O’Neill confirms the news nobody wants to hear about Jota, which proves that somebody inside Celtic cynically briefed Keith Jackson about the player yesterday

Last night on the Trinity Tims, we discussed the comment Keith Jackson made in his Monday morning column regarding Celtic winger Felipe Jota’s injury status.

For those of you that didn’t see it, here it is:

They pulled the same stunt with Jota (brought him back to the club) who made a fortune in Saudi Arabia and is now in no apparent rush to get his boots back on and start earning his wages again in Glasgow’s east end. Indeed, there are concerns behind the scenes that the winger’s heart is not in it the way it once was.

The key takeout from that statement is, “Indeed, there concerns behind the scenes that the wingers heart is not in it the way it once was.”

So, the question arising from that is this…

Who exactly is showing concern that his heart is not in it the way it once was?

And why did they feel the need to brief someone like Keith Jackson on their concerns?

The news on Jota from Martin O’Neill’s press conference today now does not come as a shock, because it ties in perfectly with what Keith Jackson said yesterday in his column.

Obviously, it confirms our worst fears when it comes to the Portuguese winger, and that he is officially out for the rest of the season.

But what it also confirms is that someone inside the club heard it before yesterday too, and cynically briefed Keith Jackson on it.

Because if Jota is out for the rest of Celtic’s season, well, what does that mean?

It means that despite the fact he cannot play, his wages still have to be paid until he can return next season.

Now you don’t have to be a genius to figure out why.

Jota earns around £37,000 per week at Celtic.

If he is out until the start of next season, that’s effectively £1,332,000 in wages that will have to be paid to a player who is, through no fault of his own, contributing nothing to the first team squad.

Now, what kind of individual would this particular revelation grate at?

Well, I’d hazard a guess that a bean counting accountant might get upset by this kind of news.

Because if we know of one thing that makes bean counting accountants at Celtic tick, its cold hard cash.

They love the stuff.

But what they despise more than anything else, is parting with it.

Ironically, when they lose millions in cash through their own sheer stupidity, they will take no accountability for it whatsoever.

Last season they forked out £8 million to bring Felipe Jota back to Celtic.

He has been out with his ACL injury since April of last year.

But it’s clear that somebody who doesn’t like the fact that Jota has to be paid till next season briefed Keith Jackson and stated that Jota’s “heart is not in it the way it once was“.

Now, as we discussed on last night’s podcast, Jota could have seen out his contract in Saudi Arabia, where he was earning a cool £192k per week tax free.

Or he could have run down his contract at Rennes, where he was earning €45,000 per week.

But no, he chose to come to cold, dark Glasgow because he wanted to play football.

And he was doing exactly that, and enjoying it, up until he suffered that horrendous injury.

So, to suggest that his heart is not in it when it comes to his recovery from that injury?

Well, to me, that smacks of someone just bitching about how much that’s going to cost the club.

And as I said earlier, we know exactly the kind of person that would piss off.

Someone who knows the square root of fuck all when to comes to football, or a what a footballer feels or goes through with an injury like Jota’s, and only looks at something like this in financial terms.

I don’t need to name names.

Because the pool of individuals who would brief Keith Jackson about something like this is sufficiently narrowed down to know where it came from now.

The same kind of individuals who still, on day thirteen of this transfer window, have not landed a signing of note.

And if Martin O’Neill’s press conference is anything to go by?

It ain’t going to change any time soon.

When he said, “we are really trying, honestly, we will try to get people in”, that immediately made me fear the worst.

We’ve heard that line so many times before.

And we all know what it leads to.

O’Neill’s body language spoke volumes in that media conference.

He certainly isn’t enthused by the transfer window so far.

It seems like this board will have no problem screwing him either.

Except if they do and we lose this title?

That is entirely on them.

Nobody else.

Number of days Michael Nicholson remains Celtic CEO since Wilfried Nancy’s sacking – 8