John Hartson played for Celtic, but he does come across as a pundit with very little nuance when it comes to his opinions.
John is a Celtic fan, and I think that comes across in what he says in the media.
Today, he’s urging Celtic to sign Jota on a permanent deal before agents start touting him around Europe. Most fans, including myself would love to see Celtic tie up a deal for Jota in January, but realistically, can it be done during the next window?
The Welsh international legend told RecordSport: “You do it now. That’s the next one. In January, you do it.
“He’s made a great impact and although Celtic have first refusal it doesn’t mean you get him over the line.
“They have an option to get him, but his agent and Jota will have the decision whether it will be Celtic or not.
“You don’t want Jota to be on 20 goals by February and then a Bayern Munich come in and say to his agent: ‘We’ll give you £10million if you get him to us’.
“That could happen. That’s why I’m saying, get him done. A Bayern Munich or a PSG might come in and say” ‘We want this kid, he’s 22, he has lit the place up at Celtic, he looks dynamite’.
“You know agents are running the game right now — they run football.
“They speak to clubs, they speak to chairmen. All managers have agents, this is how they do the deals.
“I would recommend Celtic do it as swiftly as they can because he is a very special player.”
Celtic still need some more depth and quality signings are a must in January. Given money is tight, I couldn’t see Celtic sign Jota for a reported £6m plus and then go splurge more on bringing in some more reinforcements.
We have Jota on the books and he’s playing well, if he continues to do the business for Celtic he could help catapult thee Hoops to the title and what’s likely to be an automatic Champions League place, although not guaranteed.
Celtic need to focus on bringing new players in this January, give ourselves the best chance of winning the league and if we make it to the Champions League, we can use some of the cash to sign Jota on a deal we already have pre-agreed.
Surely, that makes more sense.
Totally mixed up article. We should sign Jota but then not spend on reinforcements? We have him on the books right now? He is a loan signing and we have first option to buy him at £6M. and he is in sparkling form right now. We have the money to spend. What point is the writer trying to make? Either we buy or don’t buy Jota, Hartson is quite right if we hesitate on this it is quite likely that someone else will come in and snatch him before we have made our minds up.
We could also sell Barkas and Ajeti and use that cash to buy Jota or at least,a sizeable downpayment?
Sorry but we must sign Jota ASAP don’t want to lose him like we did with McGinn
From what I gather the agreement is we have first refusal on Jota and Benfica can’t break that. The gist of this article is that Ange will have a set amount of funds available to spend in January, if you uses any of it to trigger the clause and buy Jota then, it takes away money from potential signings he has lined up already. We can strengthen the team and wait until the end of the campaign and trigger the clause then. If we win the title we have more or less qualified for the CL with no playoffs. So why spend money now when it will take away from the “pot” Ange has to play with?
John Hartson is correct. Diamonds like Jota come along every 20 years. Leave nothing to chance, sign him asap
Barkas and Ajeti will be going in Jan along with who knows who else, that’ll free up some cash. Plus we would have no trouble obtaining finance if we absolutely had to. I see Big John’s point, news tha a Barca or Bayern were looking at him might turn him away from signing for us if we leave it too long, so I say get him signed and if we end up in a Jack Hendry-type situation where there’s interest and he wants to go we sell him on immediately for a large profit. Obviously, I’d much rather we sign him and he stays…