Former Celtic winger, Jota’s Saudi Arabian adventure seems to be drawing to a close as Al-Ittihad make a decision on his future.
The Portuguese winger has struggled for game time at his new club since becoming one of Celtic most expensive exports with his £25m move last summer.
Jota left Celtic as a treble-winner as he followed Ange Postecoglou out the exit door in a move that saw him pick up a life-changing contract of £192,000 per week.
However, after making just 25 appearances for the Saudi club, a report has claimed that Al-Ittihad’s management has made a decision on the 25-year-old’s future.
Al-Ittihad want to ‘get rid’ of Jota
A report from Saudi outlet, Alwatan, claims that Al-Ittihad wants to move on four of their foreign contingent and former Celtic hero, Jota, appears to be one of them.
The report states, “Al Ittihad management decided to get rid of 4 foreign players, namely: Hamdallah, Felipe Jota, Ahmed Hegazi and Luiz Felipe.”
Jota has long been tipped for a return to Celtic and now that his immediate future appears to have been decided, it’s likely conversations in the pundit circles could start up again.
Whether or not a return to a club where he enjoyed immense success and a close bond with the Celtic fans will happen remains to be seen.
Because, let’s face it, even if Jota took an 80% pay cut, Celtic would still need to fork out the guts of £40,000 per week for his services and that is likely to place him as the highest earner at the club.
There is no doubt the Celtic fans would love to see Jota back in the green and white Hoops and I daresay Brendan Rodgers would too, but this is one that I think could be too rich for the club despite a clear need to strengthen that area of the pitch.
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