£25m attacker now tipped to become Nuno’s first signing at Nottingham Forest

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Nottingham Forest have been tipped to make a move for Jota now that Nuno Espirito Santo has arrived at the club. The Portuguese head coach replaced Steve Cooper earlier this week.

Jota signed for Al-Ittihad in July 2023 for £25 million and worked under Espirito Santo after leaving Celtic. During his 11 games in all competitions in Saudi Arabia, he scored twice.

Signing him won’t be easy for Forest if they do fancy Jota. The player has been touted back to Celtic by Al-Ittihad and it seems very likely that they will want to find out more, given how brilliant he was for the Hoops.

According to The National, Jota could be available for a loan deal this January. With that in mind, Espirito Santo may look to bring Jota to Forest when the window gets underway.

Journalist thinks Forest might sign Jota

Mark Guidi has made these claims on an episode of The Go Radio Football Show earlier this week. He thinks that Espirito Santo moving to Forest could tempt him into signing Jota.

He said: “I wonder, if we’re just joining the dots, if Nuno Espirito Santo does get that job, does that open the door for Jota to go there on loan in January given that Espirito Santo signed him for the Saudi Arabian club.”

Jota’s record at Celtic was very impressive, to say the least. He scored 28 goals and registered 26 assists during 83 appearances and won two Scottish Premiership titles.

Jota could be ideal at the City Ground

One aspect of the Forest squad that perhaps does need strengthening is out wide. Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi are at the club but aside from there there are few options.

Jota typically operates on the left-hand side and he’s a signing that would make sense if Forest could do something in January.

Ange Postecoglou is a big fan of the player. When he was playing for Celtic in 2021, the head coach came out and called him ‘outstanding’ following a victory for the Hoops.

Forest are likely to spend more time offloading players in January. The squad is pretty big and Espirito Santo could do a lot worse than sign Jota on loan to bolster the options on the flank.