18 months, 19 substitute appearances and 20 starts after leaving Celtic, Jota is back! He first joined Celtic as a 22-year-old in 2021, part of a revolutionary intake that summer, which saw Ange Postecoglou, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Kyogo, who passed Jota in the revolving door yesterday and became an instant success.
A five-and-a-half year contract for a player who turns 26 in March means the player should spend his best years at Celtic.
The €10m fee paid is approximately £17m less than the club received for him when he departed for Al Ittihad in Saudi, although that’s not all profit. Benfica received a significant slice of that fee, and we paid £6m for him initially. So we have paid approx. £14m (£6m and €10m/£8m), received £25m and Benfica earned just north of £6m kickback when he left Glasgow in 2023.
Benfica are £12m up for nurturing Jota, Celtic are up around £5m, despite having to sign him twice. The whole episode is full of lessons.
The first is for wingers. Why did such a talent fail to make the cut in Saudi and France? This goes back to a lesson we first learned with Patrick Roberts, also a prodigious winger. Players like Jota, Patrick and (I suggest) Nicolas Kuhn thrive in dominant teams. They have the craft to open up tight defences. This contrasts with the more athletic type of winger, commonly found in sides who dominate their leagues less than Celtic.
Look at the physicality of the wingers we face on Wednesday, or any winger outside the elite teams in England. They are generally taller and always strong. More like Daizen Maeda and James Forrest than Nicolas or Jota. Daizen would be first name on the team sheet for a side struggling in the French league. They need someone with the engine to get up and down the field all game. By contrast, a winger who can unlock a packed defence is superfluous to requirements.
There are also lessons for our player development strategy. I used to flinch when I read one of our teenage talents heading to Bayern Munich or Liverpool, less so Watford. Players who make it through the youth ranks at Celtic are already elite in some respects. A few are offered contracts for the first team and so many knock it back to try their chances elsewhere.
If it’s Jurgen Klopp or a Bayern Munich coach, can you blame them? Yes, of course, you can, but we need to learn to not worry about it. There is nothing we can do if the likes of Klopp gets in the room with a young Celtic player.
What if they are offered three times what Celtic assess is the going rate for their talents at Watford? We need to learn not to sweat this. The major work in player development is seldom their innate talent, it is more commonly their developmental path.
There is absolutely a lesson for Celtic from watching what Benfica do. A club who can afford to discard a talent like Jota, who was well down the Class of 2018 list, have different options from us.
Finally, we need to examine how we (and specifically who) identified Jota. That process also delivered Nicolas Kuhn and must be nurtured. I have my worries on that front.
Going forward, the job of Celtic centre forward is about to be come the easiest in the game. With defenders doubling up on Kuhn and Jota, there will be so much space through the middle, we might be able to bring back Albian Ajeti and still score goals!
Welcome home, Jota!
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Above for Blakey
Blakey 10:15
Dicey Riley’s in the old mall upper floor.
Blakey
https://m.facebook.com/DiceyReillysGranCanaria/
Bognor
Beat me to it
QUADBHOY @ 10:03 AM,
>i>”I said when the draw was made it felt a lot better than potential draws (PSG draw looked horrific to me, much to my amusement as I dislike them) and stand by that but all this chat about “easiest possible draw” as per OPTA doesn’t sit right with me, especially if used to diminish our achievements.
Yes, of course the way it has been presented there is totally wrong – it wasn’t the easiest possible draw – we certainly could have drawn an easier Pit 4 team than Aston Villa.
After the draw was made OPTA published their predictions, they predicted Celtic at 27th position and failing to qualify…
https://theanalyst.com/eu/2024/09/champions-league-predictions-2024-25-opta-supercomputer
If you scroll down the article you will see OPTA’s predicted final table.
Not too accurate may I add, but it does make a mockery of those who are using OPTA to suggest we had easy qualification.
Hail Hail
Good morning all from the Orchard Park. A lovely day in leafy Giffnock.
