GIORGOS HAILS PORTUGUESE MAN OF AWE

Striker urges Jota to agree permanent Celtic move... then help him make an even bigger impact next season

ASK Giorgos Giakoumakis a straight question and you are guaranteed an answer to match his unerringly accurate finishing. Just as the Greek striker does not mess about in front of goal nor does he do faff or fluff in the face of journalistic curiosity.

While the press enjoy his blunt, tell-it-like-it-is approach, his team-mates have also learned to cope with the 27-year-old’s direct line of conversation.

In a close-knit yet often dysfunctional team environment, the subject of a colleague’s future career plans is often an awkward topic best avoided.

Not so with Giakoumakis.

As the newly-crowned Premiership champions celebrated their success on the Parkhead turf last weekend, the striker made it his business to dispense some professional advice in one man’s ear.

Jota was one of the star turns of Celtic’s title-winning campaign but, despite his loan transfer from Benfica incorporating an option to buy, an agreement has yet to be finalised with the player.

Having personally benefited from the Portuguese’s creative talents, Giakoumakis makes no bones about what he wants the 23-year-old to do.

‘I have told him already,’ said Giakoumakis. ‘When we were out there celebrating, I said: “I wish you to stay here because we really need you”.’

A video of the celebrations also showed Josip Juranovic apparently imploring Jota to remain in Glasgow for next season and a holiday to

Ibiza alongside team-mates Carl Starfelt and Cameron CarterVickers may also involve some plotting for next term.

Regardless, Giakoumakis will be back in Glasgow for the start of pre-season training, excited by the prospect of what might be achieved with a full summer’s preparation in his legs.

Last year, uncertainty shrouded his close-season plans.

Top scorer in the Dutch League with VVV-Venlo, he knew a move would likely materialise but his team’s relegation had left a sour taste.

And then there was an extended wait to find out just where he’d be heading. Werder Bremen were interested and there was some talk of a lucrative move to the Middle East.

‘When you are doing such a thing as scoring 26 goals and your team gets relegated then it’s not normal,’ he reflected. ‘I went home in the summer to spend my holidays. I was top scorer in the league and I knew I would probably have a transfer but I wasn’t happy.

‘So this year I’m top scorer with goals that helped to win the title. Now I feel that this is complete and I wish to do it again next year.’

The intervention of Celtic’s new Greece-born manager Ange Postecoglou was critical in persuading Giakoumakis his next chapter should be commenced in Glasgow. Similarly, the personal touch of the former national coach of Australia was key to helping the forward through the early months of a season in which he was beset by injuries.

Signed on deadline day alongside loanees Jota and Carter-Vickers, Giakoumakis did not have the benefit of either a pre-season or bedding-in period at his new club and was instantly fighting to adapt to Postecoglou’s famously intensive training regime.

His luck could be summed up by the night in which he was finally listed as a substitute for a League

Cup tie against Raith

Rovers but then had to withdraw injured after pulling up in the warm-up.

‘The manager was crucial for me in both those periods,’ explained the player. ‘When I was about to sign with Celtic, I had offers but I needed to think about everything.

‘You cannot deny this club but you have to think about every part when making your choice.

‘We had a chat and straight away he convinced me that I had to come here. He was right — I did have to come here. When I was injured, I was putting some pressure on myself because I had not yet proved myself here.

‘He just said to me that I needed to stay calm, keep believing in myself and that whenever I came back I would be crucial for the team.’

And so he was. A haul of 13 Premiership goals — all but one scored after the winter break — was enough to haul him level with Ross County’s Regan Charles-Cook at the top of the scorers’ chart.

With just 30 minutes of the season remaining, he sat two short, but claimed a brace with a smart overhead kick and literally the last kick of the ball in the 6-0 win over Motherwell.

‘I’m really happy with that but I wish we’d had 10 minutes more — because I don’t like to share!’ he laughed. ‘I am really happy, though, because I had a really difficult first six months.

‘The first part of the season was not what I expected. I had a lack of pre-season, I had an injury and so I didn’t play that much.

‘To end as the top scorer in the league is something really important for me.

‘I believe I can score more next season but I need to be healthy.’

Giakoumakis’s emergence in the new year was perfectly timed as he helped fill the void vacated by Kyogo Furuhashi’s own absence with hamstring injuries.

Although stylistically very different, Giakoumakis took up the goalscoring slack for Postecoglou, who only had both available for the final few matches of the season.

With both doing their best work operating as a central striker, it is hard to see them accommodated together in Postecoglou’s favoured system.

However, the prospect of both being fit and available from the start should make Celtic an even more potent proposition next term.

‘Whenever we start the season, I always pray to God to be healthy so I can be fit and be myself,’ said Giakoumakis. ‘If I can be myself, I can score a lot of goals and help the team.

‘I have never had a particular number in mind. Every single game, whether I start or not, I want to score.

‘That’s my target. I hope that next season I can score many more than I do this year.

‘I can say I am happy with every goal. My last goal was not so pretty but the most important thing is just to score. I always want to improve every way of finishing so that whenever the ball comes to me I can score.

‘If it’s my leg, my head or a bicycle kick, I have to be ready. I have to feel comfortable with myself to think that I can score at any time.’

In addition to his league haul, Giakoumakis added another four in

To end as the top scorer is important. I can score more next season

the Scottish Cup to take his tally to 17, a respectable total for a man who effectively missed the first half of the campaign.

A recall to the Greek national team in March continued his forward momentum and as his profile grew, so his formidable personality began to cut through.

Memorably, Giakoumakis declared Celtic as title favourites in March on account of his belief that Postecoglou possessed the most gifted groups of players in the land.

For all the performative offence shown by Rangers — and midfielder Ryan Jack in particular — Giakoumakis was proved right.

‘It’s a big satisfaction for me,’ he said. ‘Just to make clear, I did not want at any time to offend someone. I didn’t want to have a fight with someone or say something spicy. I just said what I was thinking about my team and tried to be honest.

‘Thank God we are the winners! It’s something I expected to happen because we have played the best football in the league in most of the games. So now we enjoy what we did over the year. Now it is time to party.’