Georgios Samaras goes from Celtic jeers to cheers

Georgios Samaras celebrates winning the SPL title. Picture: SNS

AS CELTIC’S title-winning party got into full swing on Sunday, one of the loudest ovations of the day from the jubilant home support acclaimed the entry to proceedings of Georgios Samaras a 69th-minute substitute.

How times have changed for the Greek striker who, just last season, was jeered on to the field by the Celtic fans when he came on during a Europa League fixture against Udinese.

It is fair to say Samaras has had to show plenty of resilience and strength of character to earn his current status as one of the most popular and valued players in the squad which clinched a second successive Scottish Premier League title with the 4-1 win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Sunday.

The 28-year-old, now completing his fifth full season as a Celtic player after initially being signed on loan from Manchester City back in 2008, has consistently been linked with moves away from Parkhead.

But Samaras has developed a genuine affection for the club, forging a bond which he remains reluctant to break.

“I never had any thought of leaving Celtic,” he says. “You have your ups and downs in life, but that is no different from other people. We all have good periods in our lives, bad periods in our lives.

“Everybody has problems but the thing is to think positively and keep working and playing football because you love it. In the end, it is about the love of the game, and winning games, and Celtic give that to me.

“I know the supporters play a big part in football and when you play well they scream your name and when you play badly they go against you. That is normal at this club and all around the world.

“In all my years here, I have had a few managers and I do not know how many team-mates. I think the most important thing is to find the trust with your team-mates and find the trust with the manager and then you can go and enjoy football.

“It is all about winning games and titles. I play football because I love it. I want to have great memories when I have retired. These memories are about winning games and trophies, not the money. I love this club. I have been here six years and I feel inside me that I have more to give.

“I do not know how long I will play football, maybe another seven or eight years, maybe ten years, maybe 12. I like to live my life in the now. I do not know what will happen in the future. I have been here six years and I feel nice at this club so we will see what happens.

“I think in the last three years I have had a great relationship with the gaffer [Neil Lennon] and in the dressing room we are really bonded to each other because there have not been too many players coming in or going out. That was the case in past years.

“If you play well as a team, and individually you feel great, then the supporters will shout for you. But everything is up to you, you decide how the supporters are going to feel. That’s it.”

Samaras scored his 12th goal of the season on Sunday, a campaign which has brought his third SPL title with Celtic. He insists the sense of satisfaction derived from it has not been lessened by the absence of Rangers from the top flight.

“It feels the same,” he said. “It was a tough season, hard work. It is not easy to win games and win titles. It is a great season and still we have the Scottish Cup final to look forward to next month. Sunday was a special game. We played some good football and scored some nice goals.

“If you look at the whole campaign, we deserved to win the league. Fifteen points is a big difference. We have more quality in both the team and individually than other teams. We focused more on the Champions League at the start of the season, so we were a bit flat then. But we deserved to win the title in the end.

“It is about 20 to 25 players working hard, helping each other through the season. If you play and do well, that is good. But if you do not play then, if the team is winning it is no matter because in the end you can take a medal.

“The first half of the season we had a lot of games, playing at the weekend and then in midweek in Champions League games. If you look at the games we played after the Champions League, we sometimes lost them or drew them. If we won, there was still a flatness all around.

“The Champions League took a lot of energy from us and that was the reason we did not have a good run then. After the winter break, when the rest we had was important, we were focused 100 per cent on the SPL.”

Samaras believes the best is yet to come from this Celtic squad if the club are able to retain the services of their key performers when the transfer window opens this summer.

“That is three years now we have been together,” he added. “The first season, we lost the league by one point but now we have won two in a row and there is a lot of talent in this team.

“There are some young boys with a lot of potential for the future. I do not know what is going to happen but hopefully we can have the same team next year. I believe we have a lot more to do.”

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