Can Pirlo's Sampdoria 'return from hell'?

Sampdoria fans protested against their previous owners last season as they went to the brink of bankruptcy.

A little more than 30 years ago, Sampdoria were among Europe's elite.

Now, life is very different for I Blucerchiati as, after relegation to Italy's second tier last season and with Italy legend Andrea Pirlo as their manager, they are closer to a second consecutive drop than a return to the big time.

After a decade of mismanagement took the club to the verge of bankruptcy, can new owners Andrea Radrizzani - formerly of Leeds United - and Matteo Manfredi achieve their mission of "bringing Sampdoria back to the glory and joy of the 90s"?

'From hell we shall return', read a banner at their final Serie A home game last May. But this has been a turbulent few years, during which a severed pig's head and bullet cases have been sent to previous owners.

A club sold for one euro

The 2022-23 season was one to forget for Sampdoria. The death of club great Vialli aged 58 was followed by relegation after 11 years in the top flight.

They were even on the brink of bankruptcy last summer, which would have meant disappearing to the fourth tier. They were days from dropping out of professional football. So where did the problems begin?

The answer to that begins with a short history lesson.

The so-called Sampd'Oro, the 'golden team', which also won four Coppa Italias and one Italian Supercup in the 1980s and the 90s, belonged to the Mantovanis, a family of oil tycoons, until 2000.

Two years later, Genoese oil tycoon Riccardo Garrone, a member of one of Italy's richest families, bought the club. After his death in January 2013, it was passed on to his son Edoardo.

Sampdoria's decline started on 12 June 2014 as Edoardo, for the symbolic rate of one euro, handed it over to film producer Massimo Ferrero, also giving the new owner 65m euros to ensure business continuity.

Questions remain why one of the country's wealthiest families decided to give the club away, while paying on top of it, to a businessman with no experience in football and with no personal assets.

At that time, Ferrero appeared to be Garrone's marionette, designated to run the club for a limited period of time. Devoid of any personal wealth, Ferrero's business plan was based on transfer market profits only.

The club were kept alive by player sales - Lucas Torreira went to Arsenal for almost 30m euros, a profit of around 27m, Patrik Schick made a 42m euro move to Roma and Milan Skriniar was sold for 34m euros to Inter Milan.

The model broke in 2019, as a group of international investors guided by Vialli - and who had offered about 85-90m euros to complete a takeover - failed to acquire the club.

Freefall towards bankruptcy

The pandemic was the final blow: no transfer market, no profits, no chance to run the club. The rest is history, culminating in Ferrero's arrest on 6 December 2021 for the crime of fraudulent bankruptcy involving activities unrelated to football. In the meantime, he assigned his shares to a family trust, maintaining de facto ownership of the club.

Over the following 18 months, there were a series of threats against Ferrero, released from prison but banned from taking up any football role.

Fans held sit-in protests in the streets, matches were delayed as the club's ultras threw flares on to the pitch, envelopes containing bullet cases were sent to Ferrero and Garrone and a severed pig's head was delivered at Sampdoria's headquarters.

"Garrone put him there, and he had to get rid of him," said lifelong fan Silvio Regis, a season-ticket holder since 1985. "We accepted relegation last summer, but we would never have accepted bankruptcy: Ferrero and Garrone would have been equally responsible for it."

A last-minute call to save the club

At the very end of May, with the club a few days from disappearing out of professional football, they were saved by Radrizzani, the former Leeds United owner, and Manfredi, founder and chief executive of the Gestio Capital asset management fund.

The two convinced Ferrero to give up the club and invested the money to pay all outstanding bills, opening the door to new investors at the same time.

Radrizzani and Manfredi appointed Pirlo as manager and dreamed of restoring the club to former glories. Then reality bit.

The club needed a new squad following relegation. They needed new executive and technical staff too. And they had been handed a two-point penalty for financial rule breaches committed on Ferrero's watch.

More than half of Sampdoria's squad is made of youngsters born this century, alongside more experienced players such as Fabio Borini, a Pirlo favourite who played for the Italy great at Karagumruk in Turkey.

"To me, playing for him and for Sampdoria mattered more than the league I would be playing in," the former Chelsea, Swansea City, Liverpool and Sunderland striker told BBC Sport.

After a difficult start, with four consecutive home defeats, form has improved since October with Borini's goals bringing two important home wins against Cosenza and Palermo, moving them a point away from the drop zone.

"Structures are in place and the group is growing, we are gelling more and more every day and we believe in ourselves," Borini added. "It's true we didn't kick off too well, but the season is still long and we have plenty of time to fight for promotion."

And Sampdoria need those good results, not just for their league position, but to attract further investment.

"Sampdoria has always been a member of my family; all fans showed affection to the players and manager, we knew they have been struggling too," Silvio added.

The fans' support has been constant. Four thousand travelled to Modena on Saturday to see their side secure all three points at the Stadio Braglia.

They now sit six points outside a play-off spot. There may be hope, but to secure a quick top-flight return, Sampdoria need more than that.