Big Sam Allardyce enjoyed a much stronger Season 2 of his Bottom At Christmas challenge, leading Cádiz CF safely away from the LaLiga dropzone. But he swiftly stood down and holidayed ahead ready for a new challenge in Season 3.
Looking back at his former clubs, Nottingham Forest gained promotion at the first tome of asking and are currently 12th. While Cádiz sit 14th in LaLiga, 6 points clear of safety. The new options available to Big Sam in his 3rd season were:
- Premier League: West Ham, 9 points, 4 points from safety
- LaLiga: Almería, 8 points, 6 points from safety
- Serie A: Sampdoria, 8 points, 5 points from safety
- Bundesliga: Werder Bremen, 8 points, 6 points from safety
- Eredivisie: Heracles Almelo, 12 points, 6 points from safety
- Ligue 1: Grenoble, 5 points, 14 points from safety
- Liga Portugal: Académico de Viseu, 10 points, 3 points from safety
- cinch Premiership: Partick Thistle, 8 points, 8 points from safety
There was one option that Big Sam absolutely did not fancy, which was a near-impossible task at Grenoble. Instead, he decided to complete the world’s top three ranked leagues by heading to Italy.
Bottom At Christmas Season 3
Sampdoria have 8 points from 17 games, only winning 2, drawing 2 and losing 13, including their last 6. And it was pretty obvious why. Big Sam had inherited a terrible squad, of which the best player was centre back Matteo Baldi along with right back Fabio Depaoli, midfielders Nicolas Bajlicz, Liam Henderson and Gerard Yepes, and centre back Davide Veroli. The obvious omission was a total lack of attacking talent, bar goalshy Federico Bonazolli and 17-year-old academy product Antonio Zanon.
Worryingly, there was no money to strengthen, but they lost Bajlicz to Marseille for his £5.25m minimum fee release. That gave Big Sam some wiggle room, and he turned to loans to replace Bajlicz with Leicester’s Bilal El Khannouss, PSG’s Cher Ndour and Arsenal’s Oscar Zambrano and added defensive depth with Union Berlin’s Leopold Querfeld and goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu.
December to February 2026: Facing Italy’s Big Boys
There was no chance of easing into the role as Samp faced Milan, local rivals Genoa, Juve, Napoli, Inter and Atalanta in Big Sam’s first 7 games! They started 3 days after Big Sam’s appointment at home to Milan, who had his former loanee Calafiori, and a cautious approach didn’t really work in a 3-0 defeat to goals by Gyokeres, Xavi Simons and Leao. The upcoming games piled the pressure on Samp’s trip to Genoa, and they started well as Depaoli’s cross was turned home by Bonazzoli but immediately conceded from a corner. The same duo combined in an action replay of the opener just before halftime and two far-post corners had Samp in dreamland after it… but they weren’t done there as Bonazzoli completed his hat trick and quadrupled his tally for the season!
The tough run began with a 4-0 loss at Juve before nicking a 1-1 late on at 8th-place Monza, slightly unluckily losing 2-0 and 2-1 at home to Napoli and Inter, and getting dominated in a 2-0 defeat at Atalanta. That left Samp 9 points from safety with 14 games remaining having lost 11 of their last 13 matches since early November. So they really needed to pick up points from a run of 5 easier fixtures.
February to March 2026: Must-Win Matches
That began with a must-win game at home to Spezia, which started well as Depaoli crossed for Bonazzoli to head home at the near post. Left back Iouannou somehow got outpaced by Kieffer Moore to cross for an equaliser, but made amends as his low cross was turned home by substitute Ndour. And Samp held on for a narrow victory that lifted them off the bottom of the table for the first time since October.
That teed up several huge games against teams in the bottom 3. First up was 18th-place Cagliari, who can’t be very good as they had Danny Ings starting. Samp somehow conceded their first 2 shots but fought back to earn a draw through Bonazzoli’s penalty and Zanon’s first senior goal. Next up, they were at home to bottom side Modena, who obviously scored their first shot. But Samp responded as Depaoli teed up midfielder Edouard Michut turned home from close range then Bonazzoli with a high, looping cross. The striker should have killed it off late on but they held on for another 2-1 victory.
Another must-win game followed at 17th-place Verona, who’d gone 6 games without a win. But Samp lost Depaoli to injury and his stand-in Levin Oztunali handed the hosts the opener just before halftime. They didn’t look like getting back into it until midfielder Oier Zarraga spotted the keeper out of position and hit a speculative 30-yarder into the bottom corner. Big Sam pushed for a winner and they had two great efforts well-saved in injury time but had to settle for a point, which probably wasn’t enough.
That kept Samp 4 points from safety going into the final 10 games, which they reduced to just 1 as Bonazzoli and Verolo snuck another 2-1 win at home to Lecce. And they clambered out of the dropzone for the first time all season as Bonazzoli and Henderson’s first-half goals earned a surprise but fully deserved 2-0 win at Roma. However, they found themselves back in the dropzone as two late Cancellieri goals saw them lose 2-1 at home to Udinese.
April to May 2026: A Challenging Run-In
Sampdoria’s final 7 fixtures didn’t fill Big Sam with hope at their prospects of survival. However, Bazunu inspired them to 2 massive results, making 8 saves before Henderson’s cheeky chip nicked a 1-1 at Bologna and then 9 saves to keep Fiorentina out before Zanon crashed a late header in off the post. That lifted Samp all the way up to 16th above rivals Genoa and 3 points ahead of Verona in 18th. However, any one of 8 teams could still technically be relegated, with Modena pretty much doomed. Samp had easily the toughest run-in… but faced a potentially seismic final-day decider.
Castellano’s 3-minute double saw a 2-0 defeat at Lazio before losing 2-0 at home to Sassuolo, who obviously scored both their shots on target. That dropped Samp back down to 17th, level on points with Genoa in 18th with 3 games to go.
Game 1 – Torino (11th, home): Genoa managed to pull off a 2-1 win at Fiorentina the day before Samp entertained Torino. The visitors came out flying before winig a very dubious penalty, but Bazunu stepped up again to push it wide. Samp just about edged the 2nd half but got hit on the counter and Bazunu’s dreadful clearance swiftly gifted a 2nd. And that defeat probably sealed their fate.
Game 2 – AC Milan (3rd, away): A massive test took Samp to San Siro and they got dominated 3-0 the day before Genoa losr 2-1 at home to Lazio. Which took the relegation fight to an epic final-day decider.
Game 3 – Genoa (17th, home): Sampdoria sat 3 points behind Genoa and hosted their city rivals on the final day! Samp had the better record courtesy of their 5-1 victory, so a win would keep them up at Genoa’s expense.
Samp started brightly and Ndour went close with a 25-yard effort, before Jannik Vestergaard crashed a free kick against the woodwork for the visitors. Genoa didn’t have a shot on target before the break… but of course, scored their first on 51 minutes and their second from a corner. Samp offered absolutely nothing and went down to a pathetic 2-0 defeat.
Sampdoria were relegated from Serie A. And Big Sam was immediately sacked!
Sampdoria finished in 18th place with 30 points after 8 wins, 6 draws and 24 defeats, scoring 35 and conceding 66. But Big Sam felt a little hard done by, considering they took 22 points from his 21 games in charge.
That meant Big Sam now had 2 relegations in 3 seasons of his Bottom At Christmas adventure. But where would he end up in Season 4? Join us on Monday to find out, as we run a week of Christmas specials!
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