Brighton’s Chief Executive Paul Barber believes that Roberto De Zerbi is happy at the club, but also admitted that he is attractive to other sides and may wish to move on at some point.
Since he replaced Graham Potter 18 months ago after the Englishman went to Chelsea, De Zerbi has established himself as one of the most exciting head coaches in Europe, building on the reputation he gained with Sassuolo and Shakhtar Donetsk.
He continues to be linked with vacancies such as the ones at Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich who are known to be changing head coaches ahead of next season, and it is a testament to the work he has done at Brighton.
Journalists like Alessandro Jacobone have claimed that Milan are interested in De Zerbi and are working quietly to try hire him, given he came through the youth academy of the Rossoneri in the 1990s.
The Italian has spoke regularly about his desire to return to Italy at some point and also the connection that he feels with Milan, the team that he supports in addition to his hometown club Brescia.
Barber spoke to The Athletic and gave a long interview about Brighton’s journey to this point plus their aims moving forward, and he addressed the speculation surrounding De Zerbi.
“We don’t want to lose him, he is an outstanding coach, probably one of the best in the world already, and that is going to make him attractive,” Barber says.
“I think Roberto loves Brighton, he loves the club, the people, the infrastructure that we have, and there is this sense that the work he is doing is good for him as well as for us.
“That still means at some point in the future he may choose to take that skill base that he has elsewhere – we understand that.
“It is the most unusual experience I’ve had in my career. A lot of time the chairman or chief executive will be speaking publicly to give their coach some air cover, setting expectations at a reasonable level in the hope they are exceeded.
“Roberto is the opposite. He comes to me and says, ‘Why are you talking about top 10, why don’t you talk about top six?’. It’s the first time in my club career that I am almost encouraged by the head coach to push expectations publicly. He believes that will drive the players, the staff, all of us to be even better.”
“Roberto is doing a fantastic job. The evolution from the work Graham did, which was outstanding, on top of the work Chris did, which was outstanding, has taken us to another level.
“With that comes more risk, on and off the field. On the pitch, we have a very open, attacking style of play and occasionally that will be unpicked.
“Off the field, because what he is doing is so attractive and high profile, it then creates risk for us differently in that Roberto becomes very desirable — but we are aware of that.
“The better we do, the higher profile our people become on and off the field, and ironically the more vulnerable we become to losing them.
“But we know that and we are not stupid. We understand it, but we are confident in our ability to keep people. The contracts are good, the mechanisms to secure the contracts are good.
“If people are poached they don’t go quickly, or cheaply in some cases, and we always look to a plan that we have in place for that eventuality.”
