Atlanta United CEO Garth Lagerwey has offered an insight into the club's signing of Girogos Giakoumakis from Celtic.

The Greek striker switched to the MLS earlier this month on a three-year deal as he called time on his spell in Glasgow.

Giakouamakis' transfer was allowed to run into February due to American transfer rules, but at stages it looked uncertain whether the frontman would exit Celtic.

In the end he did, but Lagerway has revealed that Atlanta had hoped to bring him in earlier in the transfer window.

He explained to the Atlanta Journal: "We’ve had to reset some things. Obviously, you’ve seen us move a number of players out.

"We’ve talked already about the players that are coming in. The reality though, is that (Derrick) Etienne, and (Giorgos) Giakoumakis, and (Luis) Abram have played very limited minutes in terms of being part of the group.

"So as those guys integrate, as we get work permits first of all, and then they integrate, the team should get better every week for the first month or two of the season without doing anything else. So we’re really happy about where we are in our progression that we’ve gotten all the transactions done before the season.

"Would we have loved to have done it earlier? Sure.

"But given the amount that had to come out before we could bring anything in, I think we wound up in a pretty reasonable spot. And we’re very excited now about the season."

Giakoumakis had scored 26 goals in 57 games for Celtic having joined from VVV-Venlo in 2021.

After switching to the states, the striker was vocally critical of the Scottish Premiership as he took aim at the level of opposition.

He 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."