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.