West Ham and Newcastle hopeful of Jota swoop

West Ham and Newcastle are both hoping to land Jota from Al-Ittihad before the January transfer window closes, according to journalist Dean Jones.

The Portuguese winger made his way from Celtic to Al-Ittihad last summer in a deal that saw the Scottish club rack up €30 million for his services, but his move to Saudi Arabia hasn’t exactly worked out the way he had hoped it would. At the moment, the 24-year-old is out of the squad and was left out of the list of passengers for the recent training camp in Dubai. It’s obviously not a situation he’s willing to accept and he’s working hard to find his way back to Europe.

These developments have got both Newcastle and West Ham hoping to get a cut-price deal done, which is the way they both are operating at the moment, each for their own reasons. An interesting moment that may yet play a role in all this is the fact that Newcastle are owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund – as are Al-Ittihad.