GENE @ 10:43 AM, PRESTONPANS BHOYS @ 10:45 AM,
No doubt seen Valle playing in Bergamo…
ShopWindowCSC
Hail Hail
There are many valid business models in football. The sense is that Celtic is adapting its longstanding one to meet new ambitions. We certainly have the cash to make some significant moves without compromising the club’s financial security, and let’s face it, cash in the bank doesn’t put the ball in the net or points on the board.
Some solid investment in players nearing their prime is no bad think provided it doesn’t tip the scales the wrong way. Kyogo after all wasn’t a callow youth when we signed him. Replacing him like with like of course is a fine trick.
Burnley78 on 28th January 2025 11:55 pm
I am going to get back to you on that post.
Busy today tho
HH
Not today tho
Not too worried by the absence of CCV if (big if) Trusty and Scales can produce their Atlanta form . I think the loss of Kyogo and Daizen will be felt keenly though , so I would be looking at 0-0 as being a ‘Phileep Claymont’ type moral victory .
I would have loved the chance to put an EPL team in their place with a full strength Celtic lineup.
Bognorbhoy and Gene
Cheers ghuys
bigrailroadblues on 29th January 2025 11:00 am
Good morning all from the Orchard Park. A lovely day in leafy Giffnock.
————————
Finally got your visa to enter posh East Renfrew?
I bet you are taking the wee doll out for a nice lunch. My cousin and her husband are regulars in that pub
Chairbhoy
Could you please tell me a team which had an easier run of fixtures in this seasons CL ?
I so much agree with TBB @ 11.01. The model is developing
That doesn’t mean that I fully disagree with B78 from 11.55 last night. He is correct to point out what went wrong at Rangers between Advocat and Murray.
However, I see Dermott supporting growth (with the revenues from Europe to be gained) but this will be within the confines that he has always applied that the club is self-sustaining. He will back Brendan to the point, should it ever happen, he has to say no. Dermott is not a David Murray.
I heard a story about Desmond at Christmas from my BIL who knows a guy who was chef to Desmond
Apparently, his favourite food was beans on toast, not lobster or filet mignon. The funnier part is that his favourite desert is jelly and ice cream!!!!!!
PS my BIL knows nothing about the jelly and ice cream patter so not winding me up 😎
Burnley78 @ 11.55
Not got your listening ears on?
He didn’t really inherit a treble winning squad.
The squad was weak , and due major overhaul, we had sold the star winger in Jota, the ever present centre back Starfelt and had no fit for purpose back up striker until January. BR also moved on a shed load of players in a year. All before he got his feet under the table, little did he know worse was to come?
It’s a shame we have to go over it again, but he definitely inherited or had foisted on him the men from nowhere, Tilio Kwon Holm Lagerbielke Nawrocki Palma Yang (maybe) Why did we sign all those players if Brendan had just inherited a treble winning squad of worldies?
Most of them are gone or going including the top selector who just happened to be in the building anyway. All new managers inherit another manager’s players, it’s what they win, how they
play for the new guy that matters.
BR won the double despite the handicaps and developed and made better Carter Vickers, A.Johnston, Liam Scales, and Greg Taylor, for sure He transformed a bang average winger into Daizen Maeda, refined a new free scoring Matt O’Riley into a £25M player and he even got a long unheard tune out of James Forrest. If Brendan said black we get the distinct impression round these parts, that you’d say white.
TBB@11.01
There’s also corporation tax to consider, best spend wisely than pay the tax man!
Watched the Brugge Villa match earlier in the tournament, Villa big chaps , strong running , subtlety is not their strong suit.
Got the impression they thought they would wear Brugge down and run out 2-0 winners , however Brugge stood firm and the big daft Villa centre half picked the ball up in the penalty area.
Don’t think it will be an Atlanta game where inexplicably they just kept crossing the ball to a Scottish team , which was nuts really. Villa likely to play into CF for knock back or turn the centre half’s , seems to me we need to narrow the midfield block the through passes , from memory both Villa backs were steady , for me our wingers stay wide ( not too wide) but drop back 10 yards and be more available for an out ball.
We need our game face on tonight and stick it to the English