The Season’s Just Started, But Celtic Fans Are Right To Be Thrilled By Jota.

Last season, Ryan Kent, the Ibrox poster-boy, in one of his better years at the club, got 11 assists in the SPFL. It is worth pointing that out, for a little context, before we start. He played 24 times and created a goal every second game.

Good job he was creating them, because he only scored two.

That means that Kent was involved in 13 goals in the league for them.

Already this season, after a mere two matches, Jota has a goal and three assists.

He’s almost halfway to Kent’s last season total in 180 minutes.

Those who wonder if we might be losing our minds a little bit in relation to how well he is playing should be forced to consider that statistic. No matter what gibbering nonsense they might talk, those are hard facts.

Kris Boyd had to do some fast thinking today when he expressly denied that Jota is the best player in the league. Unfortunately, Boyd isn’t even good at slow thinking.

He blurted out his dismissal reflexively, because he hates Celtic.

When asked who he thinks is he stammered, stuttered, and then when he put forward Morelos made it clear how little interest he had in defending that proposition, because he flat out knows that he can’t.

Celtic fans and others, then, stand accused of going into overdrive with the hype.

But how can the cold recitation of facts be hype?

To say that Jota is, after two games, halfway to Kent’s total for the whole of last season in the league in both goals and assists is nothing but true. He could have those numbers beat by the end of the month.

Their fans will point out that you get no prizes for what players do … but if they stop to think about it for even half a second the penny will drop. Jota has had a hand in four out of our five goals so far. Which means that he is potentially responsible for putting six points on the board. Now, that you do win prizes for.

Jota is a match-winner. It is crystal clear. The numbers don’t lie.

And whilst I’m sure if it wasn’t him laying them on and sticking them away that someone else in the team would be doing it – Abada, for example, who’s already a goal to the good – the Portuguese is proving, already, to be worth every penny of that £6 million spend.

His critics – and there aren’t many left and every week their number gets fewer – may argue the semantics but the figures will stand up at the end of the season, for good or for ill, whether they like it or not.

He’s well on his way to a lot of awards.

Thanks to those who pointed out that it was O’Riley, not Jota, who assisted with our opening goal of the campaign. You guys keep me honest! The points in the article still stand up, but the piece has been amended slightly to reflect them. For all the talk about other players, and there’s been plenty, including on this site, this guy has started like a train. Amazing.