Giorgos Giakoumakis certainly played his part in Celtic’s successes over the past 18 months. In fact, he was one of the club’s most important players in their Premiership triumph last season. When Kyogo Furuhashi picked up an injury, the Greek striker took up the goalscoring mantle and was scoring almost for fun in the second half of the 2021/22 campaign.
His importance in the team appeared to diminish this season, with Kyogo firmly established as the starter. Also, rumours suggested that Giakoumakis had failed to agree a contract extension with Celtic.
Thus, it came as a surprise to no one, when Giakoumakis recently left Celtic in order to join Atlanta United. On the contrary, it felt like the transfer saga dragged on for much longer than was expected.
After departing Celtic Park, Giakoumakis has criticised the lack of competition in Scottish football though. As reported by Football Scotland, the Greek striker said:
"“In Celtic it was a totally different style of play, the competition there is not so good. There are two clubs, and all the other clubs try to defend. Most of the opponents were trying to block is in their box, we were keeping possession and trying to create spaces, score in a different way.“I think this league (MLS) is a bit more competitive, they all try to play, so I think I will even more space in the back of their defence and create more problems.”"
Giakoumakis makes criticism about Scottish football after leaving Celtic
It is true that Scottish football has been dominated by the two Glasgow giants for decades. But then, one could bring up the lack of competition in several leagues across Europe.
Bayern Munich have completely dominated Bundesliga for a decade. Juventus achieved something pretty similar as well, before slipping in recent years. Manchester City and Liverpool had been the two best teams in the Premier League for almost half-a-decade. Paris Saint-Germain are without doubt the strongest team in France by quite some distance. Barcelona and Real Madrid have been the face of La Liga for a long time as well.
Thus, the lack of competition is not something that is unique in Scottish football. It can be found in almost every league around the world. The format of the MLS means that just one or two teams cannot completely dominate for decades.
Would it be more exciting for a casual viewer if there were more teams in Scotland with a genuine chance of winning the Premiership? Yes, but that might be impossible to achieve on a long-term basis. Aberdeen were the last club outside of Celtic or the Rangers to win the league, back in 1984-85.