This is post one of a wider series. A series for FM23.
“If the first button of one’s coat is wrongly buttoned, all the rest will be crooked.”
In-game date: 11 July 2022
It was the 16th century Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno who said those words. I guess what he meant was if the foundations are not built correctly, what follows can never be robust and pristine.
The modern iteration of Sampdoria clearly did not heed his timeless warning.
One of the headline stories of the real life 22-23 Serie A season so far has been the abject performances of the famous Blucerchiati in Genoa. Manager Marco Giampaolo was sacked, Dejan Stankovic replaced him, and as it stands today in early November, the club have celebrated just one win in 14 league games, sit second bottom in the table of Italy’s top tier and pay a big chunk of Tottenham stray Harry Winks’ wages on loan, only for him to be permanently injured and yet to kick a ball in anger. The reality is that today’s Sampdoria are neither robust nor pristine, and in fact you have to go back 13 years to the halcyon days of prime Giampaolo Pazzini to see the team place any higher than seventh in Serie A. One of Italian football’s great underachievers.
Luckily I am the owner of a time machine, and my FM23 experience is not only starting in July 2022 while the mood in the Sampdoria camp was still optimistic, but this entire save should hark back even further than Pazzini in 2009 to the glory days of Football Italia, James Richardson’s pink newspapers and Sampdoria’s last and only Scudetto, back in 1991.
That was my ‘save reveal’ video for a bit of fun, but the core questions are valid. Could Italian football ever again reach the heady heights of its 1990s peak? Could Sampdoria ever win another Scudetto and bring back the glory days of Gianluca Vialli, Attilio Lombardo, Gianluca Pagliuca and club record appearances holder and iconic fantasista Roberto Mancini?
Well if Giordano Bruno was instead being literal in his oft-quoted articulation, he wouldn’t have a problem with any crooked buttons when it comes to Sampdoria’s new manager.
Welcome, Enzo Scutari.
After three years and FM editions primarily following the story of beloved fictional Peruvian Bielsista Fernando Teixidó, a fresh protagonist was a little overdue.
Enzo is a handsome economist. A footballing intellectual with a signature waspish disdain for modern sports media. His typically Italian route to Serie A management via short spells with Pro Patria’s Under 20s followed by a relatively successful eighteen months managing Serie C’s Ancona is as keeping with tradition as his sartorial savvy and penchant for nicotine.
Scutari’s footballing thesis (remember Andrea Pirlo’s was published for us all to read?) contained multiple references to historic philosophers (wonder where he got that idea?), a whole section on “situational pressing in the half-spaces” and what read as effectively a love-letter to dominant penalty box strikers. When interrogating the detail, details of playmakers performing Bochini’s La Pausa while ensuring that a “number 5” or “destroyer” is always physically dominating the midfield make it clear that the Brindisi-born manager has an overtly South American flavour to his tactical preferences.
A relatively young and untested yet academically qualified head coach taking the helm of a club who are perched on the edge of disastrous sporting adversity? What could go wrong?
The title of this series, Magari, is a complicated Italian word. It means “let’s hope” or “I wish” but also expresses an inherent element of doubt, with an alternative meaning of a solemn “maybe.”
For this series, that is perfetto.
As Enzo Scutari gets his feet under the desk, I review the initial squad and take stock of the good, the bad and the out on loan.
The Good
Sampdoria have excellent strength on both flanks, with a strong pair of fullbacks and great options in the wide attacking positions. Bartosz Bereszyński is a top-notch right-back, and his teammate at left-back, Tommaso Augello certainly isn’t bad either.
Further up the pitch, Manolo Gabbiadini is still a top class attacker, though he must be Benjamin Button as I can’t believe he’s still only 30. At the other side is a player I’m really excited about. Huddersfield Town flop-turned excellent attacking midfielder Abdelhamid Sabiri is a top, top talent.
As a retrained number 10, the absolutely iconic Fabio Quagliarella will hopefully carve open defences for at least another year as he quickly approaches his 40th birthday. Comparatively youthful 34-year old Francesco Caputo will initially lead the line.
Throw in the evergreen Venezuelan midfield destroyer Tomás Rincón, solid FM favourite goalkeeper Emil Audero, ex-Inter Milan regular centre-back Jason Derulo Jeison Murillo and the divisive Englishman Harry Winks (who I actually think is very suited to the Italian game) and we have the core of a good side here.
We have ‘superb’ training facilities and around £7million in the bank. I’ll take it.
The Bad
First off, we don’t have any homegrown talents registered in our current squad. We do have one homegrown player in the first team, Barcelona-born 19 year old Gerard Yepes, but that’s all. Under 21s don’t need to be registered for Serie A, which is why he isn’t counting towards the first category below.
This means I’ll either need to go to market and bring back players who were homegrown at Sampdoria (Pedro Obiang?), or bring through some quality youth prospects who can grow into the team.
Ok. So that’s not looking immediately likely without significant investment in our facilities.
A quick glance at the Experience Matrix shows that our overall squad age is leaning quite heavily on the ‘experienced’ side and less in the ‘development’ column. The aforementioned Gerard Yepes looks a great prospect but that’s about it. I had a quick scan of the U20s and U18s, and despite 78 permanent youth players being employed by the club (yes, really), there are no standout candidates for future first team football at the moment.
Apart from perhaps a young Norwegian in the next screenshot…
The out on loan
We have 30 players out on loan at other clubs at the moment. It’s the Italian way. There are only three players in that bunch who I’d prefer to be available for selection immediately. The first one you might just have heard of…
Save goals
What’s next?
While Enzo Scutari settles in, I’ll need to help him out by analysing our staff situation. Especially lining up the highest quality Director of Football we can get our hands on, if he is better than who we have right now. We will be readily using the DoF’s skills and experience when recruiting players.
The first transfer window is kept closed (as always), so I’ll play through pre-season and settle on a tactical strategy based on Scutari’s thesis that I can run through in detail on the next post, and get started with competitive fixtures.
I am hoping to complete between five and seven seasons in this Sampdoria save, but with any luck the appetite will be there to keep it going for even longer.
In an interesting twist, fellow Football Manager A FM Old Timer is managing our bitter rivals Genoa in his blogged FM23 save. At the end of each season for us both, we will be exporting our sides for one-off online versus matches to see which Genoese side comes out on top. I’m looking forward to it.
The next blog post in the series will be at around the halfway point of the first season, after the January window. Each post after that will cover roughly a season each.
Forza Sampdoria. Forza Scutari!
Thanks for reading.
FM Stag