In 2000, he led Napoli to a Serie A promotion, and repeated the feat the following season with Piacenza. In 2002, he joined Sampdoria, immediately leading the team to a Serie A promotion, the fourth time he'd helped a team achieve this goal. In his first Serie A season with Sampdoria, they achieved a 5th place and a UEFA Cup qualification, but lost the battle with Udinese for the last UEFA Champions League place. He left Sampdoria in 2007 to join Torino, where he was fired on 16 April 2008 following disappointing results that left the team in the relegation zone; he was replaced by Gianni De Biasi who ultimately managed to save the "granata" from relegation.