Brendan Rodgers was barely in the door at Celtic and he was losing a £25m player.
As the players returned for pre-season training Jota was signing a mind-blowing contract with Al Ittihad with the new Celtic boss down a 15 goal winger capable of turning match with his ability that made him a fan favourite.
Those 15 goals didn’t just come against any old side. There were three in Glasgow Derbies- one picked up the SPFL Goal of the Season Award with the other two deciding the matches with two others scored away from home in the Champions League.
Scott Sinclair, James Forrest and Patrick Roberts were big influences during Rodgers first time in charge of Celtic but he can only reflect on what might have been with the Superstar from Portugal.
Jota had a great spell in a couple of years that he was here. There is no doubt that he was a huge success. I was looking forward to working with him but the kid had been given a life-changing offer. There is no doubt that when he was here he loved being at the club. He enjoyed his life in Glasgow and from a football perspective, there are not too many better places to play football than in Glasgow.
However, the modern game for a lot of players is also a business for them and their careers are short. He has been given an opportunity to go and look after himself and his family and we have to respect that.
He’s gone and we have some really talented players here, but we would like to do some business to improve that area of the team as well.
With Mikey Johnston and Marco Tilio both out injured there is a shortage of wingers available for Celtic’s pre-season matches.
Rocco Vata can step up but after plenty of speculation earlier this year about Liel Abada moving on the loss of the Israeli winger would leave Rodgers seriously short of options.