.

Just 18 months ago, Jota was making a big-money £25 million move to Saudi Arabia – money which the champions just couldn’t turn down.

But, after the 25-year-old’s struggles in the Saudi Pro League and further issues with Rennes in France’s top-tier, Celtic took advantage of it all and signed him back for £8 million in the winter.

Since then, Brendan Rodgers has been pretty careful with the player because of his lack of minutes over these last 18 months and it has been praised.

READ MORE: James McFadden says ‘what many people thought’ would happen to Jota at Celtic hasn’t happened

Brendan Rodgers’ management of Jota at Celtic lauded

Even though Jota scored during Celtic’s 5-1 win over Aberdeen last week, he was back on the bench for the trip to Paisley over the weekend.

Rodgers made that call to help the player out and that decision was lauded on PLZ Soccer.

Tam McManus thinks it’s top management from the Celtic manager and explained what would have happened if he had put him in ‘too early’.

The former Hibernian star explained that Jota wouldn’t have been up to speed, then he would have been judged by fans ‘instantly’ and some would have written him off by saying ‘he’s not the same player’.

But that hasn’t been the case because of Rodgers.

“I think it’s good management,” said McManus on Rodgers dropping Jota to the bench for the St Mirren game.

“When you are a player, you have come in and you have missed a pre-season. You haven’t been playing much. You get put in too early. The fans can judge you instantly. I think, particularly, at a big club like Celtic.

“If he had thrown Jota in straight away, then Celtic fans would have thought, ‘he’s not the same player’. You give him time to get his legs back in training and get his sharpness up.

“He has plenty of options. He can rotate the team. I think, domestically, Celtic have got plenty in hand to go and win games. I think he has managed the players well. When Jota is 100%, he will probably put him back in.”

Jota’s minutes and stats since his return to Celtic

Given that Celtic were beaten by Hibs last time out, it would be a surprise if Jota isn’t back in the starting XI for the visit of David Gray’s side for the Scottish Cup this Sunday.

Jota is yet to complete 90 minutes since returning to Celtic Park and perhaps this could be the ideal time to do it.

Although, Rodgers does have some tricky decisions to make, including who starts in his forward line because certain people will be knocking on the door.

Super sub Hyunjun Yang changed the game against St Mirren and he will be eager for those extra minutes.

But fans will also want to see Jota back in the XI and the other two – Daizen Maeda and Nicolas Kuhn – aren’t going to be dropped for such a big game.