Damocles wrote:
Samaras is a bit of a myth amongst City fans now.
He played much of his City career on the left wing as Pearce thought his all round game was shite. He was our top scorer in 06/07 and scored 6 in his first 8 games. His biggest problem is that rotund alcoholic Richard Dunne and noted psychopath Joey Barton thought Dickov was more of a grafter thus a better player and told the papers. With Dickov, Hamann, Dunne, Barton and Vassell in our team, we were the definition of a bunch of workhorses over finesse and Pearce seemed to actively encourage it,which led to the now famous season of shit.
Pearce didnt have the dressing room under control and for some reasoned, signed a highly technical striker from Heerenveen then stuck him on the left wing of a bunch of plodders. Genius. He was also told that as a striker, he had to stop running out wide because he "wasnt Ronaldinho". Imagine if Wenger told a young Henry that?
We didnt play his football and he didnt want to adapt to ours. His stints pre-City at Heerenveen and post-City at Celtic show that hes a decent player who got stuck in a bad situation at City. Good luck to the lad.
Really? According to Wikipedia, he only scored 6 goals in that entire season.
As far as his ability is concerned, yes Pearce could have used him better (as he could with several other players), and the criticism he recieved obviously didn't help. Wasn't Dunne captain at the time? Why the heck would you go criticizing your own players to the media when really they need your support as they try to adapt to another league?
On the other hand, I don't think we can entirely blame Pearce for it not working out for him here. I don't think to be honest he would have lived up to the hype even under a better manager. Yes he may have scored more goals but I don't think he would have got to the stage where the then 'Big 4' would have taken note of him. He did show the odd glimpses of quality which made you think he could become a star (e.g. the 2 goals he scored against West Ham) but sadly those moments were too isolated to suggest he was going to go further. Maybe he'd have fared better in another country, who knows.
Couldn't fault Samaras for effort, unlike some people we could name. Even Mills, I agree with another poster, he gave his all when he played. Why Keegan decided to give him a five year deal I'll never know.
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