Giampaolo sacked as Sampdoria manager

The Italian was named Sampdoria manager for the second time in January and led the team for 25 games. He also was in charge of the team from 2016 to 2019.

FILE PHOTO: Marco Giampaolo has been sacked as the manager of Serie A club Sampdoria.

Sampdoria has sacked manager Marco Giampaolo after a poor start to the season, the Serie A club announced on Sunday.

The Genoa club is bottom of the table after eight rounds, with two points after six defeats and two draws. Giampaolo was sacked after Sunday’s 3-0 loss at home against Monza.

In a statement, Sampdoria said that Giampaolo had been “relieved of his duties as first team coach”, after a run of four straight defeats

The Italian was named Sampdoria manager for the second time in January and led the team for 25 games. He also was in charge of the team from 2016 to 2019. He earlier had brief stints as manager of Torino and AC Milan.

The club’s vice-president Antonio Romei had already confirmed that Giampaolo was to be fired and that it was working on finding a successor.

Giampaolo’s predecessor Roberto D’Aversa is one of the candidates in line to take over again, as is veteran Claudio Ranieri.

Sampdoria next travels to Bologna on Saturday.

(with inputs from AFP)