Nobody has ever handed Giorgos Giakoumakis anything on a plate. Not until he ended up at Celtic anyway.
The likes of Jota, Liel Abada and Tom Rogic are now providing the Greek attacker with the kind of service that any striker worth his salt would relish and on Sunday Giakoumakis showed that if he’s fed, he’ll gorge himself on goals.
He had 16 touches of the ball in 90 minutes against Dundee. Practically starvation rations, yet three of them sent the ball into the net to stretch Celtic ’s lead at the top of the league to three points.
And while Giakoumakis might have been getting ahead of himself – and certainly deviating from the Parkhead party line – by insisting in the aftermath that his team is going to win the league, his excitement and honesty is perhaps derived from some of the experiences he’s suffered in his career before and after arriving in Glasgow.
The 27-year-old spent last season with VVV Venlo in Holland. He played in a match where Ajax cuffed them 13-0 as his team hurtled towards relegation.
Yet, even in going down, Giakoumakis ended up the top scorer in the country with 27 goals, including twice netting four in a game and adding in another hat-trick.
Those were the stats that brought him to the attention of manager Ange Postecoglou but almost as important as his goals is his attitude.
The last Greek player to shine at Celtic was Giorgios Samaras, all hair and flair Giakoumakis doesn’t have much of either but he’s physical, occupies defenders, links the play and brings the flying machines around him into the game.
And when the ball is in the box, he has proved throughout his career to be deadly.
He was thrilled with his contribution on Sunday but knows there has to be more to come.
And he’s using a less than startling first six months of his Celtic career, which included knee surgery and a last-minute penalty miss against Livingston in October that denied his team a win, as motivation. “It was difficult,” he recalled. “But from these difficulties you grow up.
“You become stronger mentally and it was something, in the end, that really helped me a lot.
“My team-mates helped me a lot. Even after the game, they all came to me and said it was fine and we would recover the points.
“But we are not kids. We have to make our mentality stronger ourselves.
“I owe a lot of things to my family. They are my strength and they deserve every success I have. And every happiness.”
They, and he, were certainly happy on Sunday night.
“Of course, I’m delighted,” he said. “Everyone criticises a striker if he doesn’t score goals so it’s something which makes me happy whenever I score.
“My main ability is to score with one touch. But I try to improve every single bit of lack of ability I have. I always try to improve my touch and my dribbling.
“I try to score in every possible way because I am a striker and I can’t predict what situations will come in the game. I have to be ready for every situation.
“But for me, it’s not the only thing I have to do on the field.
“It’s a part of my performance but whenever I score and have a good performance then I feel my play is complete and it makes me even more happy.
“Goals are the fuel for a striker.
“It makes me pleased with my game and something I hope I can do in every single game in order to help the team. We will work harder every day and I will try to improve game by game.”
His knee problems behind him, the Crete-born international is now aiming to kick on with Celtic.
“I feel fit, I feel healthy and this is the most important thing,” he added.
“Of course I will always try to improve myself.
“And I can never say that’s my limit because I never believe in limits. That’s why I work hard every day.
“Of course I feel I can score a lot more goals. That’s one of my targets this year. For me it doesn’t matter how I lost the first six months here.
“It is what it is and I cannot change it. Of course it didn’t make me happy, it was really difficult.
“But now I can say I am back with the squad and ready for more chances and more success.”
His manager knows there is more to come from him now that he is finding his feet after a stuttering injury-hit start to life at Celtic.
Postecoglou said: “For Giorgos, in his pre-season he was injured most of the time. He has only really got going since the break.
“He is in the first couple of months of his Celtic career so of course there is more to come from him.
“There is more to come from all of them. I know people love having conclusions to things but this team is newly built.”
