Jota and Kyogo Celtic in and out from Rennes latest as Brendan Rodgers reveals adored striker wanted to leave
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers expects the deals taking Kyogo and Jota to and from Rennes to go through in the next 24 hours.
Hoops talisman Kyogo is poised to seal a £10million switch to the Ligue 1 club, bringing his three-and-a-half year stay at Parkhead to an end. Kyogo's leaves the club having bagged an impressive 85 goals in 165 matches, helping himself to three league winners' medals, two Scottish Cups and three league cups.
However, the blow of losing the Japanesse frontman is set to be softened by the shock return to Glasgow's East End of Portuguese star Jota. The winger only joined Rennes last summer but is on the verge of rejoining the Hoops in a £8.4million deal that is completely separate to Kyogo's transfer going the other way.
The former Benfica youngster's return to Celtic has been held up due to the onset of Storm Eoywn in Scotland but Rodgers has confirmed that the deal is all but all done. The Irishman has also revealed Kyogo had expressed a desire to seek a new challenge months ago.
He said: “Kyogo had expressed an interest to leave a number of months back. Obviously then that expression becomes stronger and then it gets to this stage where he clearly wants to leave and we have to then do a deal and look to finalise that for him.
“He’s been an incredible player for the club in the three-and-a-half years he’s been here and, like I said, he’s not someone we wanted to lose. But we have to accept where he’s at and after the work that he’s done to give to Celtic, and his age and where he’s at, we have to accept that.”
“There’s obviously issues around the timing. But we have been aware so it’s not something that has just been sprung on us. We understand that we were going to lose him and that we have to replace that quality to keep the team moving forward. It’s something that’s been going on in a little while and hopefully we come out of the window with a stronger squad.”
On Jota's arrival, he said: “It’s not finalised yet. But a player who clearly would be an incredible addition to our squad given what he’s done here before and his qualities. Hopefully we can complete that in the next 24 hours.”
