Ex-Celtic star Frank McAvennie has called on his former club to snap up Jota on a permanent basis as soon as possible.

The Portuguese winger delivered a sublime pass for Kyogo Furuhashi’s opener against Ferencvaros yesterday afternoon, and McAvennie thinks the Hoops should trigger their option to buy the player:

“Honestly, I would buy him tomorrow. Get that deal signed, new terms, pay rise, all of it. I would take him, for six million? It’s a no-brainer, I would take him. He’s only going to get better. Six million is nothing in today’s day and age. He seems to be enjoying himself as well. That’s half the battle. He’s always smiling, even when Celtic aren’t winning. He symbolises that happy camp that we seem to have now, what a difference from last season. It’s all clicking and we’re seeing the best of Jota as a result.”

Celtic signed Jota on loan from Benfica at the start of the season, and they will have to pay £6.5m if they want to keep him at Parkhead beyond next summer.

The 22-year-old is certainly doing everything he can to impress at the moment, having scored three goals and provided three assists in his last five matches.

Whether Jota can sustain that form throughout the course of the campaign, we shall have to wait and see. There is no rush to trigger the purchase option as it can be done at any point during his loan spell but, currently, it looks like a very real possibility that the Portuguese will be staying at the Scottish club for the long term.