Alasdair Gold has revealed that when Ange Postecoglou joined Tottenham in the summer, he heard that Jota was not one of the players that the Australian was looking to bring with him from Celtic to North London.
Tottenham have been ravaged by injuries a number of positions, with their forward line also having being quite impacted
Manor Solomon, Ivan Perisic and James Maddison are all out with long-term injuries while Richarlison has only just returned from pelvis surgery when he played the last few minutes of the 3-3 draw at Manchester City.
Unsurprisingly, Postecoglou is thought to be keen on adding reinforcements to his attack in January, with various outlets over recent weeks suggesting that the Lilywhites are exploring a move to sign Jota on loan (Standard).
(Photo by Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
It was even suggested by 90 min on 17 November that moving to Tottenham would be the Al-Ittihad star’s number-one preference in January as the player wants to reunite with Postecoglou.
Curiously, Gold has now said that the Portuguese star was not one of the players mentioned in the summer as someone who could follow the Australian from Celtic Park to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The journalist said on Gold and Guest Talk Tottenham Podcast: “Jota makes sense for me, but I did find it interesting when speaking to people in and around Celtic when Postecoglou came I asked which players should he bring with him and Jota wasn’t on their list.
“I don’t know if that was a feeling that he couldn’t make it in the Premier League, if there were any doubts under that, and now he’s in the Saudi Pro League and he wasn’t even registered, now he can only play in Asian Champions League games and cups and stuff like that.”
Our View
I suspect Tottenham’s interest in Jota is primarily down to the winger being potentially available on loan. Postecoglou needs more bodies upfront, given the injuries to Solomon and Perisic. I doubt if the Australian sees the former Celtic man as someone who would be a guaranteed starter for Spurs.
