If Celtic sell Jota this summer and make a significant profit, manager Brendan Rodgers and the club’s recruitment team will get ‘much of it’ to reinvest back into the squad.
That’s the report from Scottish Daily Mail journalist Stephen McGowan. He’s stated that an Al-Ittihad move for the Bhoys winger will come close to the record £25m fee hauled in for left-back Kieran Tierney. [30/06 print edition, page 87]
Encouragingly, it doesn’t seem that Celtic are intent on hoarding any wealth, having already brought in significant chunks of money over the last 18 months.
It’s said that Rodgers will get plenty of any profit from player sales for recruitment, in addition to the transfer budget already agreed upon with him.
Replacing Jota at Celtic is unlikely to be cheap
Celtic are expected to bank anywhere between £16m and £19.5m after money is paid to Benfica as part of the sell-on agreement between the Bhoys and Benfica that sealed Jota’s move to Glasgow in the first place.
Losing a player of Jota’s calibre undoubtedly weakens the squad so the club will need to source a quality replacement.
The Portuguese has scored 28 goals and assisted 26 more in his two seasons at the club and that kind of output isn’t easy to replace.
His efforts go beyond that too. He has an exceptional work ethic off the ball and plays in a committed fashion for his teammates as much as himself.
In addition, his ball skills and dribbling ability have made him a real crowd-pleaser. He’s one of the players in the squad who can do the unexpected and produce a bit of brilliance that not only punishes opponents but entertains.
Ultimately, fans will expect a player of high calibre to take his place in the squad. And that’s unlikely to come cheap.
In other news, Celtic’s new season preparations are about to ramp up as Brendan Rodgers reign truly begins.
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