West Brom complete Georgios Samaras deal

The 29-year-old joins as a free agent, after leaving Scottish champions Glasgow Celtic at the end of last season.

Samaras will wear the vacant No 30 shirt at the Hawthorns, but won't be available for tomorrow's trip to Southampton.

He chose the Baggies over Spanish club Malaga while Sevilla, Hamburg and Lokomotiv Moscow were also linked to a move.

The forward last played in the English top-flight for Manchester City, heading north of the border to join Celtic in 2008.

He started out in Holland with Heerenveen and is a regular for his country, starring for Greece at the World Cup this summer.

The 6ft 4in front-man will now battle it out with club-record signing Brown Ideye, Saido Berahino and Victor Anichebe for a place.

Boss Alan Irvine said: "We have signed a player with vast experience and I'm delighted to welcome Sami to the club.

"He has played a lot of football at the highest levels – Champions League, European Championships and World Cups.

"The feedback we have got on him, from people like Neil Lennon, states he thrives on the big occasion. He will certainly play in plenty of those in the Premier League.

"Georgios has played in big games for a Celtic team that have often had a lot of the ball and have had to work hard to break the opposition down.

"But he has also shown another side to his game in other matches when they haven't seen as much of the ball."

Irvine believes he's now well-stocked with attacking options, saying: "We have now got four strikers with different qualities who can be used in different ways.

"That's great for us, because we need to have flexibility, the option to approach games in different ways and cover for injuries.

"I'm absolutely delighted with the four strikers we have."

West Brom technical director Terry Burton played a key role in enticing the player to the club, saying: "Georgios is not your archetypal 6ft 4in striker.

"There is a physicality to his game but he's also got pace, is good technically, handles the ball well and can stretch teams.

"He's got good experience of the big occasion and that's often when he produced his best moments came at Celtic."

Irvine has been keen to get deals done well before the closing of the transfer window to avoid the stress of deadline day.

By the same token, the head coach is not expecting to lose any members of his squad before the end of the month and does not expect any bids to be accepted from Burnley for Craig Dawson.

The Clarets had three bids for the centre-back – the latest believed to be in the region of £2million – rejected by Albion.

He said: "There is nothing happening at the moment, nobody is coming for our players at the moment and hopefully that will remain the case."