The Lost Boys

By: Kshitiz | October 11th, 2007

Old Players, hot chicks and other random stuff
Since we have a week long international break, and the huge number of Samp players making it to the national squads, I have nothing good to do. Got rid of Lambda Calculus and Parallel Algorithms earlier this week, so, really, I have nothing to do. Now I’m going to have a look around for old Sampdoria players, active at other clubs as coaches or players,inactive, or partially active( as in being SKY pundits), their impact and what they meant to us. I will cover our current players, after I’ve done sufficient former Samp-men. And the usual random stuff including hot chicks and music in the end.

However, I would like to draw attention to a consecutive 5 matchday bulldozing schedule against some top sides.

Udinese vs Sampdoria
Sampdoria vs Fiorentina
Roma vs Sampdoria
Sampdoria vs Palermo
Juventus vs Sampdoria

So obviously we require all of our bench strength, plus some decent form and good luck to counter this devilish schedule. But that is a discussion for another day. Let’s remember the old boys now.

The Brits
Samp has had quite a few English players over the years, something which is quite unthinkable now.In-fact, it was a growing trend in the nineties for the English to try their luck outside the island. Now the monetary power of EPL has come to a point that not even one Englishman plays outside of England. David Beckham, Michael Owen, Owen Hargreaves and Michael Ball had spells outside of the UK, but now they’re all either in EPL or Hollywood.

1) Graeme Souness
Position:Midfielder
Years for Sampdoria: 1984-86
Transfer Fee: £650,000
Transferred from: Liverpool
Transferred to:Rangers
Matches played: 56
Goals Scored: 8

The tough tackling Scottish midfielder was brought from Liverpool after he had achieved cult status there. He was one of the bright lights of the grand Liverpool era in the 80’s. He joined us at time when we were doing decently well. We had just finished 6th in 1983. Deciding to build on the success, Doria got Souness much for his physical prowess. His time with us was quite good, and he shared the dressing room with Gianluca Vialli, Mancio and fellow Brit Trevor Francis. Not surprisingly, He won the Coppa Italia with the Blucherati in 84, his first year in Genoa, and we finished 4th . The next year was not very productive as Samp finished 11th in Serie A, and no silverware. He promptly joined Rangers as their first player-coach. After Rangers, he managed a host of clubs including Galatasaray, Torino, Liverpool, Benfica and Newcastle. He never really hit it as a coach, and Newcastle was probably his low point. He now works as an “analyst” for SKY sports. His mental health has deteriorated in recent days, and he commented “Francesco Totti maybe capable of good things, but is not a great player” and “He has won nothing in his career”. Probably Alzhemeir’s.

2) Trevor Francis
Position:Striker
Years for Sampdoria: 1982-85
Transfer Fee: £700,000
Transferred from: Manchester City
Transferred to:Atatlanta
Matches played: 68
Goals Scored: 17

Yupp, he looked like a Beatle once. Though he is more famous for being the first 1mn pound footballer, after (once mighty) Nottingham Forest bought him from Birmingham city.He put in some terrific displays at Forest and became a fan favorite there. After an excellent 1982 world cup, the Doriani swooped for him. He was only moderately succesful in Genoa, but during his tenure we managed to finish 7th,5th and 4th in the league, and won the 84 Coppa Italia. Even though he didn’t score loads of goals, he displayed some good skills and was involved in some nice game plays. He was one of the better English imports, surviving 4 years. Samp sold him to Atalanta for a decent price of £700,000. Since then he has tried his luck at managing, with little success. He is an analyst at SKY too. Here are some of his memorable times at the Blucherati.

3) Des Walker
Position:Central Defender
Years for Sampdoria: 1992-93
Transfer Fee: £1.5 mn
Transferred from: Nottingham Forest aka Samp business partner in England
Transferred to:Sheffield Wednesday
Matches played: 30
Goals Scored: 0

As legend has it, this pacy centre back played locally in London before being spotted by Forest’s staff. In-fact, he was so pacy, fans chanted “You’ll never beat Des Walker” as strikers closed in. His pace allowed him to cover the whole right side sometimes, and he was good to intercept crosses. His steady work-rate then prompted Sven Goran Eriksson (then samp coach, yawn!!) to buy him for 1.5*10,000 million Lira. He did not settle very well in the completely different setting in Italy, and even though he played 30 games through the season, he never looked liked playing more. Finally he was sold to Sheffield Wednesday for a cool 2.7*10,000 Lira, a very profitable transaction indeed after the blucherati had finished a dismal 7th following the Scudetto won during the 1991-92. During his time at the Doriani, he was affectionately called Johnny Walker Whiskey, as in expensive, exquisite but no thanks, we’ll drink wine. He once became First team coach at Nottingham, but left soon after. Currently, it seems he is …ummm…unemployed. Here’s a clip from his testimonial match. Listen how they clearly chant that

4) David Platt
Position:Midfielder
Years for Sampdoria: 1993-95
Transfer Fee: £5.2 mn (haw!!)
Transferred from: La Gobbi Signora
Transferred to: Sportique Ahsenal de Londonique (That’s coarse French for Arsenal)
Matches played: 55
Goals Scored: 17

He is rated among the top ugly English footballers, behind Martin Keown, of course. He began his trade at Crewe Alexandria, and then found his way into Aston Villa. He was a creative midfielder with a knack of scoring goals. He scored a memorable goal at the 1990 world cup against Belgium. After that, he started to command unusually absurd transfer fees. Lowly Bari, yupp Antonio Cassano Bari, bought him for £5mn. After he had a decent season at Bari, scoring 11 goals in 29, he was bought by Giuve for £6.5 mn, . He did not cut the ice there, and was sold to Eriksson’s Sampdoria, who has a knack of buying English players in Italy and Italian players in England. He did have a better say in affairs at Sampdoria, where in his first season we finished 3rd and won the Coppa Italia. After that, it was all downhill for him, Eriksson and Sampdoria. Eriksson was fired in 1997, and Spalletti was brought in, yes AS Roma Spalletti. After he ( surprisingly) failed to turn things around, David Platt was brought in but his highly controversial stint ended when other Italian clubs demanded he be shown the door for lack of a coaching license. Spalletti was brought again, and Sampdoria went down, down, down. No wonder Spal doesn’t like Montella. David Platt had a mediocre managerial career after that coaching Nottingham forest (how many times will this club appear in this post ) and England U-21’s. End with the spectacular finish against Belgium and his Sampdoria exploits.

I have Liam Brady, Daniele Dichio and Lee Sharpe left on the British menu, but this post has gotten long enough as it is. Next time then.

Some Random stuff
1) A touching story about the tragic life of a promising footballer.

2) Random song of the day

3) Random hot chick of the day, totally random, not even Football related

I’ll be out wandering the countryside for a while, so no posts this coming week. See you guys after that. Ciao. And yeah, Forza Italia for the coming week.