Giorgos Giakoumakis this morning may well be having cause to regret his decision to change his agent ahead of the January transfer window opening. We heard about big money options allegedly available to the Celtic striker over in Saudi Arabia but nothing materialised and no actual club was mentioned.
Then we heard stories about Italian clubs, maybe some in England, perhaps Spain or France all rather believable for a player who finished top scorer in the Eredivisie in the season before last and joint top in the Scottish Premiership last term despite missing the first three or four months of the season.
When the contract talks with with Celtic collapsed sometime towards the end of 2022 – the player has several years left on his current deal but Giakoumakis frustration at the lack of first team football was recognised – Celtic will have presumably outlined their requirements for a transfer being agreed in the January window. And judging by the £4m offer that has been accepted by the Scottish Champions from J-League side Urawa Red Diamonds, Celtic have certainly not been greedy or in any way unreasonable in their financial expectations.
Indeed the transfer fee that Celtic appears prepared to accept led to nonsense speculation about the structure of the deal that the club agreed with Giakoumakis – with his previous agent – when the Ange Postecoglou managerial reign was in its infancy. It was speculated that this was the reason why Celtic were prepared to let the striker leave so cheaply. That speculation was obviously unfounded and presumably one of the parties involved took the appropriate action to have such content deleted.
Yet for all the bluster from the new Giakoumakis agent it appears that all that is on the table is an offer from the J-League that Celtic finds acceptable but apparently doesn’t appeal to the player for family reasons and what turned out to be just a loan – try before we buy – offer from MSL side Atlanta City.
That link emerged via transfer expert Fabrizio Romano – who has that prestigious tag because agents feed him information – but just like the riches on offer in Saudi Arabia – this appears to be more bluster, wishful thinking or perhaps smoke and mirrors from the Greek striker’s new agent. It clearly does not meet Celtic’s expectations that would have been clearly communicated at the start of this drama.
So it transpires that Atlanta City want a loan deal and Giakoumakis would like to sign for them to go to The States rather than Japan, and Gus Poyet the Greece National Team manager has also rather conveniently urged the player to head to the MSL rather than the J-League option that Giakoumakis reportedly doesn’t fancy.
Yet at the start of all this when Giakoumakis and his agent made it clear that he wanted to leave they would have known the terms that Celtic would accept. Remember when Celtic got £25m for Kieran Tierney? Arsenal huffed and puffed about paying that sum of money for a Scottish Premiership player but Tierney’s agent knew that there would be no deal until that transfer fee was met. When it was the deal happened.
Had Celtic sold Giakoumakis for say the £7.5m plus add-ons that they received this week for Josip Juranovic few would have been that surprised and there would have been no wild and completely unfounded speculation about the structure of the deal that brought the Greek striker to Celtic from VVV Venlo.
Yet even with the bar set so modestly by Celtic, it appears that the offers for Giakoumakis come down to two, one in Japan that meets Celtic’s modest transfer fee but doesn’t appear to meet the player’s personal wishes and one that apparently does achieve the latter but certainly not the former.
That leave Giakoumakis at Celtic on the same money as before having rejected the pay-rise Celtic offered and with the possibility of dropping down to third choice striker with the arrival this week of South Korean striker Oh, presumably the player brought in to replace the want-away Greek striker.
Celtic’s stance is consistent and if no offer comes in for the player that meets the club’s expectations then the existing contract prevails and Giakoumakis is going nowhere for now. Waiting to the summer might give the Greek and his agent the time to look over the way that this has been handled. It’s pretty incredible that offers appear not on have been on the table from England, Germany, Italy, France or Spain for the striker and the alarm bells in retrospect should have been ringing for Giorgos when that story about Saudi Arabia was mentioned.
And if Giakoumakis and his family don’t fancy Japan then it’s a push to think that Saudi Arabia would have suited them. Oh, but the Scottish weather is terrible, we were told.
Ange Postecoglou is an excellent man-manager and will be able to handle this situation from here to the summer and perhaps even beyond that, with ease. Last week when talking about Celtic B Team players getting given some first team minutes, the manager made it clear that nothing is given everything is earned and the place to do that is on the training pitches at Lennoxtown. Giakoumakis can work hard get his minutes by being the best striker, it’s as simple as that.
Of course Atlanta City may well come back in at the 11th hour with an offer that presumably was already pitched to them by the player’s agent. That probably would be the best solution for all parties but as things stand it’s a stalemate.
Get him out,we don’t need an unhappy miserable player in the squad,he was perfectly happy to sign a very good contract to come to CELTIC in the first place.