Marked for Dragos Burca
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market27 Dec 2032
“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.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad27 Dec 2032
Nicolò Pauliuc and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Dec 2032
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Saccani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces27 Dec 2032
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match25 Dec 2032
It finished 2‑0, and it was Dragos Burca’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sampdoria.
Player ratings27 Dec 2032
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match27 Dec 2032
Halfway: Sampdoria sit in position 15
12 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Player ratings27 Dec 2032
Marked 7.75. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Dec 2032
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sampdoria, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match18 Dec 2032
11 matches without a win, and then this, against Picerno. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Giuseppe Forte 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.
Match18 Dec 2032
Three points for Sampdoria, 1‑0 the final word against Picerno in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Angelo Martini is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout20 Dec 2032
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings20 Dec 2032
A mark of 7.95, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout20 Dec 2032
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Market20 Dec 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Nov 2032
No end in sight to Sampdoria's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sampdoria has to find a result from somewhere.
Market29 Nov 2032
“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.
Squad29 Nov 2032
Giuseppe Forte 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.
Match27 Nov 2032
0‑1 to Padova, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad29 Nov 2032
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Angelo Martini is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad29 Nov 2032
A muscle injury sidelines Stefano Tedesco for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Sampdoria will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout29 Nov 2032
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jacob Hughes to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout29 Nov 2032
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market29 Nov 2032
The Dragos Burca talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sampdoria know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Nov 2032
10 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match3 Nov 2032
The cup run ends for Sampdoria
0‑3 against Fiorentina, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match8 Nov 2032
Sampdoria are in real trouble now
Position 15, 5 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match6 Nov 2032
The wait goes on for Sampdoria
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The terraces8 Nov 2032
0-3. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Nicolò Pauliuc 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.
Match6 Nov 2032
2‑3 to Cavese, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Angelo Martini 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 ratings8 Nov 2032
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.81, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout25 Oct 2032
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sampdoria have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match23 Oct 2032
No end in sight to Sampdoria's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sampdoria has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Nicolò Pauliuc and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2032
A row about effort at Sampdoria
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Saccani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match23 Oct 2032
0‑2 to Audace Cerignola, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
The manager makes an example of Giuseppe Forte
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Jacob Hughes left the room before anybody could ask which.
Market25 Oct 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dragos Burca’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
Bilel Hartsaoui has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sampdoria will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Oct 2032
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sampdoria, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout4 Oct 2032
Bilel Hartsaoui: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sampdoria have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad4 Oct 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Angelo Martini and Sampdoria agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2032
A row about effort at Sampdoria
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Saccani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad4 Oct 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sampdoria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Oct 2032
Andrea Di Palma is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sampdoria has been clear about where Andrea Di Palma stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout4 Oct 2032
The manager makes an example of Andrea Di Palma
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad4 Oct 2032
A place in the month's best eleven for Nicola Piccini
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Nicola Piccini has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sampdoria have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match2 Oct 2032
A 1‑1 draw with Casarano leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Sep 2032
Sampdoria march on in the cup
Benevento are out and Sampdoria go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad27 Sep 2032
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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
Matteo Piazza, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.93
A mark of 7.93 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match25 Sep 2032
2‑3 to Foggia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Ivan Chmut 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.
The terraces27 Sep 2032
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Maksymilian Poproch has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Angelo Martini is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout27 Sep 2032
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Sampdoria had a different afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 Sep 2032
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Ascoli moved on, Giuseppe Forte reports back to Sampdoria, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad13 Sep 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sampdoria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2032
Sampdoria offered $180.0K; Monza said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2032
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Saccani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout13 Sep 2032
The manager makes an example of Matteo Saccani
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match11 Sep 2032
Giugliano left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout13 Sep 2032
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout13 Sep 2032
Giuseppe Forte asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Aug 2032
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sampdoria have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad30 Aug 2032
26 days out for Joshua Ntumba after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sampdoria will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match28 Aug 2032
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad30 Aug 2032
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.
Market30 Aug 2032
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings30 Aug 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings30 Aug 2032
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.13, and nobody on the pitch better.
The dugout30 Aug 2032
Christian Lupo: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sampdoria have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match28 Aug 2032
8 matches without a win, and then this, against Crotone. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2032
A fracture rules Joshua Ntumba out for 41 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sampdoria will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market16 Aug 2032
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sampdoria have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market16 Aug 2032
Add another name to the list: Ascoli have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lorenzo Paratici. The answer from Sampdoria has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AS Roma keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
Sampdoria offered $14.0K; Inter said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market16 Aug 2032
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Sampdoria will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Saccani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Yanis Hidja and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 May 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad31 May 2032
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sampdoria will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom31 May 2032
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Niccolò Cacciamani has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Sampdoria have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad31 May 2032
Christian Lupo 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.
Squad31 May 2032
Yanis Hidja in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sampdoria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nicolò Rossi commits to Sampdoria for another 3 years.
The dugout31 May 2032
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout31 May 2032
Joao Moreira has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sampdoria will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout31 May 2032
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Christian Lupo has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 May 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sampdoria is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 May 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sampdoria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2032
A row about effort at Sampdoria
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Saccani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 May 2032
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market24 May 2032
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Sampdoria money.
