Thoughts on Samaras

After a brief delay regarding the fee following the end of his loan spell, Giorgios Samaras has completed his move from to Celtic.

With the fee believed to be around £1 million, it is less than the original £3 million fee we had agreed with Celtic, and considerably more than the amount we shelled out to sign him from Herenveen.

In truth, the deal is that we've pretty much had to give him away to ensure his departure from the club - one that appears welcome from both sides.

I've written before about Samaras's struggles and it won't be shedding any new light on him by revisiting them safe to say that if Stuart Pearce risked his managerial future (at least at City) on the expensive signing (relative to the time arrived) then it was a gamble that backfired badly.

Bought on the premise of having plenty of promise and one for the future, he wasn't without talent but was far from the finished article (which we probably needed). He didn't settle to the demands of the Premier League and was not the type of wholehearted and committed player to win over the fans.

Joining a side that was struggling badly, and seemingly incapable of creating any attacking output, Samaras was not the type of player who could dominate defences or carry the attack, and for that reason was doomed to fail given the time which he arrived at the club.

In truth, Samaras was on his way out this time last year but a suitable buyer could not be found, but twelve months later on the back of a semi-succesful loan spell, we have managed to cut our losses on him - and that is about the only positive we can take from a spell at the club which will not be looked at with much fondness from all concerned.

Samaras joins Celtic on loan

LONDON, Jan 29 (London) - Celtic have signed Greek striker
Georgios Samaras on loan from English Premier League Manchester City until the
end of the season, the Scottish champions said on their Web site (www.celticfc.net).
Celtic said
they had the option of making the deal permanent for the 22-year-old, who has
won 12 international caps. He scored eight goals in 55 league appearances for
Manchester City.

>>reuters.com

So Samaras becomes the second member of our forward line to depart on loan this transfer window, and it is likely that short-term loan moves may well be a feature from now on during January windows, given the short timeframe does not always give too much room for manouevre to hammer out a permanent deal and does give the opportunity almost for a trial period for clubs to assess how a player fits into their side between then and the end of the season.

Like Bianchi, the Samaras move can be made permanent and if indeed it does do, it will bring an end to the career of a player who never really impressed or won over the fans. In his defence, he arrived as a young striker with more promise than polished talent and was very much a work in progress - something we couldn't really afford given our plight over the last season or so.

With the takeover of the club and emergence of some of the younger players, it has made Samaras surplus to requirements and was another player that Sven never took a shine towards and although had a couple of fleeting appearances, hardly seized the opportunity handed to him this season and of course may well have departed the club earlier if the deal with Birmingham had gone through.

Undoubtedly Samaras does have talent, and it may well be that he does go on to prove himself at Celtic or elsewhere, but the fact is that when he arrived at the club he perhaps needed more time to ease into the Premiership than he was afforded, and givent he lack of funds available to Stuart Pearce during his time as manager, the signing will go down as an expensive mistake made.

As for Celtic, a surprising move perhaps, but Gordon Strachan has taken on loan signings previously as short-term squad depth as they hit the second half of the season and in the SPL, Samaras may well fare for better than he managed in the Premier League - and at the very least will put himself in the shop window for a move during the summer if things do not work out at Celtic Park.

Birmingham end Samaras interest

Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish has abandoned plans to sign Manchester City striker Georgios Samaras.
But McLeish has decided to concentrate on trying to strengthen other areas of his team after signing James McFadden from Everton and Mauro Zarate on loan from Al Sadd.

>>The Telegraph.

This was a move that was first mooted at the beginning of the transfer, but never got to more than the 'reported' stage but it seems now there was definite interest with even a fee of £2.5 million agreed for the player between the clubs, buy McLeish lamented the fact that matters had dragged on too long for his liking:

"Time has just run on with the Samaras one," said McLeish. "I had identified the big guy as a target five or six weeks ago and if I could have done it then, it would have been different. But things have dragged on and other people became available. McFadden became available, Zarate was an unexpected opportunity, therefore it created a problem with the Samaras one."

It is somewhat of a surprise that we would have stalled matters at our end (as McLeish inferred) given that Sven has said he would allow Samaras to depart if a suitable offer was made, and it is even a bigger surprise to me that McLeish would think Samaras as the sort of player he needs for a relegation scrap - and to compound matters then go and sign James McFadden for more than twice the amount agreed for Samaras.

Smashing...