Celtic have done a wonderful job in the transfer market during the time of Ange Postecoglou as manager, which is another reason why they have been so successful since his arrival in the summer of 2021. This January, they made four important additions to the squad as well, with Yuki Kobayashi, Tomoki Iwata, Alistair Johnston and Oh Hyeon-gyu arriving. On the other hand, there have been a fair few exits as well.
The most high profile was without doubt Josip Juranovic leaving for Union Berlin. Scott Robertson joined Fleetwood Town, where he will reunite with Scott Brown, who is the League One side’s current manager. The loan deals of Moritz Jenz and Oliver Abildgaard were cut short too.
Another player who has been expected to leave for a while is Giorgos Giakoumakis, but things did not reach a conclusion in January. That does not mean that he will stay at Parkhead though and is expected to complete his move soon enough, with transfer windows still open around the world.
Interestingly, it looks like Postecoglou is not giving the matter much thought. As reported by 67 Hail Hail, the manager said while speaking in a media conference on Celtic’s official YouTube channel:
"“As I said the other day it will get concluded fairly soon.“To be honest it is not on my radar anymore so I will probably hear about it at the same time as you guys. Maybe, if you’re on Instagram, you will hear about it earlier than me. It is not on my radar and I don’t expect him to be back in the group but it hasn’t been finalised yet.”"
Celtic boss makes interesting claim about player’s exit
Thus, it is certain that Giakoumakis will be on his way out sooner or later, and is not expected to be back in the group. Postecoglou’s comments are certainly interesting.
The club have already brought in another striker though, in the form of Oh. And it looks like the South Korean youngster has been impressing both his teammates and the fans.
That being said, Oh has big boots to fill though. Even though Giakoumakis might have been at the club only 18 months or so, and let’s see how long that continues, nobody can deny the impact that he has made. Especially in the second half of last season, when Kyogo was injured, he took up the goalscoring mantle and delivered. One could argue that he was the club’s most important player during that period of time and played a huge role in the Premiership triumph.