js1000

didn't manage to get himself a summer move so will spend his final season at coventry playing for the reserves. the only consolation is that he's on a pretty decent salary

was on the bench for both of bologna's opening 2 games, looks like he's lost his place :(

last weekend i was lucky enough to spend a few days in milan and experience the san siro i saw inter's opening match vs bari which finished 1-1 inter looked very average no width and a lack of creativity, so i'm really suprised they smashed ac milan 0-4 (i did not see the milan derby but i guess they played well judging by the score line) mourinho must have really layed into his players, what ever he said has certainly worked the man has that midas touch.

by far the best prospect we have in greece, he should be the first name on otto's team sheet

well fortune has been considered ineffective in every game he's played but he hasn't lost his place and responded by scoring twice against the mighty st johnstone. mcdonald hasn't been brilliant either, do you honestly think samaras is being treated fairly ? i said in an earlier post mcdonald and fortune will start regardless of form and samaras will play odd games and make appearances off the bench, people will then say he's inconsistent

samaras had the best pre season of all celtics strikers, fortune has been abysmal, i've just seen celtics starting line up v aberdeen and mcdonald and fortune are upfront. samaras is on the bench@euro2004: so yes managers do have favourites, and its impossible to have any consistency when you are not given the chance

its not a coincidence that all these managers barring rehagel have flopped and been sacked its impossible to be consistent when you're in and out the side, i remember robbie fowler under houllier constantly being dropped and substituted and people said he's inconsistent while he used to sit on the bench watching heskey play game after game without scoring(he went 31 games without scoring before scoring the winner vs sunderland and houllier said thats why i kept faith in him) if samaras is given game time say 10 or so games in a row you'll then see consistency. he scored a great goal at wembley vs tottenham and did well vs dinamo will be interesting to see if he starts against aberdeen

i've always rated samaras and have been dissapointed with the level of criticism he gets on here, to answer drako's point as to why celtic didn't start him i feel this may be the case throughout the season unfortunatly as mcdonald will always start regardless of his form and the new manager(mowbray) paid big money(in scottish terms) for fortune a player that he's worked with before, so fortune is also likely to always start also, what ever samaras does he won't be given 10 or so games in a row like the other 2 will and if samars does suffer a barren spell or a dip in form he'll be straight out the other 2 will be given more time should they suffer a dip

scored twice today in leverkusens 3-3 friendly draw with wydad casablanca, its great that he's playing again and scoring because we're gonna need him against the swiss. funnily enough leverkusens other goal was scored by derdiyok who'll probably line up against greece for switzerland

time will tell but man utd will be challenging for honours (as olympiakos would be) owen is motivated by winning silverware so you'll see a different player at man utd than the one you saw at newcastle, he really didn't give a f u ck about newcatle but at man utd he will be awesome because of the effort he'll put in. it would have been awesome for greek football to attract a player like this but there was never any chance also his strike rate is awesome OWEN FACTFILE ENGLAND 89 games, 40 goals LIVERPOOL (Trainee - August 2004) 297 games, 158 goals REAL MADRID (August 2004 - August 2005) 40 games, 14 goals NEWCASTLE (August 2005 - July 2009) 79 games, 30 goals

Michael Owen is undergoing a medical at Bridgewater Hospital ahead of a proposed free transfer to Premier League champions Manchester United.http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...utd/8131801.stm seems he's good enough for man united but for many here not good enough for greek football :whistle:

JUST WON THE GERMAN CUP WITH BREMEN :gr: :nw: :nw: :tup: :nw: :nw: :gr:

playing regularly for bremen i'm surprised no one opened this topic sooner. on loan at preasant hopefully he'll get a permanent move in the summer

2 points firstly at what point did i say he was world class, all i said was well done for winning silverware.secondly, he's been at 3 foreign clubs. i don't think he flopped at heerenveen(hence a big money move to man city) and he's currently celtic's joint top scorer with mcdonald this season and bagged 2 trophies since he joined, i hardly think you could call that a flop.

basinas is lazy and was not loved by mallorca fans hence no contract extention.jonathan greening never played, samaras does. as for his contribution in the final here is a quote from his strike partner mcdonald it was hard not to play with a bigger guy when you get used to playing like that as they normally look after the high balls especially and I work off that, but we went with pace instead of height. "It was a bit more comfortable when Sammy (Samaras) came on, but I thought it worked with me and Aiden for a first time thing and you could see what the gaffer was trying to do." http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/t...tic/7946607.stm (full article) strachan went for a cautious 4-5-1 in the final instead of celtic's usuall 4-4-2 as for what he's achieved spl winner 2008 scottish league cup winner 2009 what greek player achieved more at club level(abroad) at his age ? i can only think of haristeas winning the german league and cup double with bremen in 2004(even though he was more of a bench player)

his form dipped after he came back from international duty injured, every striker goes through barren spells, he plays infront of 60000 fans every home game for a big club and is winning things, if you consider that an embarassment to greek football then i wonder what you make of players like nikopolidis and antzas and all the violence in greek club football and the consistent failure of greek clubs in europe. are basinas, haristeas and gekas(i'm not attacking geka i feel he's been unlucky just using him to make a point) who hardly play for their club but play for the NT an embarassment ? tzorvas sitting on the pao bench but is still percieved as the second best keeper in greece. and you call samaras who's just added the league cup to the protathlima he won last year an embarassment to greek football

came off the bench when the score was still 0-0 and played his part he also scored in the penalty shoot out in the semi final vs dundee united, his spot kick forced the penalties into sudden death had he missed celtic would have been out. fully deserves his winners medal.

CONGRATULATIONS GIORGIOS SAMARAS SCOTTISH LEAGUE CUP WINNER 2009 :nw: :nw: :gr: :tup: :gr:

on loan at cardiff city now. played twice so far 2-2 vs wolves where he made a terrible blunder to gift wolves a late equaliser and played in the 0-0 draw vs QPR

and basinas has joined him. gekas will do well at portsmouth i'm not so sure about basinas though gekas signs for 6 months loan, basinas has signed for 18 months

derbyshire is a really good player - if he can stay injury free. this is a top signing

had an outstanding game yesterday against premier league opposition http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/f...cup/7842637.stm

i see so its purely political reasons why you don't want him to play for greece. if he was say german or brazilian you'd have no problems with it. but because of the current politcal situation with the 2 countries (which was not caused by the player concerned) you don't want a player that could potentialy benefit greece. i'm sorry i can't get emotionally attatched to political situations and decide whether i like someone based on political climate, all i see is a player that might benefit greece.

my parents also taught me about alexander the great and other greek history plato etc etc, that doesn't make me a nationalist, if he benefits the greek national team then i say let him play, if he was anti greek he wouldn't want to play for greece. other nations benefit from foreign players its about time we did too, we missed out on castillo, if this player is any good i say let him play.

signed a load deal with championship side swansea and made his debut in saturdays 0-0 draw at doncaster