Sampdoria fighting relegation disaster as old heroes ride into town

ITALY: Sampdoria are fighting for Serie B survival as the 1991 Italian champions and former European Cup finalists flirt dangerously with dropping into Italy’s third tier for the first time.

Sat in the relegation play-off zone ahead of Monday´s match at promotion chasers Juve Stabia, Sampdoria have a huge battle on their hands -- and they have called on some heroes from their golden age of the late 1980s and 1990s to save the day.

Former Italy midfielder Alberico Evani, flanked by assistant Attilio Lombardo, became Samp’s fourth coach of the season earlier this month as the club moved desperately to turn around the team´s fortunes and stop a groundswell of fan protests.

Evani began with a 1-0 win over fellow strugglers Cittadella at Samp’s tense Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa, in which around 27,000 fans roared on their ailing team after a pre-match mass march to the ground in a renewed show of support.

A fortnight before the team bus had been pelted with stones and flares by furious supporters following a 3-0 home thumping at the hands of mid-table Frosinone, and the following week’s 2-0 loss to fellow Riviera outfit Spezia seemed to signal the beginning of the end.

But the atmosphere has changed with the appointment of Evani and Lombardo -- and the arrival of Sampdoria icon Roberto Mancini at a training session -- and the sense of hope was palpable both on the march and in the stands last weekend, when Samp won for just the third time since the end of October.

“The club have been very good actually,” says Emanuele Vassallo, the president of supporters association Federazione Clubs Blucerchiati and one of the organisers of the march. “We’ve given the club hell over the past few weeks and they’ve responded in the right way, in my opinion.

“Bringing in people who were a part of our golden age has really galvanised the fans and given us hope that we can stay up. It shows that they’re listening.” Crowds for Samp home fixtures this season average over 22,000, the highest in Serie B, despite a rough few years which have been characterised by serious financial problems and poor performances on the pitch.

— Doom, gloom and debt

Samp were close to going bust after relegation to Serie B in 2023, but were saved that summer by current president Matteo Manfredi and former Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani, who has since exited the club.

Previous owner Massimo Ferrero left Samp in such a parlous state that the incoming owners had to strike a debt restructuring agreement with the Court of Genoa. That deal does not take in account relegation to Serie C, meaning Samp’s continued existence would be uncertain should they go down.