'I’m a bit Scottish now,' admits Georgios Samaras

Originally posted on The Celtic Star | Last updated 4/17/24

Oh Ah Samaras has been speaking about the trouble he had understanding the Scottish accent when he arrived at Celtic from Manchester City in the 2008 January transfer window. The Greek striker was blown away by seeing Celtic Park for the first time and he just knew that he had to sign for the club.

It was a decision he has never regretted making, however there was one early snag in his move – even though he could speak English he had trouble understanding what anyone was saying at Celtic, especially the Celtic manager Gordon Strachan!

“Understanding the accent was the biggest challenge at Celtic. I had no idea what Gordon Strachan was saying to me!” Georgios Samaras explained.

“I never felt like it was difficult for me to settle into life in Scotland, to be honest, because like usual, I just tried to keep myself to myself,” the Greek goalscorer said, as reported by Daily Record. “My focus was always on developing as a player and enjoying the peace when I wasn’t playing. The hardest thing for me, at first, was just understanding the accent!

“To be honest, in my first two weeks, I couldn’t understand a lot at all! The gaffer was Gordon Strachan, so it doesn’t get much more difficult than that in terms of the accent!

“I remember in the first couple of days, he kept giving me this instruction, which just sounded like ‘Sammy, bull-oot, bull-oot!’. I had no idea what this ‘bull-oot’ meant so I just couldn’t understand what he was trying to say to me. Anyway, in my second or third game, we get into the dressing room and, again, he said to me, ‘Sammy, take the ball, hold the ball, bull-oot, let’s start from there’.

“So once the meeting had finished, I went to Gary Caldwell and just said ‘Gaz, err… what the hell! What’s bull-oot?!’ Gaz just started laughing and explained to me that the gaffer was saying ‘ball out’, which made a lot more sense to me!

“I definitely needed some time to adapt and understand the accent, but I ended up sitting next to Scott Brown in the dressing room, so we started talking a lot. He was a great teammate, by the way, a great player.

“Every day we would talk and talk and that helped me slowly pick up more and more words and understand the accent, and in the end I started to use them myself. So I’m a bit Scottish now!”

ON CELTIC SHORTS…“Celtic know how to sell and they know how to buy,” Georgios Samaras

ON CELTIC SHORTS…Celtic FC Women Photo Gallery – Sadiku completes Glasgow treble, beating Rangers, City and Thistle

This article first appeared on The Celtic Star and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: