Sampdoria live to fight another day in Serie B after doing enough to seal a 4-0 aggregate win over Salernitana in a relegation play-out which was abandoned 25 minutes before full-time.

Survival completes the most remarkable turnaround for a team who were dead and buried a month ago after relegation to the third tier.

But a month is a long time in football… and an eternity in the Italian second division, as one of the most controversial seasons in history came to a predictably chaotic end – 10 months after it began and almost five weeks after its scheduled finish date.

Even this final night took longer than it should have as home supporters, watching their side slip to a second successive relegation, threw flares and ripped-out seats onto the pitch, causing a 30-minute hold-up midway through the second half. Then just when it looked like the action would restart and be played to a finish, the game was stopped early.

Massimo Coda and Giuseppe Sibilli had already done the damage for the visitors though, scoring either side of the break. And the result, of course, is all that matters for the Blucerchiati, who have made the most of their reprieve. 

And yet, despite their survival, this should not be cause for celebration for Sampdoria.

On May 13, a goalless draw with Juve Stabia on the final day of the season had condemned them to Serie C for the first time in their 79-year history.

Salernitana, meanwhile, would face Frosinone in the relegation play-off, with Brescia safe in 15th place.

Winners of the Scudetto 34 years ago and runners-up to Barcelona in the European Cup final the following campaign, Sampdoria faced being marooned in the third tier.

It was a seismic shock for calcio and a source of celebrations for Genoa fans, who gleefully waved their arch-rivals down to Serie C.

But the courts, as is often their wont in Italian football, soon intervened. Brescia were deducted points over financial irregularities and were relegated instead, with Frosinone now safe and Sampdoria handed an unexpected lifeline.

The Rondinelle vowed to fight on, but by the time their appeal was heard, they had effectively been consigned to history after owner Massimo Cellino failed to meet the deadline for a €3million payment required to renew the club’s licence ahead of next season.

Brescia’s plight put the season on hold. 

While the promotion play-offs came and went, teams at the bottom of the Serie B pyramid waited to be told when they would play, who they would play and if they would play at all. And then, once the relegation play-out finally got going, there was another delay due to an outbreak of food poisoning among Salernitana players and staff.

But it all ended on Sunday night at the same ground where Sampdoria’s problems first began back in August.

It was in the bowels of the Arechi that Andrea Pirlo was fired just three matches into the season. Described as “a key part of the project” by owner Matteo Manfredi, the former AC Milan and Juventus midfielder had taken the Blucerchiati to the play-offs only two months earlier. Clearly, he was not key enough.

Manfredi’s own role in his club’s sorry demise cannot be overstated. The London-based financier took over along with former Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani – who has since divested his shares – in 2023 as Samp stared down the barrel of bankruptcy.

Manfredi’s Gestio Capital company and their investors control 99.96% of the club and invested £45m last season in a bid to bring it back to Serie A at the first time of asking.

A further £5m went on transfers in the summer, the third-highest amount spent by a Serie B team behind Pisa and Sassuolo, who both clinched promotion.

The arrivals included two of the division’s best strikers in Massimo Coda and Gennaro Tutino, along with Barcelona starlet Estanis Pedrola.

A battery of loan signings, meanwhile, were meant to add experience and depth to Pirlo’s squad. But it all spectacularly backfired.

Coda claimed eight goals in 32 appearances and became the division’s joint all-time top scorer, equalling Stefan Schwoch’s record, but Tutino managed just five before an ankle injury in January curtailed his season.

Pedrola, meanwhile, made just nine appearances before being loaned out to Bologna in January, when Sampdoria embarked on another squad overhaul.

In came former AC Milan striker M’Baye Niang on a free, while Giuseppe Sibilli, Pietro Beruatto, Remi Oudin, Giorgio Altare, Marco Curto and Alessio Cragno all joined on loan.

Niang hit the ground running with three goals in his first eight starts, but his last goal came on March 16.

It was Andrea Sottil who replaced Pirlo and oversaw a win against Genoa in the Derby della Lanterna in the Coppa Italia, the high watermark in an otherwise historically disastrous season.

Sottil was jettisoned after just four wins in 14 games and replaced by Leonardo Semplici, whose tenure was bookended by fixtures against Spezia.

The draw at Marassi in December suggested Sampdoria may have found the kind of defensive solidity that remained frustratingly elusive throughout Semplici’s tenure.

The defeat at the Armando Picco in April, meanwhile, left them teetering on the brink and signalled the end for the Tuscan, who left with just two wins in 16.

With Sampdoria drifting towards the abyss, Manfredi cranked up the nostalgia machine in one last, desperate roll of the dice.

In came Alberico Evani along with fellow club legend Attilio Lombardo, a rescue double-act whose success always seemed to be predicated on a shift in approach, rather than a tactical revolution. 

Sampdoria beat relegation rivals Cittadella in Evani’s first game in charge at a raucous Marassi and then overcame Salernitana to give themselves a chance of staying up.

But it was a chance they failed to seize, their stalemate at Juve Stabia condemning them to relegation to Serie C. Or so it seemed, at least.

And so, what next for Sampdoria? 

It is hard to reconcile the club that was once of Roberto Mancini and the late Sven-Goran Eriksson with the current iteration. Bar the iconic kit, there are no discernible similarities. 

A major squad overhaul is needed and a degree of introspection too, as a return to Serie A may be long overdue, but it is certainly not guaranteed. 

“To win on Sunday, a football club must invest,” Manfredi told Sky Italia in May. “This is our duty and we owe it to our fans: we must continue to invest and make more courageous, more serious and more concrete choices.”

Up until August, Sampdoria had spent just five seasons in Serie B in over four decades.Their sixth in calcio’s second tier may be the sweetest and most important of them all.