Pearce hails hero Samaras

Pearce hails hero Samaras

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Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce has predicted a sparkling future for uncut diamond Georgios Samaras after his early brace helped the Blues beat Sunderland.

Pearce risked his reputation when he splashed out £6million on the unknown Greek striker during the transfer window.

But it has not taken Samaras long to prove why Pearce was prepared to make the 21-year-old the second-most expensive player in City history behind Nicolas Anelka.

The former Heerenveen star’s mixture of raw talent and brute force proved too much for the Black Cats.

After scoring against Belarus and Kazakhstan on his first two senior international appearances in midweek, he completed the best week of his career by netting the early double which allowed City to record an unconvincing win over the Championship-bound Wearsiders.

"Georgios has a very bright future at this club," said Pearce.

"From day one, I have been really impressed with his willingness to learn and felt he was someone I wanted to work with for the next few years.

"There are certain areas of his game which are very natural, at other times he looks so ungainly and he does things that defy belief.

"Our job as coaches is to improve his general play and eradicate the bad things but he has the raw tools to be a top player."

Samaras was quick enough to take advantage of Danny Collins’ disastrous attempt.....continued below

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to wriggle past him on the edge of his own area, robbing the hapless defender before lashing a ninth-minute shot past Kelvin Davis.

When Trevor Sinclair sprang a badly marshalled offside trap to set up Samaras for a well-taken volleyed second 60 seconds later, it seemed City were set for a Sunday afternoon stroll.

But, not for the first time this season, Pearce’s men let the opposition back into the contest and Kevin Kyle breathed fresh life into the game when he bundled home Gary Breen’s knock-down midway through the opening period.

The Black Cats enjoyed the best chances of a nervy second period for the hosts but Dean Whitehead twice failed to beat David James with decent opportunities.

Sunderland’s chances of avoiding their 22nd league defeat of an awful campaign ended when Breen received his second yellow card for blatantly trying to block James’ attempt at a quick throw.

"It was just ridiculous," said manager Mick McCarthy of his captain’s crass move.

"What makes players do things in games? I don’t know. It was a bad decision, as was Danny Collins’. In those situations, the aim is to get the ball as far away as possible."

McCarthy will not publicly throw in the towel just yet but the proud Yorkshireman is realistic enough to know relegation is now an inevitable prospect for the Wearside outfit.

Sixteen points adrift of safety, Sunderland need another nine points from their final 10 games to avoid officially becoming the worst side in Premiership history.

On this evidence, even that looks like a tall order and McCarthy knows talk of pride at his side’s battling qualities is starting to wear a bit thin.

"It is very frustrating," he said.

"I am beginning to sound like a broken record because, once more, the players can take a lot of pride out of their performance.