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The Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers, backed Jota to be an even bigger success second time round after the Portuguese winger marked his “emotional” return with a goal in a 3-1 win at Motherwell.
The 65th-minute substitute appeared to be in tears shortly after converting a pass from Daizen Maeda to round off the Scottish Premiership victory in the closing seconds and celebrating in front of the visiting fans.
The 25-year-old left Celtic 18 months ago for an ill-fated spell in Saudi Arabia before failing to establish himself in the Rennes starting lineup, but Rodgers believes he will be stronger for the experience.
“He was a superstar when he was here the first time and it’s been a challenge for him, obviously, leaving, but he couldn’t have written that any better,” Rodgers said.
“He’s a wonderful player. He doesn’t just look like a good player, he is a good player. Once he gets up to fitness in terms of how I want him to press the game, he’s going to be a fantastic player again.
“He’s emotional. The journey that he’s been on since being here and then leaving, just not having that feeling. It’s a really, really difficult club when you come away from it, especially when you’re a player like him, when you’re adored to that level that he was when he was here the first time. He probably thought he was never going to feel that again.
“So, to come back and get the goal, and obviously the support, they idolise him. Just like for every player, you want to feel wanted, appreciated, and he knows he has that here. He’s had the sample now of two moves that haven’t quite worked out. He also has probably a more realistic feeling of the actual size of the club, and what Celtic can give him.
So, my feeling is that he’ll come back even hungrier and be even better than he was the first time.”
Jota’s goal came after some sustained Celtic pressure but Motherwell were briefly level when Luke Armstrong cancelled out Maeda’s first-minute opener, before Adam Idah restored the visitors’ lead.
The Motherwell caretaker manager, Stephen Frail, was delighted with his players’ effort after a difficult week that started with the shock resignation of the manager Stuart Kettlewell. “Losing a goal so early in any game is tough, especially against a team with the quality of Celtic,” he said.
“You kind of fear the worst. But they dug in, they battled, managed to get a goal back in the game, caused them a couple of problems in the first half with the ball, not as much in the second half as we would have liked. But the actual workrate, desire, shape, whatever it was, without the ball, I thought it was really good and something for us to build on.”
Philippe Clement said Rangers “need to be happy” this week after backing up European success with a 4-0 thrashing of Ross County at Ibrox.
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Rangers qualified for the last 16 of the Europa League on Thursday with a 2-1 win against the Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise and they took that form into the Premiership game against the Staggies. Two goals from the midfielder Ianis Hagi and a goal from the centre-back John Souttar had Rangers coasting by the break.
James Tavernier, the captain, converted Rangers’ first league penalty of the season in the 76th minute to clinch the victory that keeps them 10 points behind the league leaders Celtic, who have a game in hand.
Assessing the game, Clement said: “Not perfect. I think the first half, yes. The second half, not at the same level as the first half. But we need to be happy about this week for sure.
“A big European night, qualified directly in the first eight, then winning very clearly today. Clean sheet, the chance to give young players minutes to gain experience, no injuries. And that you see more and more that this team starts to understand all our principles and the way of moving together.
So it becomes more and more fluent. We knew that it would take time, but it’s good to see that more and more players start to understand everything.”
County are only five points ahead of the bottom side, St Johnstone, and the manager, Don Cowie, had “no complaints” about the defeat. “At half-time the message was very clear. It’s damage limitation, and try to get out of here with a bit of credit and a bit of pride.
I have no complaints with the result in terms of how it finished. Now it’s about us moving on and getting ready for the run-in.”
