Samaras signs.

MCFC.co.uk has announced that the transfer of Georgios Samaras has all but been completed, with both a fee and personal terms being agreed with his club Heerenveen, and the player himself. The player is due in Manchester tomorrow to complete his medical

The fee is reported as £6 million and a significant increase on what we were believed to have first offered (around £3.8 million) but still some way short of Heerenveen's initial valuation. This seems to suggest that the decision to allow Robbie Fowler to leave may not have simply been football related. If the Samaras deal was dependent on an increased offer, then a saving of five months of Fowlers wages would have financed that and makes perfect sense considering we gain a striker who is likely to feature prominently and released a striker who in truth would be unlikely to have had much playing time between now and the end of the season.

It is a gamble by Pearce to spend that amount on a relatively untried talent (parallels to Matias Vuoso?) but Pearce appears to be very thorough in his transfer dealings and won't have made this decision lightly. Samaras is only 20, yet comes with a glowing reference from his old club

The following link is not the best quality but shows Samaras scoring for Heerenveen.