The rather terrifying reality of not replacing a top class striker....

Sampdoria.

Famous club from Genoa, passionate history, and a bit up and down in recent history, but the fans are there in numbers every week (sound familiar??)

Anyway, last season Sampdoria where on the crest of a wave, a team with 2 flair wingers in Danielle Mannini and Stefano Guberti providing great service to a wonderfully mobile strike force of Antonio Cassano and Gianpaulo Pazzini, the man who scored a hat-trick in the first ever competitive game at Wembley vs England u21's.

Sampdoria suprised everyone by grabbing 4th place and a coveted spot in the Champions League, scoring a barrel load of goals in the process (they blew it though, beaten by Werder Bremen on aggregate after throwing away a lead in the 94th minute of the qualifying round)

Then the issues begin, issues which make me as a Sunderland fan have a bit of a cold sweat.

Antonio Cassano took offense at being forced to attend a club function, and had a falling out with the club president.

The £20million rated striker was never to play for Sampdoria again, and was snapped up by a delighted AC Milan on a free transfer in January.

Pazzini was sold to Inter as part of a deal to bring in Jonathon Biabiany, a suprise move and one that failed miserably, Pazzini cracked 9 in 16 for Inter,Biabiany is yet to notch for Samp.

Yesterday i watched as Sampdoria huffed, puffed, created a string of fine chances, but ultimately succumbed to a Palermo side who although they had to withstand a lot of pressure, oozed class through Pastore and the incredible talent that is Abel Hernandez (yes please Brucey...).

The front 2 of Pozzi and Biabiany looked cumbersome, although Pozzi had 2 goals ruled out, both correctly, for offside, that apart the pair never looked like scoring.

Sampdoria's passionate fans sang their hearts out and waved banners, but the late winner from Pinilla sent Sampdoria down and into Serie B, a truly stunning fall from grace for a team many tipped to be Champions League material again, a squad with an absolute deluge of talented, skilful and ball playing lads.

For Pazzini, read Kenwyne Jones.

For Cassano, read Darren Bent (can not be replaced by a club of Samps standard by a player of equal class, realistically)

I sat and watched and though **** me that could be us next year.

We have a strong squad with only 1 striker.

Samp had an exceptional squad with 1 striker,

Now, where's me valium???

 

just glad it's not us this year, as it looked dodgy for a time,

that story was scary, what's the biggest fall in england?

 

Couldn't think of an English equivalent with any real weight to be honest mate.

The scariest tyhing if you try and find an English scenario is it is ourselves and a certain Mr Niall Quinn.

Once Quinn was gone, Phillips was less potent and our challenge for Europe ended in Reid gone and Championship football.

The Toon never replaced Shearer (credit where it's due, how can you replace a player like that?), they went down.

I watched them Samp fans at the final whistle, they never booed the side they were in full voice, some of the Samp players, Palombo in particlular (a great captain and leader), where in tatters.

Really brought it home how big this window is for us, it's do or ****ing die here.

 

I wish it had of happened sooner to be honest, rather than the slow, high spending decline over 5 years the climaxed with our relagation. Id never have guessed it, but it actually did us the world of good. God knows where we would be if we didnt bounce back first time.

 

Didnt Swansea go from fourth division to first division, then back down to fourth division, in succesive seasons?

 

We could always raid Samp for Guberti, he's a cracking player, skilful as ****.

He'd probs get the **** kicked out of him over here and bottle it though.

He'd fit right in actually....

 

Yes I recall Northampton doing it, and whupping us 5-1 on the way !
- typical of course!

.... and Bradford (city)

 

Jones is a pile of ****e mate. We did well to get 8m for him. Why people rate this hapless ****er is beyond me. He spent more time on his fat lazy arse on Saturday than actually being effective as a forward.

 

For the record Cest, Pazzini is a quite unspectacular player, but he's quick and he can finish.

He never really developed from that hat-trick at Wembley to the player the Italians hoped he'd be, indeed Fiorentina couldn't wait to get shot.

The move to Inter was a suprise, but to be fair, he's done well there.

You get a LOT of chances playing for Inter though.

 

Terrifying story. Whilst I hope Sunderland don't go down, I do think we'll struggle to replace Bent. There just aren't too many Bents to be had. I thought he'd had a comparatively poor season this year - until I looked at the record this morning. Seventeen goals, two behind Tevez and four behind Berbatov - and that's with a change of club and a month out with injury! Replacing a player like that isn't easy for any club, much less one seventh from bottom. Let's see what we can get and hope it comes good.

 

100% correct. He drove me crazy with his lack of effort.

 

great post...i love valium.

 

You got any??

 

I wish. Have some Lorazapam though, but down to only two. Good for flying and , well, just about anything else!

 

Ideal mate.

I'll have to make do with Stella cidre and lamberts...

 

Have one on me!

 

Don't mind if i do mate, been living on the gear for 3 weeks now, haha.

 

I keep thinking I wont say anything more about Bent but after seeing his two beautifully cool goals at Arsenal and equally cool celebrations, it got me all upset again 'cos he should have been scoring for us. I think he will become a successful England regular now that pretenders like Carlton Cole are rightly drifting away and that he is (wrongly) perceived to be playing for a proper club. Good luck to him.

Bent and Jones were two inspired signings by Bruce and Keane and when you have that piece of luck in signing players that other clubs didn't rate, you don't just let them go because they are little unhappy (Bent) or a little inconsistent (Jones). You do everything you can to keep them (as Sgrabia did with Jones's contract). All the players being mentioned on the posts - Doyle, Fletcher, Ba etc - even if we can get them will they be anywhere near as good as Bent and Jones?

The Italian story is fascinating and reminds of Boro - their decline started with selling Viduka and Yakubu at their peak and replacing them with Alves. Now Gyan is far better than Alves but cant operate alone. What we need is that piece of inspired good fortune again from Bruce. Spend 5 to 10 million on a player just under the top clubs radar - a Hernandez-type that Man U dont spot - or one who's appeared to fail (like Bent) but actually is a genuine Premiership striker.

The problem is that with losing so many games who is going to want to join us for what will be a relegation dog fight next term - we are back to where we were four years ago almost. The top ten 5 year vision is not in tatters - we have at least spent 4 successive seasons in EPL lets not forget - but its tarnished lets say.

We need some inspired judgement from SB.