Is Adam Scine delusional?

By: Alberico | August 13th, 2008

I woke up here in New Jersey on a beautiful Wednesday morning, beautiful blue sky, barely any clouds, comfortable weather, and then sat down at my office and completely ruined my day. Why? Cause I read something stupid on Goal.com regarding Sampdoria and whether or not they would be competitive enough this year to repeat what happened last season. All thanks go to the genius Adam Scime who wrote the piece, and I guess he didn’t do much research before writing it. If you also want your day to be ruined you can go check the article yourself at http://www.goal.com/en-US/articolo.aspx?contenutoid=813373 (my link thingie wasnt working).
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There are just certain things I have to get off my chest before I start taking my anger out at my fellow co-workers. Mr. Scime made very little of Sampdoria’s summer signings and instead highlighted their losses, to be precise he mentioned Maggio, Volpi, and Zenoni. I quickly went to my statistics and would like everyone to know the truth. Volpi, the former skipper, is 34 years old. He appeared in 28 games last year and had a very poor season. He, contrary to Mr. Scime’s opinion, DID NOT CONTROL the midfield. If you watched the games, it was Palombo & Sammarco who dictated and controlled the game, which is why Palombo became quickly the captain and the team leader while Volpi became a spectator. Next, it is plain ridiculous to mention Zenoni as a loss as he appeared in only 16 games and I dont even remember him playing. (I guess he really stood out).

Then there is Maggio. No one can downplay his season. BUT, arguments can be made because that was his first good season in his career and we do not know if he can repeat that. And secondly, we have done enough to replace him. Marius Stankevicius, the Lithuanian national team member has had 157 caps in Italian football and 38 in international football, and some of the things he has done in the first 3 preseason games have already given Sampdoria fans bright hope for the future. Not to mention the 2 South American signings who are both considered starlets. Bottinelli has already capped twice for Argentina, and Fornaroli just came off a campaing where he scored 16 goals in 25 games. AND HE’S ONLY 20!.

For a team that usually loses most of its players in the transfer market every season, I would say that this was the best summer in a long time. We held onto Cassano until 2013, we kept Palombo who was rumored to Fiorentina, we held Campagnaro who was rumored to Juventus. That is hard for a team to do. But we finally did it. And I advise Mr. Scime to start watching the youth players Samp jsut put on their roster. You know, the guys who just beat mighty Inter for the Primavera crown, Samp’s first ever Primavera Scudetto. Just watch what guys like Poli, Marilungo, Eramo, Fiorillo and company will do. I actually believe Samp got better this season. We will settle this when the chips are on the table and it’s time to count. Now I have to go try make my day better. Maybe I’ll go watch some Cassano highlights or something. Hey, at least Volpi controlled the midfield, right?