The Sampdoria Sentinel
Squad31 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Lorenzo Insigne
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sampdoria lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Simone Ghidotti keeps Sampdoria in it on his own
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market31 Jan 2028
Sorrento come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sampdoria did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market31 Jan 2028
Nikola Sekulov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sampdoria can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
Andrey Krastev signs for Cittadella while still at Sampdoria
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Andrey Krastev has agreed terms with Cittadella for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
A defender's afternoon for Salvatore Esposito
Defensive actions: 23. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Sampdoria
Bruno Figueiredo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Salvatore Esposito falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Alessandro Riccio was immovable
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
In brief
- Player ratings Nobody could get near Estanis Pedrola
- Match Point won or two lost for Sampdoria?
- Market The Mattia Viti talk will not go away