Brighton & Hove Albion have confirmed that head coach Roberto De Zerbi will leave the club after their final game of the season.
De Zerbi arrived a Brighton in September 2022 after Graham Potter left for Chelsea and he has been widely praised for his work with the club, guiding them to a European place last season and reaching the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League this season.
Brighton Chairman Tony Bloom explained on the official website why the decision was taken for De Zerbi to leave the club, revealing that it came after discussions about the future.
“Roberto has given us two excellent seasons of service in which he has led the club to new heights, not least our first ever European campaign which will live long in the memory of Albion fans.
“We have mutually agreed to end Roberto’s contract at a time that suits both parties allowing us the earliest opportunity to plan for next season, and Roberto plenty of time to consider his next move and his future.
“I am sure our fans will give Roberto and his staff a wonderful and fully deserved send off at the Amex before, during and after tomorrow’s match.
“In the meantime, I’d like to thank Roberto and his staff for all their hard work in the past two seasons. They all leave our club on good terms and with our very best wishes for the future.”
De Zerbi gave his thoughts on what will be two years with the Seagulls, expressing his gratitude for the experiences that he has had.
“I am very sad to be leaving Brighton, but I am very proud of what my players and staff have achieved with the support of everyone at the club and our amazing fans in the past two historical seasons.
“We have agreed to end my time at Brighton so that the club and I can continue to work in the way that suits each of us best, following our own ideas and visions, as well as our work and human values.
“I have really enjoyed an intense and challenging two years working in the Premier League, not least competing in four major competitions this season. Leaving now provides me with time to take a break before deciding on my future plans.”
Reports have suggested that the former Sassuolo boss is one of the names that Milan are evaluating as a potential successor to Stefano Pioli, but the previous obstacle was his release clause which will now be gone.
As a player De Zerbi came through the youth academy with the Rossoneri and he has never hidden his attachment to the club, so perhaps we can expect the rumours to reignite again.
Wait what?
Ffs bring him nowwww , I’d rather keep pioli than having Fonseca
PLEASE get this over the line. If Bayern can bet on him despite him conceding goals we can too.
Either Conceicao or him. None of that Fonseca crap.
Yes just announced from Brighton!!! We should use the fact that he’s Milanista born and bred and just get him at all cost. I’m sure if we approach him he will chose us
Brighton failure this season , they want to sack RDZ , it is win win solution for both RDZ & Brighton. Not good choice for ACM due to his weak defense type playstyle , Scudetto are winning by best defense club. But still he is better than fonseca,van bommel or concecau
I only see room to improve. If you wanna bet with a rising coach that’s who you go for not some washed up Fonesca who’s biggest achievement in his 15 years of coaching is title in Ukraine
Please come home
All of a sudden it seems MILAN as kept mute on the next coach simply waiting for the outcome of De Zerbi and Brighton, MILAN certainly would have reached out to De Zerbi and no club wants to pay €13 million to free a coach not Bayern or Manchester united, so i feel De Zerbi would have told his suitors to wait for the outcome of himself and Brighton, now he can chose his next club, his home is MILAN, FORZA De Zerbi.
Could it be that something unexpected is about to happen?
The media as been lying all this while, we have been linked with about 10 choaches in 2 weeks because they have no clue who MILAN management is talking to, so they just start speculating with random names, now all of a sudden De Zerbi is free, MILAN is written all over this, Dr Zerbi suitors would tell him get yourself out of there nobody will pay Brighton €13 million to free you, and MILAN management is certainly good at this.
Well i haven’t took a single name seriously so far. Because it’s just media speculation. Same with player transfers. Just media speculation, nothing solid
The media has been ridiculous as always but Lopertegui was not a fake story. He wad our management’s first choice. So let’s not pretend that all this was planned.
In any case, let’s hope we take advantage of the situation and bring de Zerbi home.
i had no issues with lope..
Hmm… Still not convinced he’d be the one to lead us to the Scudetto #20.
Agreed. I’m worried. I feel like he’s been all attack no defense. Hope I’m wrong.
If I’m choosing between Motta and DeZ, I’m choosing Motta.
Ditto. Motta my 1st choice. Concencaio 2nd. Rest? No idea. None of them are a guarantee.
I feel like on a bigger team his tactics may change some with defense, cause when he was with Sass and Brighton, he really had nothing to lose and had no problem punching up and going all out attack constantly being a smaller team and lesser players. But with a big team like Milan I’m sure he knows he can’t keep that up
Guess we’ll see if he gets appointed.
His numbers with Brighton say otherwise. Believe it or not – based on xStats – Brighton was above average in defence (8th best in EPL) and attack just average (11th).
More impressively, last year, Brighton had the 4th (!) best defence and the 3rd best attack.
We are extremely lucky with this development, it would be a huge pity not to take advantage of it.
Perhaps… But that’s not gonna fly at Milan.
I’m just gonna mention that this season Brighton scored less goals than they conceded…
Ok, you know Thiago motta is going to juve. De zerbi is now a free agent and waiting for us. What are we waiting for?
I’m not really pro De Zerbi but considering other targets and Motta being out of the picture, I say go for it. He’s on same level as Pioli but still has room for improvements.
