In football ‘mutual consent’ covers a multitude of sins, but when you strip it all down, the overriding question from many of the Albion faithful will be “Was he effectively sacked?”
Whether he jumped or was pushed it certainly came out of left-field on the eve of the final home game, especially in light of the recent BBC Radio Sussex fans’ forum, where it appeared to the fans present and the thousands listening at home that RDZ was staying for the foreseeable future.
So what changed in little under a fortnight? Or was the forum nothing more than an elaborate smokescreen?
The phrase “He who pays the piper calls the tune” immediately springs to mind, as a I alluded to earlier in the week in a column on this website, De Zerbi, probably with the exception of the late Brian Clough, is probably the most outspoken manager in the 123-history of Brighton and Hove Albion FC.
In my opinion, the bottom line is that, over the last couple of months, probably going back to around the time RDZ’s tactical naivety was cruelly exposed in the Olympic Stadium in Rome, things have been said in public by the manager that clearly can’t be unsaid.
Bloom has a clear vision for the football club, with a clear timeline within that vision, and if you listen again or read the transcript of RDZ’s interview on 31st March, you could argue he effectively sacked himself that day.
So the King is dead, long live the King.
But who’s it going to be? Whilst the bookies are very rarely wrong, I believe the time is not right for current favourite, Kieran McKenna, to leave his post at Ipswich Town – whiet he will be flattered by the Albion’s interest, loyalty is a huge part of his footballing DNA and he feels his job is not finished in Suffolk yet, and this is not idle speculation, this theory was put to me on Sunday in the 1901 Club by a source extremely close to McKenna himself.
If not McKenna then who – well, according to online speculation former Nice manager, Francesco Farioli was sighted in Brighton on Monday, although I think he was seen drinking with Lord Lucan, to be fair.
Personally, though it may prove to be hugely controversial, I wonder if Russell Martin, regardless of the result of this Sunday’s play off-final, could yet make a trip down the A27 from St Mary’s to the Amex.
Whoever it is, rest assured, Bloom and his team will have meticulously identified their man down to the smallest detail, as this is the most important managerial appointment in the club’s history.
