Marked for Stefan Gartenmann
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Matteo Brunori takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matteo Brunori provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Sampdoria and Catanzaro, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Fabio Depaoli
“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.
Match12 Sep 2026
It needed Matteo Brunori to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Catanzaro, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jordan Ferri dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Sampdoria have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Salvatore Esposito 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gennaro Battaglia has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market24 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniele Villa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Viti 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Alex Ferrari 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 Alex Ferrari stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Picerno 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Manuel Cicconi and Sampdoria agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Manuel Cicconi
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.