Market24 May 2032
The name of Giuseppe Forte keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sampdoria say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout24 May 2032
When it matters, Joel Sula plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout24 May 2032
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sampdoria. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Mar 2032
1‑4 to Padova, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
Dragos Burca, 20, steals the show — 7.63
Marked 7.63 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match20 Mar 2032
5 matches without a win for Sampdoria
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Sampdoria are no longer polite ones.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Giuseppe Forte 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.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Matteo Saccani 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2032
Nobody left the Sampdoria dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Beaten 4 times: a bad day for Yanis Hidja
1 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
The manager makes an example of Nicolò Motta
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Mar 2032
Only the photograph left for Yanis Hidja
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yanis Hidja will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sampdoria the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Giuseppe Forte 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.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Saccani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad1 Mar 2032
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Market1 Mar 2032
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Igor Ngah Essomba has his answer from Sampdoria; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sampdoria told Lorenzo Paratici something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Player ratings1 Mar 2032
Marked 7.46 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Sampdoria had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Feb 2032
“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.
Player ratings23 Feb 2032
Age has not caught Manuel Cicconi yet — 7.85
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Paratici is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match21 Feb 2032
Monopoli left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Yanis Hidja and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Feb 2032
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Sampdoria will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout23 Feb 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Chmut, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Feb 2032
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Dragos Burca is the weekend's best young player
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Feb 2032
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sampdoria, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Feb 2032
The deal that would have taken Lorenzo Paratici to Mantova has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Sampdoria with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Giuseppe Forte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Feb 2032
A row about effort at Sampdoria
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Lupo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces16 Feb 2032
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Giuseppe Forte has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match14 Feb 2032
A 2‑0 win over Picerno, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings16 Feb 2032
Ninety minutes of Lorenzo Paratici at his very best
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sampdoria.
The dugout16 Feb 2032
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jacob Hughes, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Market16 Feb 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Feb 2032
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sampdoria lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market9 Feb 2032
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Giuseppe Forte reports back to Sampdoria with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market9 Feb 2032
Joel Sula puts it in writing
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sampdoria, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Paratici is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Yanis Hidja 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.
Match7 Feb 2032
Altamura left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings9 Feb 2032
10 combined actions and 6.75. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Jan 2032
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sampdoria lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market5 Jan 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match3 Jan 2032
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Dragos Burca decided nobody was going anywhere. Sorrento had no time left to answer.
Player ratings5 Jan 2032
Dragos Burca, 20, steals the show — 7.77
Marked 7.77 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout5 Jan 2032
Joel Sula: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sampdoria have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market5 Jan 2032
Only the photograph left for Yanis Hidja
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yanis Hidja will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sampdoria the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets5 Jan 2032
Everything agreed with Cosenza, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad5 Jan 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Christian Lupo and Sampdoria agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets5 Jan 2032
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Dec 2031
A one-man rearguard from Yanis Hidja
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market8 Dec 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market8 Dec 2031
Yanis Hidja has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sampdoria they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Joaquín Romero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Paratici is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match6 Dec 2031
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Dragos Burca is the month’s best young player
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Sampdoria will try not to make too much of it.
Market8 Dec 2031
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout8 Dec 2031
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Jacob Hughes to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Dec 2031
“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.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
Vasile Sova: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sampdoria have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Words exchanged at Sampdoria
Joaquín Romero 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.
Match29 Nov 2031
Carrarese left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad1 Dec 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ivan Chmut commits to Sampdoria for another 3 years.
Squad1 Dec 2031
A row about effort at Sampdoria
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Paratici was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jacob Hughes after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Too much change too quickly at Sampdoria
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Nov 2031
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Lupo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match22 Nov 2031
It finished 2‑1, and it was Giuseppe Forte’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sampdoria.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Ivan Chmut in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sampdoria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces24 Nov 2031
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Giuseppe Forte has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Jacob Hughes kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
Nicolò Motta gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
Giuseppe Forte knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sampdoria, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad24 Nov 2031
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Sampdoria lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Sep 2031
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Monopoli moved on, Lorenzo Paratici reports back to Sampdoria, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market8 Sep 2031
Joel Sula puts it in writing
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sampdoria, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Hubert Fruscione 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.
Squad8 Sep 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sampdoria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets8 Sep 2031
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Sampdoria will try again when the window opens; Lecce may not be selling by then.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Paratici is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
The manager makes an example of Fabricio Roldán
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
Manuel Cicconi knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sampdoria, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad8 Sep 2031
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Sampdoria would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Aug 2031
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sampdoria, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Dragos Burca gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dragos Burca has just signed for Sampdoria, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
Palermo wanted more than $2.2M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sampdoria have done the hard part with Virtus Entella, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Boardroom25 Aug 2031
Jacob Hughes signs on for the long haul
Sampdoria moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Jacob Hughes, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Squad25 Aug 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sampdoria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom25 Aug 2031
14 academy graduates step up at Sampdoria
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad25 Aug 2031
A row about effort at Sampdoria
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Paratici was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market25 Aug 2031
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Roberto Gatti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.