GIORGOS GIAKOUMAKIS has defended comments he made about Celtic being better than Rangers ‘in every department’, as the striker stood by those remarks after being named the cinch Premiership player of the month for March yesterday.

Rangers midfielder Ryan Jack said last week that Giakoumakis’s was 'disrespectful' when he said he felt Celtic would go on to win the league because they had better players than the Ibrox outfit, but the Greek forward contends he didn’t mean to cause any offence.

After helping Celtic to the 2-1 win on Sunday though that stretched their lead at the top of the division to six points, Giakoumakis was sticking to his guns over his assessment of Celtic as the best team in the country.

"I didn't make those comments to make anyone angry or feel disrespected by me," Giakoumakis said.

"I said what I believed about my team. I believed at the time we were playing better as a team. That's the only thing I said.

“I can say also now that we play very good football and I believe in my team. I don't think it is bad for a player to say their team is the best."

Giakoumakis’s faith in his teammates and his manager is such that he believes a Treble during Ange Postecoglou’s first season in charge of Celtic is now a realistic proposition.

“Of course I can say that when you play for Celtic that the target is to win every trophy,” he said.

“So we have to fight for it. We have a strong semi-final but right now we’re focused on the league because it’s the next game that we have to play.

“Next Monday we will prepare for the cup game. Of course this is a club with big targets and it’s something we will fight for, for sure.”