St Etienne are the latest club to express an interest in Georgios Samaras.
The Greek internationalist is out of contract at the end of the season with talks about a new deal to stay on at Celtic stalling.
As each day goes by in the January transfer window it looks more and more likely that Samaras is about to end his six year stay in Glasgow.
With a fee of under £1m likely to secure his signature St Etienne have joined Atletico Madrid and a number of Premiership sides keen to sign the former Manchester City man.
St Etienne are sitting in fourth place in Ligue 1 and are keen to add an experienced attacking option to their side as they attempt to overhaul Lille for a Champions League slot.
A number of striking options have been looked at but with his profile high from last season’s Champions League campaign Samaras appears to tick all the boxes for coach Christophe Galtier.
Samaras hasn’t featured in Celtic’s last two matches and missed the trip to Turkey but no progress has been made towards extending his current deal.
With ten days left till the transfer window closes Celtic are anxious for a decision one way or the other as Neil Lennon plans ahead for next season’s Champions League qualifiers.
A January transfer is in the interests of both parties freeing up wages for Celtic as well as bringing in a transfer fee while the player gets a fresh start ahead of the World Cup Finals in Brazil.
If he remains at Celtic without signing a new deal Samaras is likely to find himself on the fringes of Lennon’s plans putting his place in the Greece side in doubt.
Lennon is keen to resolve the issue but after 20 days of the transfer window it seems that the club and player are no closer to agreeing terms leaving the door open for other clubs to provide the player with a fresh start and lucrative new contract.
First up…
I’d be really surprised if Celtic don’t know Sammi’s leaving….It’s a cert…IMO…
I think both parties have agreed he’s offski…and it’s now up to him to get the best deal he can.
It will be good business for us if get something approaching £1 million for him…
As I’ve said before…Id never criricise the big man…just too inconsistent
HH
Big Sami’s time is up.This is turming into
a saga.
Last season in the CL he done well.But now is the time to part company.He is
holding up a striker coming in.
Ledley too, on 25k, is time for his departure.Johansen,can do his job.
The 45k+ savings in salary on both of
them, can get us that quality striker we
need for CL qualifiers.
Celtic’s strongest starting 11 : 4-2-3-1
Matthews or lustig, Ambrose, van dijk, izzy
Brown, Mulgrew
Forrest, Commons, Johansen
New Signing
You’ll notice there is no Ledley or Samaras in that team. Time to go bhoys. I would also have Biton, Stokes in the side before Ledley and samaras. For life of me I just can’t see the justification in giving Ledley an increase on his 23k per week wages. Unfortunately, I see Ledley staying beyond January, but leaving for free in summer. As much as Celtic don’t want that to happen.
Where’s the figure(s)..for Ledley wages coming from lads…?
Not disagreeing…I don’t know…how do you…?
Seems a helluva lot to me…
Mike, it’s not exact… He was a bosman free from Cardiff, and was being chased apparently by Roma as well as a couple of English premiership clubs. Only going on hear say, but have herd on a number of occasions he is second highest paid player at Celtic park, behind Scott brown, who is on roughly speaking 25/26k.
Mike,
Like Ruggyman,press reported Ledley was
on 25k.As he doubled his money,from his
time at Cardiff, where he was on 12k.
Sami is also in the 20 – 25 k, bracket at the
club.And another player, we should try to
ofload,as he has not hit the heights of his
first season, is Kayal.He too is paid 20 – 25k.
Gorgeous georgios will sign a new contract on Wednesday and will be in paradise for another five years.
As the great soprendo would say P P P
haw haw haw
Samaras has to go- his goal ratio not good enough. Commons is scoring goals galore.. and he is only half way through the season. Samaras is a headless chicken in a lot of the games for Celtic. HAIL HAIL THE CELTIC
When we talk about ratios Samaras has a better record this season than our other striker Stokes, Samaras scores goals in Europe stokes doesn’t This is a guy who will start all the Greece matches in the world cup. Imo we would miss him. Give me samaras against stokes any day.
Not sure how you guys are party to what Celtic players are earning. If you want to know how much money we have to spend pick up Celtic’s report and accounts. No speculation required- it’s all there in black and white .
Vino
Gorgeous georgious is the most committed team player we have.
Tries too hard and subsequently pulls himself out of position.
The great soprendo from crackerjack is disappointed in your lack of appreciation.
You can now disappear.
Piff paff poof.
Haw haw haw
Id be disappointed to see sami go… just my opinion but i agree consistency is his least abundant attribute… however, im a realist and know that we (thats us celtic fans) are never going to get much better than Sam to come to our crappy wee league
quoting peters comment earlier saying 45k a week savings will get us a CL striker is utter nonsense because we have to attract a player of that calibre to accept the money and no doubt players that demand that sort of cash will want assurances that they will have at least 1 or 2 players of a similar mould around them which we dont have!
Not sure Lawell and Co will be pulling out all the stops to put smiles on our faces this window or any other for that matter, a long list of potential 1-2 million pound players is what we can look forward to albeit! HH
HoopsNo7,
You misread me.
Players don’t look for assurances.
If the money is right,and they fancy it, they’ll come.End of.
Your love for Sami is admirable.He isn’t
the be all and end all.Very poor in CL this
season.Cannot play as a lone striker.For
his height,seldom scores with his head.
Need I go on ?
So, who is talking nonsense now ?
Now now children
Sami is the king
End of
haw haw haw
Heard we are looking at Adam Johnson at Sunderland he was in Scotland with ki last night
Cant see it Mick….. Adam Johnston is only 12 – 18 months at Sunderland. He is easily a 10m pound player, then you’d have minimum 50k per week wages. Aint gona happen