Celtic’s march towards yet another title continues.
Last Saturday evening, Brendan Rodgers’ side battled to victory at St Mirren, leading twice through Jeffrey Schlupp’s sweet strike and then Arne Engels’ spot-kick, only for the Buddies to hit back both times.
Nevertheless, a quick-fire late double from substitute Yang Hyun-jun, with in-form Daizen Maeda on target in between, saw the Hoops collect three points in Paisley.
As a result, given that Rangers were beaten earlier in the day, they are now 16 points clear at the top, on course to wrap up the title before the split, with an Old Firm derby coming up a week on Sunday.
However, would the Hoops be even more potent in attack had they not let go of a former forward who’s now outperforming the returning Jota?
How Jota has performed since returning to Celtic
Jota returned to Celtic in January, to much fanfare, rejoining the club from Stade Rennais for a reported fee of £8m, having departed just 18 months earlier for £25m, a joint-club-record.
Fair to say, the Portuguese winger’s time in Saudi Arabia did not go to plan, making just 25 appearances for Al-Ittihad, thereby featuring in less than 50% of their matches, having not been registered for league matches for more than half the season; the Saudi Pro League has a limit on foreign players.
As a result, last August, Jota was sold to Stade Rennais in Ligue 1 for €10m but, after featuring only ten times for les Rouge et Noirs, he rejoined Celtic in January, with Kyōgo Furuhashi moving in the opposite direction to Brittany.
Since arriving back in Glasgow, the Portuguese winger scored off the bench during his second Celtic debut at Motherwell.
He’s subsequently been on target against both Dundee and Aberdeen, although Rodgers has admitted his marquee January signing “is not quite at the physical level yet”, needing to rebuild match sharpness having played very little for almost two years.
Jota is undoubtedly a beloved figure for all Celtic supporters, but there is a forgotten ex-forward who has outscored the superstar from Portugal in recent times.
Forgotten Celtic forward in form stateside
If you don’t remember too much about Lewis Morgan’s Celtic career, well we don’t blame you.
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He arrived from St Mirren for a reported fee of £300,000 in July 2018, but made just 31 appearances in hoops, scoring only two goals, on target against AIK in a Europa League qualifier in Stockholm, before netting against Rennes in a dead-rubber group game a few months later.
Following a loan spell at Sunderland, Morgan was then sold to Major League Soccer expansion club Inter Miami in January 2020 for around £400,000, as the Celts made a small profit.
His time in Florida was far from spectacular, scoring just seven goals in 58 appearances for Inter Miami, but he must have done something to attract the attention of those in New Jersey because, after two years in Fort Lauderdale, he was sold to New York Red Bulls for $1.2m in General Allocation Money, a pretty sizable fee by intra-MLS deal standards.
The Scottish international has certainly found a home at Red Bull Arena, scoring a hat-trick during only his second appearance for RBNY away to Toronto, netting 18 times during his first season in New Jersey.
Morgan then endured a pretty miserable 2023, only able to make six appearances due to a hip injury that required surgery, given only a 20% chance ‘of returning to his peak’ level, as noted by Joseph Lowery of Back Heeled.
Despite this prognosis, Morgan certainly rediscovered top form in 2024, scoring 13 goals in 29 regular season appearances, a key figure as New York Red Bulls reached MLS Cup Final for the first time since 2008, ultimately beaten by LA Galaxy.
His manager Sandro Schwarz described Morgan’s form as “incredible”, reflected by the fact he was named MLS Comeback Player of the Year in 2024, the award given to a player ‘who showed impressive improvement after overcoming a serious injury’.
So, let’s see how Morgan’s numbers compare to Jota’s over the last 12 months.
Appearances
37
33
Minutes
3,140
1,717
Goals
13
7
Minutes per goal
242
245
Assists
7
3
As the table shows, Morgan has scored six more goals than Jota in the last 12 months although, given that he’s played almost twice as many minutes, their minutes-per-goal records are remarkably similar.
According to Transfermarkt, the Scot is now worth a career-high £5m, 12.5 times more than the fee he was initially sold to MLS for five years ago.
In an interview with Goal, Morgan admitted he grew up a Rangers fan, precluding any chance of his ever returning to Parkhead, but the 28-year-old has certainly shown qualities at RBNY that were never on display during his brief time at Celtic Park. Perhaps they regret letting him leave all those years ago?
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