He has had his critics, but there is nothing quite like the weekly, daily and hourly break down of a £10m-a-year salary to, for me at least, compel you to hang back on judging Jota too strongly.
The pros and cons of his prospective nice little earner in Saudi Arabia have been dissected from every angle, a seemingly imminent departure from Glasgow splitting opinion. There are valid points on all sides, but an almost collective recognition that this is completely out of the ordinary for an SPFL player.
Jota himself will know there is an element of risk hidden among the mountain of tax-free millions. This is not a turn he would have expected his career to take, but the finances involved are beyond what any of us mere mortals can really comprehend. I’m not sure it is as simple, like some are suggesting, as Jota being able to commit a few years to making more money than he could ever spend before picking up his career in Europe where it left off – at least not on the same upward trajectory it is currently.
But the money is still life-changing, even for an already handsomely paid elite athlete. The fee Al-Ittihad are prepared to pay is transformative for Celtic, too.
They are set to bank a sum close to the club-record fee received from Kieran Tierney’s transfer to Arsenal in 2019, a considerable profit on their initial £6m outlay even after accounting for Benfica’s 30 per cent sell-on fee. Like Jota, it’s probably too much cash to refuse.
Celtic may also just be wondering if this could be a sign of things to come.
Al-Ittihad’s interest in Jota is a departure from how Saudi clubs have channelled the cash being served up by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund. Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante are in their latter footballing years, and such players seeking last pay day is an established trend. Bernardo Silva joining them is eye-catching, yes, but even he is creeping towards 30 and has already won everything there is to win with Manchester City. The influence of super-agent Jorge Mendes and his Gestifute agency is clear, with Jota and Wolves’ Ruben Neves both clients.
But at just 24, luring a player at Jota’s career juncture hints at something different, more so when you consider Al-Ittihad were also reportedly interested in Reo Hatate. His agent quick to shut down the prospect of a move, but he did not deny there was interest.
The Pro League needs something other than veterans winding down careers to hold the attention of football fans already spoiled for choice by a broadcasting schedule saturated with games from all over the world. The goal is to compete with Europe’s top five leagues, but to do so it surely needs to take something of value to those competition away from them. Jota and Hatate are two players widely tipped for the Premier League or similar as a natural next step up.
What if we are seeing the beginnings of a concerted effort from Saudi Arabia to intercept these players before they get there? A key failing of the Chinese Super League is it had little else to offer viewers out with some big names on the career downslope, marking time and money against domestic players of a poor standard.
It will take the Pro League years to raise the quality of its homegrown talent to a level tantalising enough to hold outside eyes. But everything they are doing suggests a project in a hurry, and one way to level up could be in diverting young talents away from established paths.
Given Celtic’s player trading model is predicated on offering upcoming players a path to a higher level in exchange for delivering silverware, such a strategy has implications for them. Would they really have been offered £20m-plus straight off the bat for Jota from a midrange Premier League club? Perhaps, but I wouldn’t call it a certainty.
Conducting business in this fashion would force clubs who look to Celtic as a breeding ground for talent to reassess how they do transfers. Lowball offers from England have long been a bugbear for Celtic fans, but if these clubs know there are Saudi upstarts ready to offer wealth from another stratosphere if they don’t move quickly and convincingly, they may no longer hold so tight on the purse strings.
Bigger incoming fees would mean more money for Brendan Rodgers to spend on upgrades, and that can only be a good thing for Celtic.
