How many of us had actually heard of VVV Venlo before Celtic’s interest in the Dutch minnows’ striker in the summer of 2021? Very few probably. That’s where Giorgos Giakoumakis was playing his football and emerged as the top scorer in The Eredivisie in his last season at the club but despite scoring four goals twice in two league matches these Giakoumakis goals were not enough to keep VVV Venlo in the top division.
VVV Venlo’s tiny stadium holds just 8000 and the wages that were being paid to their top striker, who incidentally was something of a penalty expert while playing in Dutch football, something that he failed to bring with him to Celtic, would have been modest.
Giakoumakis has been a success at Celtic. He is a popular player among his teammates and unlike for instance the likes of James Forrest and former Celtic hero Tom Rogic, the Greek striker has been afforded the privilege of being given a song from the always creative Celtic support. That tells you he’s been successful and that he’s popular.
Giakoumakis comes from Greece
When he plays he scores with ease
He leads the line he plays up top
Our number 7 gift from God 🍀🇬🇷Hope these lyrics are right and apologies for the voice 😅 I had pretty much lost it at that point for obvious reasons 🤣🍀
— Shea Doolin 🇮🇪🇵🇸 (@DoolinShea) April 4, 2022
Ange Postecoglou recently remarked that while others can comment and even criticise his team selections, everyone else is only dealing with around 10% of the the information that is available to him when determining who starts and who doesn’t. There is a suggestion doing the rounds (started by guess who?) that Giakoumakis is somewhat unhappy with the lack of starts that he has had this season, as The Celtic manager has ofter preferred to start with Kyogo for an hour then to replace the Japanese striker with Giakoumakis. No-one picks the team other than Ange Postecoglou.
On the wages on offer at Celtic, these were enough to get GG to sign his long contract with the club and Celtic are already looking at increasing his remuneration as a result of his performances for the club. That might not be equal to the sum that is being paid to the top earners in the dressing room and that you would imagine would include the likes of Callum McGregor and the two summer signings after initial loan deals, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Jota.
Giakoumakis has the solution to getting selected on a more regular basis in his own hands. That happens every day he’s at Lennoxtown and that’s where decisions are taken by The Celtic manager.
The noise coming from Giakoumakis’ various agents over the past few weeks has become tiresome. None of what has appeared is likely to please Celtic and as many former players who have worked under Ange Postecoglou have noted, he’s not a man you want to go out of your way to annoy.
Agent’s noise like this is nothing new of course and it seldom ends well. It also is probably designed to annoy Celtic and force the club’s hand in allowing a transfer that no-doubt suits the agent himself having convinced his client that it’s a great move he’s proposing. Whether it’s the best move for Giakoumakis himself remains to be seen. The link today with interest in the player from Saudi Arabia in a mega-bucks, life changing deal is classic greedy agent tactics. The story looks like it’s been written around maybe a text message received, it’s short on detail and jam-packed with speculation.
Then there’s the remarks from the weekend about the Scottish weather not being to Giakoumakis’ liking. Again this is from the agent, not the player but if he wanted to play football in decent weather he’d have been daft to leave Greece would he not?
The only other side linked with Giakoumakis after VVV Venlo was relegated was a second tier German side. Instead Giakoumakis has played in the Europa League and Champions League at Celtic, won the league and league cup and been paid handsomely by the club, while being adored by the support and won back his place in the Greece national side. Celtic never promised that the sun would shine every day in Scotland.
There’s an issue here with Giorgos Giakoumakis and it should be addressed one way or the other. He signed a five year contract, Celtic will determine any transfer fee, not that agent who was putting out ridiculously low valuations at the weekend. If the agent want to get a deal done he should get the club’s valuation and see if he can drum up interest.
Meanwhile you’d expect that when Celtic’s team is named on Saturday morning – the weather in Aberdeen at the moment is much worse than the central belt – Kyogo is much more likely to be starting.
No Celtic player so far has got Ange really angry, Giorgos is a brave man if he’s going to be the first.
Whether we like it or not,football is a business and has been getting ever more so over the decades.When large amounts of money are involved,staff will come and go,it’s not personal,simply the business model we are involved in.Like life the rich are getting richer,nobody says life is fair.