He’s Bayern’s first choice, and soon Barca might go after him too. However, I have a feeling that if the board actually tries and goes for him, he could accept given his love for the club. Unfortunately, we know the current board tends to avoid risks and prefers compliant yes-men with low salaries.
Get in done!!!!!
In a world where Man Utd, Bayern and likely Barcelona are looking for a manager, and assuming Motta to Juve is done, de Zerbi is not going to Milan. If it’s only Bayern, maybe there’s a chance.
But for anyone criticising Pioli for his end to this season, De Zerbi’s has been far, far worse.
o you mean that brighton that spends more time in championship and tier 3, than in premier? And it was worse than Milan.. Go figure
Well this is for sure good news for us. He is also a Milan fan and that gives us advantage in front of Barca and Bayern who also seem to be interested in him. Basicly him and Motta are the best choises right now since we cant afford a top manager like Klopp, Niglesman etc. Coinceado is good too but he doesn’t play with wingers.
Overrated AF.
No performances to justify the insane amount of money he would cost us.
Not even in consideration…
Guardiola, Klopp and some others top coaches strongly disagree with you.
Btw, what’s the story with the “insane amount of money”? We are talking about De Zerbi, not Konte.
He’s assuming that RdZ will get tons of high wage offers because of his reputation.
RdZ earns 1.7 million euro at Brighton. He’s a Milan Fan so he would probably come here immediately if we went for him and probably wouldn’t demand too much.
He would cost no more than Pioli. Klopp rumor is just that: a rumor.
Max Eberl just said that their next coach won’t be Italian so Bayern is already done as alternative for de Zerbi. It’s a Barca or Milan as I see it and knowing Barcas situation I think if Milan do the slightest approach he will chose us
I honestly feel it’s better to take Van Bommel than Zerbi, football now has changed, the more experience of winning your Coach has the better, if you look at their careers carefully and objectively, Van Bommel’s experience, winning mentality and fighting spirit would serve us better, their is a big difference of experience gained by playing under World class winning Coaches, than to be Coached by provincial coaches, we should remember our experience with Giampaolo, Van Bommel has more experience, Charisma and fighting spirit, he speaks 5 languages (Dutch, Spanish, English,Italian and German, and can easily communicate with everyone in our diverse squad, he has own every trophy, and he can speak with the players about that, what has De Zerbi won, when push comes to shove, that timid Italian mentality will set in….
Care to explain what is this ‘timid Italian mentality’ that I wasn’t aware of?
The truth is most Italian Coaches seldom have the courage to give youth a chance, just look at the case of CDK and countless young players, Italian coaches are afraid to play young players, but look at a very massive club like Barcelona, they are not afraid to give even 16 year olds a starting shirt, look at Terraciano for instance, we has played as a starter in serie’a for 2 seasons, but it’s only tomorrow he is making his debut.
Italian coaches seldom change formation, or even when they are trailing a game, sometimes they only substitute in the dying period of the game.
Throughout the years even big coaches like Trapattoni, Zoff, Allegri, Lippi , Capello,are guilty of playing an ultra defensive game, which has cost their teams matches, they also find it hard to transition the mindset of the players in Europe, that’s why it’s hard now for Italian teams to win.
The only Italian Coach that is really excelling is Ancelloti, because he has managed to innovate and modernise his thinking, he has managed to call upon his experience as a great player, who was coached by very intelligent coaches, and his experiences in other European leagues, for all the good things about De Zerbi, he has provincial mentality, Coached and played in provincial teams, has not won anything of significance, but if you look at Van Bommel, he was won almost everything in 4 top tier European leagues, and was the first foreign Coach of Bayern, and was the captain of PSV for many years, and was coached by innovative and modern coaches, that is what we need, not a Coach who was a provincial player and Coach…
The only Italian coach wgo
De Zerbi isn’t the typical Italian coach, he remind me of Sacchi same mentality, offense best defense type, he did good with Sassoulo and Bridgton, playing like a big team. I’m very intrigued to see what happens when he applies it to a actual big team
You raise CDK as an example to support your argument but his career has been resurrected by Gasperini. An Italian coach!
A coach very willing to be flexible and change formations. Support young players etc.
RDZ was successful in Ukraine in his brief spell and was on track to win their league before the war intervened. I.e when he was in a big within their domestic scene.
Outside of that he has consistently over achieved with smaller clubs. Using innovative tactics.
Dude team like barcelona and bayern have a second team that play in the real league not like Italian team that their young players only play with other kids, thats why the management are pushing for second team so the young player can have real experience
Winning mentality?
I bet that’s why Seedorf, Inzaghi, Gattuso have been very succesful as milan’s coach
I really don’t understand people here. De zerbi, who is by far miles better than any coach we’ve been linked to is getting heavily criticized but managers like Fonseca are ok? HAVE YOU SEEN THE NAMES WERE LINKED WITH??
it will be a blessing if we get de zerbi. Someone who loves the club just like we do. It’s no coincidence bayern are chasing him, psg, manchester utd, barca were all linked with him but no us fans know way more than all these top clubs.
At this point it looks like Fonseca who is not better than pioli at all will be the next coach and an opportunity has suddenly opened and nobody is happy.
Is he a fi ished product? No, he’s young and has a lot to learn but he’s very exciting, intelligent and skilled. What makes it even better is that he loves milan