Sampdoria celebrate their 80th year in existence mired in Italy’s second tier for a fourth consecutive season.
It’s hardly the most appropriate place to mark a milestone for the Blucherciati.
For a club that won the Scudetto, four Coppa Italia trophies and featured in three European finals – winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup – the thought of yet another campaign in Serie B is deeply underwhelming.
All those phenomenal achievements should never be forgotten.
Yet it’s time to stop dwelling on the past from the rearview mirror and focus on the brutal reality of the present day.
A 450 strong drone show lit up the sky in Genoa’s Porto Antico on August 12 – the date when Andrea Doria and Sampierdarenese merged to form Sampdoria in 1946 – to outline all the club’s historical successes.
Yet it will take a phenomenal effort if Samp are to soar up the Serie B table and return to the Italian top flight once again.
Singaporean owner Joseph Tey gained full control of the port city club as majority shareholder in April (2026) when Matteo Manfredi resigned as club president.
The previously reticent Tey, who had once stated the aim was Serie A football by 2028, finally appeared from the shadows to make it clear promotion must be an ambition this season.
While the entrepreneur remains a divisive figure among the Doria tifosi he has shelled out millions to keep the club afloat.
In an official statement at the end of May (2026) it put the not inconsiderable financial outlay in black and white – €155 spent over the last three years.
Although it’s not exactly been money for nothing the cash has funded an utterly cheerless period of multiple coaches, countless players, and a succession of woefully inept performances.
After a relatively encouraging 2023-2024 campaign when Andrea Pirlo guided Doria to seventh and the play-offs, the next term was a chaotic fiasco.
Pirlo was swiftly dismissed, Andrea Sottil and Leonardo Semplici failed to turn things around and Samp sank to 17th in the standings. The Blucerchiati only escaped a first ever relegation to the third tier of Italian football after club legends Alberico Evani and Attilio Lombardo were hastily brought in to guide Doria past Salernitana in a tense play-off.
In the 2025-2026 season the Ligurian club only placed 13th, just three points clear of the demotion play-offs, after another series of coaching calamities.
Lombardo was called to the rescue for a second time after Massimo Donati and Angelo Gregucci proved misguided appointments.
The 60-year-old former Scudetto winning winger was kept on as part of the coaching staff as former Italy youth coach Bernardo Corradi surprisingly took the reins in June (2026).
It was another bold, questionable appointment as Samp continues to place the utmost emphasis on a data driven methodology of player recruitment.
Another role of the dice in the revolving door of men at the helm, another bet placed on a tactician that has never coached at club level before.
Nearly 20,000 (at the time of writing) season tickets have been sold as the usual surge of nervousness and anticipation surrounds a pivotal campaign.
There’s been a significant shuffle of names and faces behind the scenes, Francesco De Gennaro replacing Manfredi as president and Americo Branco the new sporting director.
The appointment of Portuguese Branco has led to a noteworthy shift in transfer policy. Along with sporting CEO Jesper Fredberg, the former technical director of Dutch Eredivisie club Fortuna Sittard seems set on a different profile of player with the emphasis on a more European squad.
Despite Tey’s vital contributions there is no bottomless money pit at Samp.
Almost every club in Italy operates on an exceptionally tight budget, with only a few notable exceptions who appear to be able to do whatever they want – it’s both obvious and pointless to name them.
The hook must be to persuade players to join an ambitious side with aspirations to return to Serie A and become a permanent fixture in Italy’s top division.
Add in the not so small matter of a wonderfully loyal group of tifosi, that creates a unique atmosphere which rivals any club in Europe for spectacle and inspiration, and the attraction of living on the stunning Ligurian coast, and there several areas of appeal which the club hierarchy can emphasize and exploit.
A resolute focus on analytics hasn’t been a wholehearted success over the last three years for the most well supported club in the region.
From complete unknowns to youngsters who couldn’t fulfil their early potential, to useless veterans there have been very few genuinely good additions at Marassi in recent seasons.
It’s probably better to concentrate on those that stood out from the dross.
Securing creative Slovenian forward Tjas Begic on a long-term deal was a masterstroke. Without his skilful interventions Samp would have been relegated last year, keeping him fit and motivated is crucial this term.
Equally the capture of Mattia Viti on a permanent transfer from French side Nice could also prove critical. An unfussy, dependable centre-back – a real rarity in a gloom laden period of woeful ineptitude – who played an integral role on loan as Lombardo steered Samp to safety, should now become a defensive cornerstone.
Retaining a core of key players, including versatile Dane Oliver Abildgaard and midfielders Liam Henderson and Salvatore Esposito, is also quite a major step forward considering the dozens of departures and arrivals in an era of turmoil and disappointment.
There will be the usual process of integration and adaptation, and while some signings will work out and others will not, at least some of the fresh additions are instantly recognisable.
Napoli legend Lorenzo Insigne (who joined from Pescara) might not feature in every game, but even at 35 should have enough in the tank to kindle a spark in attacking positions.
Whether the data does actually work is yet to be seen, however at least it’s relatively easy to find information on the rest of Samp’s signings (a challenging task at times).
Danish goalkeeper Peter Vindahl (on loan from Sparta Prague), central defenders Luca Ravanelli (Monza) and Stefan Gartenmann (Ferencvaros), and Dutch left-back Bjorn Meijer (Club Brugge), will all have big roles in making sure the 2026-2027 campaign is not another blighted by the threat of relegation.
Attacking midfielders Yari Verschaeren (Anderlecht) and Danel Sinani (St. Pauli) can be expected to provide opportunities for 6ft 3in Norwegian centre-forward Tobias Lauritsen (Sparta Rotterdam) in the final third.
Fitting everyone into the team already looks like a dilemma for Corradi especially as the squad should be further bolstered again before the August (2026) transfer window mercifully closes.
All manner of bleak statistics can easily be identified from last season but the major obstacle was a chronic lack of goals. Just 35 in 38 Serie B games, the second worst in the entire division. Whether it’s Lauritsen, the returning Gennaro Tutino, or another new face, it’s the one area that must improve.
Otherwise, Samp can’t even target the notoriously demanding second tier play-offs, never mind any thought of promotion.
An inauspicious Coppa Italia exit against Cremonese didn’t inspire much confidence, yet it would be foolish to make any snap judgements after the defeat in Bolzano.
The Serie B marathon starts on Sunday (August 23, 2026) as Samp head to Cesena for the beginning of the new term.
They won’t be among the favourites to go up – Hellas Verona, Cremonese, Pisa, Palermo, and Catanzaro, among others, should all be in contention at the top end of the classifica – but a top seven finish must be a realistic objective. Anything but scraping the barrel with the bottom feeders yet again.
For many of the club’s long-suffering supporters – not just in Italy but across Europe, North and South America, and Asia – the prospect of yet another historic low is simply too much to bear.
The Blucerchiati have only spent five consecutive campaigns in the second tier once, from 1977 to 1982, before a glorious decade of success from 1984 to 1994.
Even eternal optimists might toil to find positivity ahead of the new chapter ahead.
Yet there is the sense that in the eightieth year of such a storied and prestigious club the time is right for meaningful change and progress.
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