These are the greatest days to be a Brighton fan – enjoy them
Roberto De Zerbi will leave Brighton at some point between now and the summer of 2025. We can say this with near certainty because in his six months at the Amex so far, he has proven himself an elite manager.
De Zerbi has the Albion playing a brand of football only Manchester City in the Premier League compare to. His Seagulls score goals for fun and are producing some of the most entertaining, attacking stuff on the planet.
He has turned Brighton into the best team in the world at building from the back and drawing an opposition press according to Pep Guardiola, who knows a thing or two about stuff like that.
The Seagulls under De Zerbi can go to somewhere like Stamford Bridge and record 57 percent possession and 26 shots against a starting XI costing nearly half a billion pounds.
Brighton have done the double over Chelsea with an aggregate score of 6-2. They beat Liverpool twice in the space of a fortnight 3-0 and 2-1.
The Albion knocked Arsenal out of the League Cup and would have beaten Spurs comfortably at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, had the officials and VAR not conspired in every which way possible to help Harry Kane and co to three points when they barely deserved one.
Solly March, Kaoru Mitoma, Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister, Evan Ferguson, Pervis Estupinan, Pascal Gross and Lewis Dunk all look like potential Ballon d’Or winners under De Zerbi.
To watch Brighton under De Zerbi is to realise he is good enough to manage any club in the world. The perfect fit to replace Guardiola if he left City.
Ideal for Liverpool should Klopp walk. His football is good enough for Barcelona. His infectious personality and mastery of difficult situations – like taking over a club whose coaching staff had been totally asset stripped by his predecessor – suited for the politics and demands of Real Madrid.
And that is before you even consider what he could do with a giant from his homeland. Italian club football is enjoying something of a revival at the moment.
Inter Milan, AC Milan and Napoli all reached the quarter finals of the Champions League and Roma and Juventus are into the semi finals of the Europa League. Put De Zerbi into any one of those clubs and he would elevate them further still.
So yeah, De Zerbi is going to be the best manager in the world in the not-too-distant future. He will prove this by winning the biggest trophies at one of the biggest clubs. And there is not much anyone at the Albion can do to prevent him leaving and fulfilling that destiny.
Brighton fans – and football supporters in general – can sometimes worry too much about what is going to happen in the future.
The moment the January transfer window shut with Mac Allister and Caicedo still Albion players, attention turned on February 1st to what would happen with them in the summer. Five whole months of speculation and panic.
You see it in responses to transfer rumours and news from so-called experts on social media. Fabrizio Romana tweets that Mac Allister is going to leave – based on Carlos Mac Allister saying exactly that when talking about his son’s future – and there is an explosion of rage.
Nobody wants to hear it, but realistically Mac Allister Senior and Romano are correct and Alexis will be headed to pastures new.
He is the next cab off the rank, a bloke who has been a consummate professional (unlike his Pete from Gavin & Stacey look-a-like father) over the past three-and-a-half seasons.
Mac Allister deserves the opportunity to earn more money and challenge regularly for the biggest prizes in the game, to go with his World Cup medal. And he will undoubtedly depart with the best wishes of everyone at the Amex.
As the song about Wembley goes, whatever will be, will be. Mac Allister is likely to leave. Caicedo might go too if someone stumps up the £80 million plus he is surely worth.
It is probably too soon for Ferguson to depart, and his seemingly sensible 18-year-old head will tell him that. As for Mitoma, the lack of rumours surrounding him is a welcome surprise.
To worry about all this – let alone De Zerbi’s future – detracts from the here and now. And the here and now is the best manager Brighton have ever had leading the best squad Brighton have ever had to the best season Brighton have ever had.
Having gone to Stamford Bridge as bookies and pundits favourites, the Albion now go into their FA Cup semi final against Manchester United as favourites with some bookies and some pundits. How batshit mental is that?
By June 3rd, De Zerbi could have feasibly led Brighton to (and maybe even won) the FA Cup final, the club’s highest ever finishing position and European qualification for the first time. To rewrite the history books in half-a-season… like we said, he is elite and destined for the very top.
The thing with glory days is that they always come to an end at some point, no matter how big the club. Manchester United have not won a league title for nearly a decade, Arsenal two decades.
As recently as last season, Liverpool were in the midst of a phenomenal trophy-laden three year spell. Now they might not even finish in the top four.
Nothing lasts forever and that is why when your team is flying higher than ever before, you have to savour it all.
Trips to Wembley, hammering the biggest clubs in the world, watching a World Cup winner… soak it all in as at some point, there will come a dip. It is inevitable, as Thanos said with a click of his fingers.
And if you spent the time De Zerbi was in charge of a team including Mac Allister, Caicedo and Mitoma wondering about what was going to happen to De Zerbi, Mac Allister, Caicedo and Mitoma, you cannot appreciate fully what is happening in the here and now.
Albion fans in 2023 are blessed to be watching the greatest days our club has experienced in its 122 year existence. Savour every moment De Zerbi gives us, and worry about who might be going where later.
Because De Zerbi will not be here for long. Enjoy him while you can and one day tell your grandkids, I was there when De Zerbi was in charge of Brighton. It was bloody brilliant and I loved every moment of it.
