'70 per cent chance' Mihajlovic will stay - Ferrero

Sinisa Mihajlovic's future is up in the air but Sampdoria president Massimo Ferrero has not given up hope of retaining the Serb's services.

Mihajlovic has been strongly linked to Serie A rivals Napoli, with Rafael Benitez reportedly set to depart Naples at the end of the season.

Sampdoria have previously denied Mihajlovic will leave Genoa and Ferrero moved to clarify the Serbian's future once again in an interview with Radio Crc.

"Mihajlovic is fantastic, there are no others like him," Ferrero said.

"He has a one-year contract with Sampdoria and there is a 70 per cent chance that he'll stay where he is."

Ferrero's comments come after Sampdoria's UEFA Europa League hopes were dealt a blow over the weekend, when they were beaten 1-0 by high-flying Lazio.

Usually the top five positions guarantee European football but with champions Juventus and Lazio set to contest the Coppa Italia final, the Europa League spot is passed down one position, meaning Sampdoria were in the box seat to compete in UEFA's second-tier tournament next season.

But Saturday's defeat saw Sampdoria drop to seventh in the standings, two points adrift of sixth-placed Genoa.

"The icing on cake would have been to beat Lazio and we weren't able to because of refereeing mistakes, but I'm not angry about it," Ferrero added.

"Apparently some people think that, being in distant Liguria, we can't get to the top of international football.

"I don't believe in deceit, but in the game against Lazio the referee didn't see many things like a push on [Lorenzo] De Silvestri.

"It was all very obvious. I would like nice clean football that is calm and entertaining. Maybe to solve these problems we should introduce slow-motion replays."