Although Roberto De Zerbi is pleased at Brighton, Paul Barber, the club’s chief executive, acknowledged that the player is appealing to other teams and might want to leave at some point.
Building on his reputation from his time at Sassuolo and Shakhtar Donetsk, De Zerbi has become one of Europe’s most intriguing head coaches since taking over for Graham Potter eighteen months ago, following the Englishman’s move to Chelsea.
It is a credit to his success at Brighton that he is still being connected to head coaching positions at teams that are known to be changing before the next season, like Liverpool, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich.
Given that De Zerbi graduated from the Rossoneri youth academy in the 1990s, journalists such as Alessandro Jacobone have reported that Milan is interested in De Zerbi and is secretly trying to hire him.
The Italian has frequently expressed his wish to visit his native country at some point and his affinity for Milan, the team he supports in addition to Brescia, his hometown team.
Barber conducted a lengthy interview with The Athletic in which he discussed Brighton’s goals for the future, their journey thus far, and the rumours involving De Zerbi.
Barber states, “We don’t want to lose him because he is an amazing coach—possibly among the finest in the world already—and that will make him appealing.
It seems to me that Roberto genuinely loves Brighton—the club, the people, the facilities, and the idea that the work he does benefits both of us.
That implies that, as we all know, he may decide to take his skill set somewhere at some point in the future.
“In my professional life, this is the most odd encounter I’ve had. In order to give their coach some leeway, the chairman or chief executive will frequently make public remarks. They will set acceptable expectations and hope that they are exceeded.
As opposed to that, Roberto is. “Why are you talking about the top 10? Why don’t you talk about the top six?” he asks me. For the first time in my club career, the head coach practically begs me to raise the bar in public. He thinks it will motivate the staff, the players, and all of us to do even better.
“Roberto is performing admirably. We’ve reached a whole new level thanks to the progression from the excellent work that Graham did, which was built upon the excellent work that Chris did.
More danger, both on and off the pitch, follows from it. We play a very open, attacking style on the pitch, and sometimes that will go unnoticed.
“We run a different risk because Roberto becomes quite desirable off the pitch because of his high-profile and beautiful actions, but we are aware of that.
“Ironically, the more successful we are, the more well-known our players are both on and off the pitch, and the more susceptible we are to losing them.
However, we are not stupid—we are aware of that. Though we are aware of it, we are sure that we can retain personnel. Both the contracts and the security measures to protect them are sound.
“In the event that someone is poached, it takes time and sometimes money to recover them, so we always look to our contingency plan.”
