Giorgos Giakoumakis played a key part in Celtic winning the Premiership title last season. His start to life in Glasgow had been poor, but the Greek striker took up the goalscoring mantle in the second half of the campaign when Kyogo was out injured. He was almost scoring for fun at times and deserves all the credit in the world for how he turned his Parkhead career around.
Unfortunately, it does not look like he will remain at Celtic for a long time, and appears to be closing in on an exit already, just 18 months after joining the club.
Giakoumakis has been linked with a long list of clubs in recent weeks. It had looked like Urawa Red Diamonds were leading the race to sign him but now, he appears to be open to a move to Sampdoria as well.
As reported by GianlucaDiMarzio.com, Sampdoria have the agreement with Giakoumakis and now they have to find the one with Celtic. It looks like the Italian club want to make a loan deal with an obligation to buy in case of salvation happen.
Giakoumakis open to leaving Celtic for relegation-fighting Italian club
Sampdoria are currently 19th in the Serie A table, six points away from safety, and are in real danger of being relegated from the Italian top flight this season.
Thus, if Giakoumakis does end up joining them then there is a real possibility that he could be giving up the chance to win trophies in order to fight a relegation battle.
Let’s see how things turn out but this might not be the best move for the Greek international. There are several other clubs believed to be in the race to sign him as well though and things could get interesting over the coming weeks.
On the other hand, Celtic will need to bring in a replacement if Giakoumakis does end up leaving this month.