Brentford Head Coach Dean Smith admitted it will be great to have Jota back in his plans after the Spanish midfielder was recalled from his loan spell with La Liga side SD Eibar. The popular attacking midfielder scored 11 goals in 51 games for The Bees before returning to Spain for personal reasons last January. Now, a year on, Dean revealed that Jota’s personal issues have been resolved and he is looking forward to being a Brentford player once more.
“We are made up to have him back,” said Dean, speaking to Bees Player after Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Norwich City. “He has sorted out the personal stuff that he had there and it is great to have him back. We are looking forward to Eibar sending his GPS data so we can see where he is at. I watched him in a couple of the cup games that he has played recently and he has been in tip top shape. I spoke to him three or four weeks ago and he was desperate to come back. He is loved by the fans and that feeling is mutual. He is looking forward to coming back.”
Jota will not be back in time to be in contention for tomorrow’s trip to Birmingham City as The Bees look to round off the festive fixture programme with a win at St Andrew’s. The two sides met at Griffin Park in late November with Blues running out 2-1 winners on that occasion. However, with a new man in Gianfranco Zola now in charge at St Andrew’s, Dean is expecting a different test this time round.
“Everybody seems like they have come through [the Norwich City game] ok,” said Dean. “Ryan Woods got the knock on the knee and Tom Field had a tight hamstring but other than that everybody seems fully fit. It will be a different game to how it was here. Watching their last couple of games they will play it out from the back and tactically we have to make sure we get it right. We have to worry about what we do and how we work with the ball in our system. Players, like Alan McCormack, coming back give me options to maybe change it a little bit for the Birmingham game.”