The Giorgos Giakoumakis transfer story, for me, has always been a weird one.
If rumours are believed to be true, the striker is looking for a pay increase that was apparently promised to him by the club.
After rejecting an offer prior to the World Cup, speculation has been rife that the Greek international striker could quit the club and head for the Land of the Rising Sun with Urawa Reds reported to be in pole position to seal the deal. [Sky Sports]
But that seems to be transfer hyperbole according to contributor to Celtic Down Under, Liam Carrigan.
Liam is based in Japan and has some very interesting insight into how the Japanese media have reported, what should be, a huge transfer story in their country.
When it was pointed out that he did say that Urawa Reds wouldn’t sign Giakoumakis, speaking on the Celtic Down Under podcast, Liam, who is based in Japan said, “I did, and they haven’t.
“The thing is about the Urawa Reds thing it’s only The Daily Record and Giakoumakis’s agent that’s keeping it going.
“Nobody in Japan is talking about it. None of the reliable sources of information here, your Dan Orlowitz or whatever, is talking about it.
“The Daily Record seem to be basing the entire thing on a couple of tweets from unverified accounts in Japan that are tweeting in English about football.
“I’ll be extremely surprised if that happened because one, Urawa do not pay that much for a player.
“And with the greatest respect to Giakoumakis, they especially don’t pay that much for a reserve team player at the moment, which is what he basically is.
“They could get players of similar or better ability in and around Asia for a lot cheaper.
“It just does not make sense for them at all.
“If Giakoumakis is having issues, settling in Scotland at all, going to Japan is gonna be even more alien for him.
“Urawa’s pay structure will certainly not be any more than he’s getting at Celtic. It might be a good bit less.
“There’s just no way that that deal can happen. It just does not make financial, logical or common sense in any way.”
I highlighted a story that was reported in the media yesterday as a pile of nonsense. A transfer story from South Korea regarding Celtic and an improved offer from a player was just a re-hashed story that this media outlet grabbed from the Scottish media.
It’s a circus that just continues to go round and round and until the window closes, we just need to suffer the ills of transfer speculation.
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