Michael Gannon of the Daily Record has claimed that Celtic are braced for Saudi interest in Reo Hatate.
Over the last few days there has been intense speculation from journalists such as Fabrizio Romanov that a deal is being discussed to take Jota to Al Ittihad.
With personal terms of £10m a year free of tax being quoted there appears to be very little that a club can do once their player has heard of those sort of terms.
Moving on from the Jota speculation, in the Daily Record Gannon reports:
The Hoops are also braced for interest from the Middle East in midfielder Reo Hatate. The playmaker’s representatives let intermediates in the region know the Japan star was not interested in heading to the Gulf State earlier in the summer.
Hatate is believed to be focused on Celtic with a view to making his name in Europe. But Saudi sides – including Al-Ittihad – remain interest and are preparing to offer huge financial packages. Celtic won’t let go of another crown jewel unless it’s a blockbuster bid, with Jota already on his way and midfielder Aaron Mooy deciding to hang up his boots.
It is hard to define what a ‘blockbuster bid’ would be but walking in on a squad without Jota, Aaron Mooy and Hatate would be a major challenge for Brendan Rodgers and add some urgency to transfer business.
After two frantic transfer windows Ange Postecoglou had his squad under control with circumstances allowing him to bring in Alistair Johnston and Oh Hyeon-gyu before the transfers of Josip Juranovic and Giorgos Giakoumakis.
With Celtic’s non-internationalists starting pre-season training today all eyes will be on whether or not Jota clocks in at Lennoxtown.
If the money right..
The board will take it..simples..
Wrong first player must want it and he if so we sell!! ” simples”! If they want out good we sell!! Plenty great players would love to play for our Great club and that what we need ! Commited players!
And if so we sell i meant
People going on about jota need to realise celtic have been offered at least £15 million more than hes worth imo – get this deal done as soon as , hopefully abada be next for £30 million!!
Absolutely nothing they can do about it. Many agents will be negotiating with Saudi clubs at the moment. The Qatar World Cup and the success of Man City/ Newcastle have inspired the clubs to attract the players to the Gulf. Massive changes about to come. And we thought it would be driven by UEFA. Not likely. The Saudi clubs will snap up big names and emerging talent over the next few years and the Europeans, in particular the English will whine about it, makes no difference it is going to happen. It happened with Sky and the EPL which weakened the Italian league and other big European leagues. Players would rather sign for Brighton than Juventus never mind Southampton rather than Celtic. It will be funny when they are rejecting Man Utd for Al Nasser and Liverpool foe Al-Ittihad. And all the talk about the CL and signing for clubs with ‘history’ will prove to be the garbage it always has been. Wait until the Gulf States have a combined League. They will then be a true power-house.
RE jota one season in saudi NO parties NO boozing but 10 million in the bank and set for life he will come back to Europe
Reo is destined for bigger things . But a move there just now sees us bank a hefty transfer fee (20m) and frees up a place for BR to bring in EPL class players