Season 17 was Sir Stephen Beddows’ 6th season in the Italian Port city of Genoa – being neighbors and living in the shadow of the great Frank Hirst has always been a challenge but recently it has been the successes of Sampdoria that have trumped their more illustrious neighbour with back to back play off successes seeing them jump from Division 5 to Division 3.

Mister Malcolm predicted we’d finish 10th in reality our form was patchy – at times flirting with relegation at others on good runs and in a tight division the play offs were a possibility – the end result 15th and in truth a comfortable 15th.

Sampdoria player ratings and end of season player awards

Pepe (CB) 9/10 – despite his age he has proven once again to be a fantastic leader (along with Balotelli) Can we get at least 1 more SM season from him?

Audero (GK) 6/10 – a replacement for Ramsdale – a deal we might regret and let in a few too many for our liking. Needs to improve.

Shelvey (CM) 8/10 – after 4 complete seasons at Samp and 2 promotions Voldermort finally moves on to pastures new – the rise of Thuram has finally made this possible. All the best Jonjoe!

Maehle (RB) 9/10 – still holding on to him – well thats the plan presently. In real life appears to have stalled but linked with moves elsewhere which might increase his value. We perservered with playing him LB but when switching him to his best SM position of RB results have picked up all around

Webster (CB) 8/10 – Hoping he goes 88 in coming weeks – which will be massive for us into Season 18. Formed a good partnership with Pepe and will continue to do so into next season.

Going forward to season 18 we have made 4 internal deals already today! Total Madness from me! Aim to lower the age and see them rise!