The Sampdoria Sentinel
Market5 Jul 2027
Terms done: Oliver Abildgaard is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lumezzane waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sampdoria is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market5 Jul 2027
Nicholas Scardigno 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Real improvement from Gabriele Lelli at Sampdoria
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriele Lelli is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Sampdoria to lose Jacopo Busi for free
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jacopo Busi has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Manuel Cicconi stays put
“The easiest signature of my career.” Manuel Cicconi and Sampdoria agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Sampdoria
Gennaro Tutino and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad5 Jul 2027
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.
Market5 Jul 2027
A season away well spent by Stefano Girelli
34 games, 6 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Sampdoria now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Door shut on Timur Melekestsev
Sampdoria asked and Arsenal Tula said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
- Boardroom Intake day at the Sampdoria academy
- The dugout The manager makes an example of Tjaš Begić
- The dugout Gaëtan Coucke gets picked when it counts