Georgios Samaras has a great belief in the strength of character within the Celtic Park dressing room and he says that he has no reason to believe that the January transfer window changes will unsettle the camaraderie within the squad. 
Jos Hooiveld, Thomas Rogne and Ki Sung Yueng will soon be joined by Morten Rasmussen and one or two others if recent reports are accurate and Samaras is certain that the new bhoys will meld seamlessly into the squad because of the great bond that exists within the dressing room. "I think we're a really strong group and when a new player comes in he'll settle right into the atmosphere." said Samaras. "When you have 20-25 players and want to win a game or do better in training sometimes you have some arguments, but in the end it's like a big family."
"Most of the players have been here for two or three years." said Celtic's number nine. "And even when players are out or are in, you have plenty of others who can keep the atmosphere and the dressing room the way we want. We're always strong and don't need anything else to make us stronger. We feel well with ourselves and that's the most important thing."
Of course first and foremost in the mind of the team is Sunday's SPL clash against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park and all the speculation regarding the comings and goings will be suspended for ninety minutes as we concentrate on bringing back all three points from the journey to Perth. "St Johnstone are a good side with some good players," said Samaras. "When you play these teams away from home, it's always difficult and you must be focused from the first minute in trying to get three points, so we must be careful. I feel good in myself and all the team are feeling really good. There are a lot of games and a lot of points to be won and a lot of things can still happen."
The Huns are nine points clear at the top of the table having played one game more than Celtic and there is a distinct possibility that their lead could stretch to 12 points if they beat Hearts today but Samaras insists that there will be no added pressure should that prove to be the case and he further insists that the title is still within our grasp.
"I have no problem with that," he said."That's football. You can lose and draw games and at the moment we are nine points behind. But we don't care about what Rangers are going to do, we have to look at our team, we have to focus on ourselves. We will look at how we improve, how we play better football and, of course, win games."
"We are a big team and we must go and try and turn the situation around because our ambition is to win games and win the title." he concluded. "There are a lot of games out there, a lot of points. Personally, come the end of the season, I will not be happy if I don't have the trophy in my hands."