Programming note: As many of you are aware, Friday’s hoddled polled who you’d like to be the next hoddle hero. Your next hoddle hero will be revealed on Wednesday.
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Sampdoria are staying up - and in dramatic fashion!
We have been on the Sampdoria beat for a whole three weeks. For those of you paying attention, it’s been incredible interesting.
First, Sampdoria suffered relegation to Serie C (pretty much a black hole) for the first time in their history. Then they got bumped up to the relegation playoffs because of financial irregularities at Brescia.
Sampdoria won the first leg of the Serie B relegation playoffs against Salernitana 2-0. Salernitana then requested the reverse fixture be delayed due to food poisoning.
Well, that reverse leg happened on Sunday, and it seemed dramatic.
Sampdoria were up 2-0 before the fixture was suspended because of fan disorder.
According to the BBC, fans in Salerno threw firecrackers, flares and chairs onto the pitch after Sampdoria took a 4-0 aggregate lead with about 25 minutes still to be played. Riot police attempted to restore order as players were moved to the dressing room, but the match was ultimately abandoned after fans continued to hurl objects on the pitch.
So there you have it. The club that Harry Winks was once loaned to avoided abject humiliation - for now.
Fitzie’s track of the day: Tokyo Rush, by Haruomi Hosono
And now for your links:
The Atheltic ($$): “The Business of Football: Why Tottenham have not been bought, and how much are Wrexham worth?”