Sampdoria Crisis Deepens: Lombardo's Future Uncertain as Board Meets
Day by day, the situation at Sampdoria is becoming increasingly murky. The sense of uncertainty, which has been evident for years regarding the club's leadership, has once again reached a peak in the turbulent hours following the Carrara match.
Following Foti's dismissal, the Sampdoria board decided to opt for an internal solution, handing the reins to Lombardo and specifying in the statement that the role of manager would be filled 'pending the appointment of a permanent solution'.
Since then, no further news has been released. 'Popeye' led the team against Venezia, and also in the disaster at Carrara, a match that left a psychological toll and set off the usual turmoil at club level.
In fact, in the last few hours, there have reportedly been contacts and discussions between the various factions within the club (Tey via his representatives, Manfredi, Fredberg and Walker), and depending on who wins the umpteenth power struggle within a team languishing at the bottom of the Serie B table, one path or another will be chosen.
Lombardo's Job on the Line
It would appear that Lombardo's position as manager is already under threat. The match against Avellino will be decisive, although it is worth remembering that Lombardo was appointed on an 'interim' basis and remains tied to the club by a three-year contract in a different role.
This farce also involves another former Sampdoria player, Aimo Diana. The former Union Brescia manager has been in Genoa since Wednesday; the plan was to pair him with Lombardo as assistant manager, to fill a vacancy left by Foti's dismissal and temporarily filled by Pozzi.
Diana, incidentally, has just terminated his contract with Union Brescia and was due to be in Bogliasco today. However, given the assessments made regarding Lombardo, his position is reportedly already precarious even before he officially joins the club. For this reason, Sampdoria have reportedly put the move on hold for the time being.
Board Meeting Today
There will be a board meeting today – held remotely, of course – which will attempt to bring all the various factions within Sampdoria into line, not least because, as is well known, precious time has often been wasted in the back-and-forth between all the key figures at the club.
A potential disaster against Avellino would necessitate yet another mid-season change, but at that point they could not afford to dither again without having a solution ready, as indeed seems to have become standard practice for Sampdoria.
The names doing the rounds are the same ones that emerged after Foti's sacking: the evergreen Iachini, D'Angelo (who, however, has a year left on his contract with Spezia), and Pagliuca, formerly of Empoli. However, attention should also be paid to the positions of Pavan and Gastaldello; their names had emerged as possible assistants, but the latter in particular could come back into the picture should the decision be made to replace Lombardo.
Il Secolo XIX also mentions Lars Friis, a Dane who had already been linked with the role following Donati's departure, but the fans' hope is that the experiments, given the precarious league position and the confusion at every level, are now over.
