Ange Postecoglou on Jota's Celtic future - 'if two parties want the same thing'

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou intimated that all contract talks have been placed on ice as his team seek to close in on the title.

The impressive, and hiccup-free, 2-0 victory away to Ross County that has placed them within a derby victory next weekend of as good as sealing the cinch Premiership was underpinned by a best showing of the year from on-loan Benfica winger Jota. He netted his team’s clinching second late on after providing the cross Kyogo Furuhashi to score earlon on, which capped the Japanese forward’s first start in 2022 following injury.

But while the Celtic manager was content to concur with the sense of a return to his best for Jota, following reports from Portugal that the Glasgow club had decided against taking up their £6m buy option on the 23-year-old, Postecoglou batted away any talk of movement on securing the winger for next season.

“If anyone thinks we’re thinking of anything other than what happened today… For all of us the most important thing is that we work hard to get a successful year out of this [Jota loan deal],” the Australian said. “Whatever happens beyond that…these conversations. There are two parties and if two parties want the same thing, then it will happen. He was good. With him, he had such a great start to the year then he had a significant injury [towards the end of last year]. He’s another player who has just been really unfortunate this year with a disrupted year.

“He’s worked really hard to get back to the form we know he can. Today, he was really good for the team and had a good all round game. Just in that final third, he was looking threatening like we know he can be. It was great for him. Very few of our boys have had a smooth run this year and they’ve had to overcome difficulties and he’s one of them.”

Furuhashi is foremost among the Celtic personnel whose seasons have been abridged by injury, with today the first start since Boxing Day for the 27-year-old because of a hamstring issue. The club’s top scorer marked the occasion with a first goal - his 17th - since his double in the Premier Sports Cup final triumph over Hibernian on December 19.

“He’s a quality player and he would be missed at any club. We’ve managed really well without him but we know he’s got special qualities,” said the Celtic manager. “He’s not 100 percent sharp yet. If he was, he would have probably have had two or three today. Just getting that goal gives him the reward and hopefully the motivation to keep going. With him and Giako [Giorgos Giakoumakis] leading the line, we’ve got two strikers who I know have got goals in them and can give us some real cutting edge there.”

'No, not a chance' - Jota shuts down Celtic future talk