Georgios Samaras has ridden out Celtic storm in some style

IN the aftermath of last season's Scottish Cup semi-final shambles, Neil Lennon did not mince his words. The irate interim boss lambasted his players and claimed that regardless whether or not he was Celtic manager when the new campaign got under way, he was fairly certain a number of the players would not be required to hang around.

• Georgios Samaras scored a hat-trick against Inverness, with four goals in total this season. Picture: SNS

"I keep going on about strikers but you live and die by them. Sami (Georgios Samaras] had a great chance and hit the post, Marc-Antoine Fortune had a really good chance but, again, symptomatic of their seasons, bits and pieces and nowhere near consistent enough." The naming and shaming seemed to indicate that those two, in particular, were free to go. But while Fortune has departed, Samaras has regained the trust of his gaffer and weighed in with a hat-trick on Wednesday night to see the Old Firm side through to the quarter-finals of the Co-operative Insurance Cup.

The Greek striker has scored four goals in seven starts so far this season and is set to be offered a new contract at the club. Always confident in his own ability, says he was unaware that he had been the focus of any backlash following the upset of last season. "The good thing for me is that I don't follow the British media or radio or newspapers and that is good. I just go to training, home, training, home. The only opinion I hear is from my manager and Neil Lennon never came to say to me 'you can leave' or 'you are on the transfer list' so I was happy. I believe in myself and what I can do and you come to a big club like Celtic to win titles every year and I know that here is the place."

He added he would have been surprised to have been judged so quickly by his new boss after a season that had started so well for him and only floundered after then manager Tony Mowbray brought in attacking reinforcements throughout the January transfer window. Up to the turn of the year Samaras had netted ten goals. In the final five months of the campaign he scored just three.

But he insists it never crossed his mind to quit, despite the fact other clubs were interested, according to Lennon. "When the season finished last year I said to Mr Lawell that the doors were closed. I had the World Cup and wanted to focus on that and playing well for my country and I didn't really care what teams came in because the doors were closed," said the 25-year-old forward. "That was always in my mind and I never had thoughts of leaving the club. I was never thinking negative about things, all the thoughts I had were positive.

The same could not be said of Lennon, who appeared far from convinced by the striker. However, perceptions were altered courtesy of the player's apparent revitalised approach when he returned for pre-season, with the Celtic boss now waxing lyrical about his 'fantastic' input."He wanted to stay and prove he was good enough to be here. He has done that," said the manager as he confirmed that contract talks would commence next month. "That will give him a lift so he can hopefully carry on and find that level of consistency he deserves."

"In football you can't always go the easy way," said Samaras. "I don't give up. Mistakes happen and I don't give up, I try to prove I am good enough."

And of his manager's volte face he added: "I am the same player, same person. Nothing has changed, just I am feeling well in myself and in the club. But when you are in charge of a team for only two months maybe you don't get to know your players really well and that is normal. You need time to learn about your players and learn exactly what they can do and if you see them every day in training and see what they can do and how they react and what is their character then, yeah, I think the gaffer now knows exactly who I am and what I can do. No doubt about that."

He hopes that translates to a full understanding of where he is best positioned in a team that now has so many attacking options. On Wednesday he netted his hat-trick from a position wide on the right. It is a position he failed to settle in whilst at Manchester City and was cited as one of his reasons for leaving the English Premier League outfit.

"Through the middle is my position. I am a striker and if I play alone up front or play behind them or play with two strikers, I am a striker. I really don't like to play on the left side but at the moment the coaching staff have decided I must play there and I am trying to give them 100 per cent. I think I did good out there on Wednesday but it is not easy. In a game when we have a lot of ball possession and you are only working in the attacking sense and going forward then it is okay but sometimes the difficult thing is when you play against a good side and they keep the ball as well then I don't know how to react and do the defending."

He refused to say whether a lasting spell on the wing would undermine contract negotiations, though. "I have said before, the gaffer knows exactly my character and personality and what I can do in the side and I don't think that will be a problem."