If Celtic sell Jota this summer and make a significant profit, manager Brendan Rodgers and the club’s recruitment team will receive a “big chunk” to reinvest back into the squad.
This is the report from Scottish Daily Mail journalist Stephen McGowan. He claimed the Bhoys winger’s move to Al Ittihad would come close to the record £25million raised for left-back Kieran Tierney. (30/06 print edition, p. 87)
Encouragingly, it doesn’t look like Celtic have any intention of amassing any wealth, having already brought in significant chunks of cash over the last 18 months.
It is said that Rodgers will receive a large profit from the sale of players to recruit, on top of the transfer budget already agreed with him.
Replacing Iota at Celtic is unlikely to be cheap
Celtic are expected to pay somewhere between £16m and £19.5m after the money is paid to Benfica as part of the sale agreement between the Bhoys and Benfica that sealed Jota’s move to Glasgow in the first place.
Losing a player of Jota’s caliber undoubtedly weakens the squad, so the club will need to find a quality replacement.
The Portuguese has scored 28 goals and assisted a further 26 in his two seasons at the club and that kind of production is not easy to replace.
His efforts go beyond that. He has an outstanding work ethic off the ball and plays in a dedicated manner for both his teammates and himself.
Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty ImagesIn addition, his skills with the ball and his ability to dribble made him a real crowd pleaser. He is one of the players in the team who can do the unexpected and produce some brilliance that not only punishes opponents but also entertains.
Ultimately, fans will expect a high-caliber player to take his place in the team. And this is unlikely to come cheap.
In other news, Celtic’s preparations for the new season are about to intensify as Brendan Rodgers’ reign really begins.