Giampaolo’s first session back at Samp. Next one on Thursday afternoon

Marco Giampaolo visited the training ground in Bogliasco on Wednesday – his first day back in the job.

With Sunday’s crunch match against Spezia fast approaching, the coach was keen to get the ball rolling. He greeted old friends and posed for the ritual photos, before speaking to the club’s official media team and popping into the dressing room and his office.

After a long meeting in the video room with the team, coaching staff and management – president Marco Lanna, lawyer Antonio Romei, directors Carlo Osti and Daniele Faggiano – the players who played most of the Coppa Italia did recovery work in the gym while the others, including Albin Ekdal and Valerio Verre, spent an hour doing technical and tactical work on the pitch.

Emil Audero trained separately while Fabio Quagliarella had physiotherapy. Mikkel Damsgaard and Maya Yoshida continued with their recovery programmes.

The team’s next training session will be on Thursday afternoon.