The name of Australian international player Apostolos Giannou has become quite popular within the sports tabloids in Greece.

The 30-year-old AEK Larnaca player’s contract expires this May and after being linked as a target for Super League giants Panathinaikos, the most recent rumour to come out of the Greek media saw Giannou being on the receiving end of a contract offer by the newly-found A-League club Western United.

The offer was for a single season but could be extended for yet another, should both parties be willing to renew their partnership.

Neos Kosmos reached out to the Melbourne-based club’s CEO Chris Pehlivanis in order to validate this rumour, only to find it has no ground to stand on.

READ MORE: Olympiacos facing match-fixing accusations

“Look, with the coronavirus, I don’t think anyone’s making any offers to any players, so this is news to me. First I’ve ever heard of it,” Pehlivanis said. “We’ve definitely not spoken to Apostolos [Giannou] in the last 3-4 months. We haven’t even considered it. We have no clarity on the league, we’ve got no clarity on our future, how can we go and offer people contracts in this state?”

Mr Pehlivanis went on to state the reason as to why his club, and any other A-League club for that matter, couldn’t possibly be in the transfer-signing mood at this time.

“In essence, we’re just trying to do all our planning for the following season, but like every other club we’ve stood down our staff and players until we receive the understanding on what the next day looks like from Foxtel, the salary cup and all that. So it’s challenging because you can’t offer players contracts and all that sort of stuff but the reality is, there’s more important things to worry about in society at the moment than just football.”