SAMP is back! 2008-09 season beckons…

By: Alberico | August 12th, 2008

Hi this is Alberico and this is my first ever post on the Sampdoria page and I cannot express how happy I am to be have this privilege, the privilege to write for the team I have loved since the age of 4, growing up on the busy streets of Genova. But that is it about myself. (don’t worry, you will get to know much more about me as the season rolls along)

It is almost mid-august, or ferragosto as they say in Italy, but instead of venturing off to Southern Italy’s beaches, sipping on cocktails, and eating seafood, Serie A teams are well into their preparation as the season kicks off on the 30th of August. My beloved Samp is fresh off an amazing campaign where they finished 6th and stamped their ticket to the European pitches where it has not been in 2 years. But that has been quickly archived by Mister Mazzarri and his boys as they have been training arduously since July 19th.

As happens every season, we say goodbye to many dear faces and welcome new ones. Well, we had to say goodbye to derby hero Maggio, and also Montella, who went to Napoli and Roma respectively. But we have certainly added some gems and some promises such as Lithuanian national team midfielder Marius Stankevicius, young Uruguyan forward phenom Bruno “El Tuna” Fornaroli .

They have also signed Italian Under-21 midfielder Daniele Dessena, and just recently signed Jonathan Bottinelli, 23 year old Argentine lefty midfielder currently on San Lorenzo (desired by half of Europe), and maybe another big signing such as the Cassano (names like Sheva, Crespo, and Suazo are being thrown around. All of us Doria fans are hoping GM Marotta can pull off another “Italian Job” as he did with Real Madrid last year. Stankevicius has Italian football experience as he has been a part of Brescia for the last 5 years and can certainly be a quality replacement to Maggio (who I still dont know if he can repeat last year’s amazing season). “El Tuna” Fornaroli has already shown in Uruguay and in pre-season that he can be a younger version of Superpippo Inzaghi, who is his idol, and can form a great partnership with Cassano so that is a duo to look out for. Dessena is quickly developing into a solid midfielder who will probably be in Lippi’s Italian side for years to come, whereas Bottinelli, just signed today, is a an extremely talented left back and will be an immediate reinforcement to Samp and may be the surprise of Serie A this year.

Basically, the team is close to being finalized. Mazzarri has already begun to instill his 3-5-2 philosophy with the boys, a philosophy that produced great results last year as Samp was arguably the best team in the second half of the Serie A season. But a new journey beckons and with many obstacles, obstacles however that are more than welcomed. Such obstacles are the UEFA Cup and the fact that they now have a bullseye on their jerseys as every other team below them is out to get them and replace them in the standings, especially our “cousins” Genoa (God, I hate saying that name, makes me want to vomit).

All I have to say is that I love new seasons. Any true fan does. We don’t know what will happen, we have many expectations, we have many dreams, and we hope to live the same emotions, and hopefully more than we did last year. But one thing is for certain, Samp players will fight till the end in order to satisfy and please its dedicated followers. I truly think that Sampdoria has all the tools to repeat last year’s performance, if not even improve on it. It is true that teams that finished below us did get better this offseason such as Napoli, Lazio and others but so did we. And we have Cassano.

18 days and counting until we host the defending champions of Italy, the monstrous Inter. Saturday night, August 30th, 2:30 pm US time, our boys will take the field and begin their quest. Such an exciting season awaits us. The players know it, the fans know it (which is proven by figures, as 18,000 season tickets have already been sold). I just cannot wait till my boys with the most beautiful jersey in Italy take the field at Marassi. But until then, we just have to keep watching them sweat it out on their training grounds as they fine tune their wheels in order to have a great take-off.

Ciao ragazzi and always, FORZA DORIA!
Alberico

ps- pardon the length of this first entry, it was just because it was introductory one, but thanks for reading =)