Gordon Strachan has taken aim at Chris Sutton over his criticism of Jota's move to Saudi Arabia.
The former Hoops star slammed the Portuguese winger's mega-money switch to the Middle East earlier this week.
The pundit claimed that the 24-year-old was "wasting" his career by agreeing to swap Parkhead for Al-Ittihad.
Jota completed that move on Monday evening in a £25million transfer.
He will earn an eye-watering £192,000 per week with the Saudi Pro League champions.
And Strachan insists no blame can be attached to the former fans' favourite for taking the chance to earn such vast sums of money - as he reminded Sutton he'd have made the same decision during his playing days.
He told Genting Casino: "I think every player in Britain now is sat by their phone waiting for the Saudi telephone code to flash up. When that call comes in, players will start singing and dancing.
"I would challenge anyone to turn down an offer of fifteen times their wages. You have to remember that the player will have a family that he will want to look after and, there is no doubt about it that that kind of backing can take care of that.
"Even if he were to join the club for a period of three years, and then he can move on and do what he wants after that.
"I see absolutely no problem with any player making that decision. Let’s not forget that he’ll be playing alongside the likes of Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante, which will be a real learning curve for him. I see no problem with it and it's also going to make the club a lot of money.
"It's easy for people to question the player's desire, but once that money is presented to you, it becomes hard to turn down. And I bet the pundits that are criticising him would all do exactly the same thing if they were offered the chance to."
On the challenge of Brendan Rodgers now replacing Jota, Strachan was fairly relaxed in his attitude.
He believes his former club has proven they can operate shrewdly in the transfer market, and has backed them to do it once more in this instance.
He added: "The funny thing about this is, when Celtic were going for ten in a row two years ago, everyone said they must keep Ajer. They must keep Edouard. They must keep Ntcham.
"The club went above and beyond their wage ceiling to keep those players by giving them huge wages and they didn’t win the league.
"These players will be remembered, but when Celtic were playing wonderful football last season, beating teams three nil, if you asked the fans about them, some of them would have said, “Who?” There are always new heroes in football.
"Celtic will always find new heroes. Where they come from, nobody knows."
