New season, same position.
After three games of the 2025-2026 campaign Sampdoria are bottom of Serie B and out of the Coppa Italia.
Two league defeats against Modena and Sudtirol – and five goals conceded in the process – and a cup exit on penalties at Spezia put Samp at an immediate disadvantage in what appears to be yet another season of transition.
It’s far too early for judgment or condemnation, but it’s still an inauspicious beginning to the club’s third consecutive term in the second tier of Italian football.
Only a late reprieve prevented the Blucerchiati from falling into the third division last term when Brescia were relegated following a four-point penalty incurred for administrative and financial irregularities.
In what can legitimately be viewed as the worst season in the port city club’s history, the coaching duo of club greats Alberico Evani and Attilio Lombardo guided Doria past Salernitana in a late relegation play-off.
There was no reward for Evani and Lombardo who both left Samp after they kept the club from an ignominious tumble down into nether regions of the game in Italy.
The obituaries had already been written – many from outlets that would never normally cover any aspect of Italian football, never mind focus on the Genoa-based club – when the Blucerchiati looked to have been relegated. While the tone and content of many of the articles could be viewed as questionable at best, the demotion of a club that were once champions of Italy and played in the Champions League final was to the uninformed surprising at the very least.
While many complained that Doria had somehow been given preferential treatment and deserved to go down, the full extent of Brescia’s many problems emerged.
It was undoubtedly a fortunate development that partially saved Samp from a catastrophic relegation, but any forensic examination of club finances in the top two divisions in Italy would surely unearth several catalogues of suspicious activity. In the relentlessly divided and petty world of calcio no one is ever truly satisfied, but Samp survived despite a barrage of bile and outrage to the contrary.
Instead of retaining Evani and Lombardo in some capacity, club president Matteo Manfredi and majority shareholder Joseph Tey opted to move forward in a radically different direction.
In a summer of cost-cutting and remodelling the relatively inexperienced Massimo Donati was appointed head coach.
Dane Jesper Fredberg also unexpectedly arrived as sports chief executive officer to work alongside sporting director Andrea Mancini (son of Samp legend Roberto Mancini).
Fredberg, who previously worked for Anderlecht, Viborg FF and Panathinaikos, has been the face of a mixed summer recruitment campaign in which 11 players arrived and a number of loanees and veterans departed.
The approach to scouting and selecting new signings involved the use of algorithms, data analytics, and key performance indicators.
In a sometimes-bewildering narrative, any old-fashioned methods have been ditched in the new revolution.
It’s a strategy initiated by Manfredi and Tey, the Singaporean entrepreneur, a rather shadowy figure who is rarely seen and doesn’t crave publicity.
According to ClubDoria46 the Asian businessman has already spent €50 million in 2025 alone to cover outstanding debts, players’ salaries and all other costs required just to keep the club in Serie B.
It’s a significant investment yet Tey remains a deeply divisive figure among the Blucerchiati support.
A well marketed season ticket campaign produced great results with a final total of 20,392 – a figure exceeding several clubs in Serie A.
Yet in a prudent summer the club shelled out just €550,000 on 11 new players with nine either loan signings or free agents.
It’s not been enough for a large supporter base utterly fed up of directionless leadership, woeful performances, and dreadful results.
Although Tey was at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris to watch Samp lose their opening league game against Modena, his hands-off approach remains unpopular with fans.
He was never going to please everyone, but you would think his preference to operate in the background rather than the spotlight is significantly more appealing than the antics of the loudmouth, attention seeking former president Massimo Ferrero.
Self-confessed Roma fan Ferrero ran the club into the ground before his well-publicised arrest and elongated departure.
At the very least Manfredi, Tey and his fellow investors have ensured Samp’s immediate future.
Unfortunately, Tey is just an entrepreneur rather than a representative for the country of Singapore.
It’s a pitiably sad situation when all fans can seemingly hope for is that a state government or billionaire with deep pockets magically arrives to provide unlimited funds to transform their team’s fortunes.
There are already clear examples in England and France where a handful of clubs have benefitted from cash rich benefactors and spent extravagantly without any real financial implications or penalties. Financial fair play rules don’t apply to a select few.
There will never be another president like Paolo Mantovani who splashed out but also brought the best young Italian players to Samp – including goal twins Mancini and Gianluca Vialli – as they reached unprecedented heights to reach the top in Italy and Europe between 1984 and 1994.
Doria might never be in a realistic position to win the Scudetto again, yet the bare minimum should be a return to the top flight.
Given the club’s current status, it’s staggering to think that the Blucerchiati were consistently among the best teams in Italy for the best part of three decades.
Nostalgia won’t bring the club back to the top division and it already looks like making the promotion play-offs might be a tough ask this term.
The main two problem areas – a threadbare, shaky backline and a shot-shy, inadequate attack – have not been properly addressed.
Of the 11 new faces there were some impressive captures, most notably Scottish midfielder Liam Henderson, Czech attacking midfielder Antonin Barak, and young Italian forwards Luigi Cherubini and Simone Pafundi.
Others were clear gambles – Bosnia and Herzegovina defender Dennis Hadzikadunic, Spanish winger Victor Narro and Albanian forward Marvin Cuni among them – with no established central defender or centre-forward recruited.
The continued injury enforced absences of centre-backs Giorgio Altare and Simone Romagnoli also leaves Donati with considerably less options.
Long serving full-back Bartosz Bereszynski and central midfielders Ronaldo Vieira, Gerard Yepes and Melle Meulensteen all left as part of a major cost reducing clear-out.
The early evidence is discouraging: woeful goals conceded, an inability to engineer and convert opportunities and a general lack of cohesion. It all looks like a repeat of last year’s lamentable descent to the foot of the standings.
Although it’s unfair to assess anything after just three matches, the poor start is not a major surprise. Donati – who had a brief loan spell at Samp as a player in the 2003-2004 campaign – is still adjusting to a demanding position with a largely new squad in an ultra-competitive league.
Whether the 44-year-old should have been given the job in the first place – after coaching spells in the Italian third and fourth tiers and in the Greek Super League – seems irrelevant now.
His fate will be decided in the next few months. Andrea Pirlo, Andrea Sottil and Leonardo Semplici were swiftly dismissed as Samp struggled to stay out of the relegation zone last term.
It’s a monumental challenge for a tactician who had never coached in Serie B before this campaign.
Doria host unbeaten Cesena today (Saturday, September 13, 2025) and go on the road for testing games at Monza and Bari before the month ends.
It’s time to find out if the data really works as the biggest club in the Italian second division try to get back on the comeback trail.
@skasiewicz.bsky.social
Stephen Kasiewicz 