Would Brighton be willing to wait to land Abel Ferreira as manager?
The Albion love South America. And it could be that the continent provides the next Brighton manager with the Seagulls rumoured to be very interested in appointing Palmeiras boss Abel Ferreira as the successor to Graham Potter.
Ferreira is the most successful coach in South America right now. Since his appointment at Brazilian giants Palmerias in November 2020, he has led the Pigs (is this the most incredible nickname in world football?) to two Copa Libertadores, a Copa do Brasil, a Recopa Sudamericana and a Campeonato Paulista.
For the uninitiated, Wikipedia reliable informs that those are the equivalent of the Champions League, the FA Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and a league for clubs based in the state of Sao Paulo which runs between January and April and includes the likes of Corinthians, Santos and Sao Paulo.
Put simply, he is a bloody good coach. And that is where the complication lies. There is one trophy missing from Ferreira’s Palmeiras collection – Brasileiro Série A, the top division of Brazilian football.
With Palmeiras top of the table by eight points with 12 games of the 2022 season remaining, it appears to be common knowledge that Ferreira is not going anywhere until the campaign is completed on November 13th and his side are crowned champions.
Some media outlets in Brazil are reporting that Brighton have already approached Abel Ferreira, but he has turned down the job for precisely that reason.
The question then becomes how badly does Tony Bloom want Abel? And would he be willing to leave Andrew Crofts in interim charge until the winter break for the World Cup, if it meant landing the 43-year-old?
Ferreira began his coaching career after retiring as a player at the age of 32 due to injury. He had played 296 times as a right back in his native Portugal for Vitória Guimaraes, Braga and Sporting Lisbon before taking charge of Sporting’s B team in the Portuguese second tier.
Next, he returned to Braga to take over their B team in the same division as Sporting. When Jorge Simao resigned in April 2017, Ferreira was promoted to first team boss.
His first full season in charge in 2017-18 resulted in a fourth place finish and qualification for the Europa League. PAOK were suitably impressed by Ferreira’s feats at Braga to pay a reported €2 million in compensation to take him to Greece ahead of the 2019-20 campaign.
Ferreira led PAOK to second place in the league and a Greek Cup semi final in his only full season in charge. He left PAOK in October 2020 after 16 months, bound for Palmeiras and all that success in Brazil.
His record with the Pigs is extraordinary. 170 matches. 97 wins. 40 draws. 33 defeats. 287 goals scored. 138 goals conceded. A goal difference of +149 and a 57.06 win percentage.
At PAOK, Ferreira had a 54.39 percent win rate. At Braga, it was 60.78. He has managed in the top division across three countries and never dropped below a win percentage of 50. Some going.
Ferreira is on record as saying he used to be a Football Manager obsessive when he was younger. He would pick smaller clubs with less money who never won anything in real life for the challenge of turning them into champions.
If that view extends beyond a computer game and into the real world, then Abel Ferreira will surely be tempted by taking over a club with modest resources like Brighton, playing in the richest league in the world and who appear on the cusp of achieving something special.
One of Ferreira’s better quotes is: “How did a little guy like Napoleon manage to beat people? With strategy. With trickery.”
It is strategy which enabled his Braga to compete with the richer clubs like Porto, Benfica and Sporting. Strategy which enabled his PAOK to compete with richer clubs like AEK Athens, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos.
Strategy has also seen him make the most of Palmeiras being the richest club in Brazil. Money does not always equal domination. It needs a good coach to make the most of the riches.
Ferreira must be doing something right to have delivered so much silverware to the Pigs in less than two years in charge. Little budget or big budget, he tends to deliver.
So, what of his strategy? His favoured tactics in recent times appear remarkably similar to Potter’s. Most of Palmeiras’ success has come from playing a 3-4-3. When they attack, they flood the box with four forward players in behind a number nine.
Brighton can trace the hot streak of form which has propelled them into fourth spot in the Premier League back to April and the 2-1 win at Arsenal.
It was the first time Potter adopted his 3-3-3-1 formation. Danny Welbeck operated as a lone striker, backed up by the likes of Enock Mwepu, Alexis Mac Allister, Pascal Gross and Leandro Trossard. Count the numbers and it is four players supporting a centre forward.
Only Manchester City and, er, Fulham have beaten the Albion since they started playing this way. Much of English football is yet to fathom how to overcome a formation very few coaches in the world use; Potter has been one these past 14 matches with Brighton, Abel Ferreira is another some 5863 miles away.
Just like Potter, Ferriera is tactically flexible. Writing for The Coaches Voice, Ferreira describes one of his favourite games as being a Europa League clash whilst in charge of Braga against Hoffenheim.
“They started with a 3-5-2 formation, which changed to a 4-3-3 during the match: three strikers, full-backs advancing. We started in a 4-4-2 but ended up in a 5-4-1 to combat what they were doing.”
“We won that game 2-1. For me, the future is this cat-and-mouse game within a single match: adapting to tactical changes in reaction to your opponent.”
Where Ferreira differs from Potter is in personality. There is something of the showman about Ferreira. He jots notes down on his hand. He has been described as hyperactive on the touchline. And he provides plenty of soundbites in post-game interviews.
After Palmeiras defeated Atletico Mineiro in the semi final of the 2020 Copa Libertadores, he dedicated victory to his annoying next door neighbour in Sao Paolo: “He’s a pain… but he’s quiet now we win.”
Ferreira’s manner has earned him comparisons to his compatriot Jose Mourinho. The similarities do not end there; Palmeiras under Ferreira have been supremely well organised and drilled in phases of play on the training pitch.
Both are continental champions at a young age too. Mourinho lifted his first Champions League at 41. Ferreira claimed his first Copa Libertadores at 42.
Ferreira’s showmanship might not appeal to Bloom, who has tended to shy away from flamboyant individuals since that almighty falling out with Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named in 2013.
Bloom though may be impressed by Ferreira’s loyalty, especially in light of Potter walking away as soon as somebody waved a big amount of money under nose.
Over the past 18 months, Ferreira has turned down offers from two MLS clubs, Besiktas and The Leeds United to replace Marcelo Bielsa.
He also rejected a mammoth contract with Saudi Arabian side Al-Nassr which would have netted him £22 million for two-and-a-half-years work.
Ferreira’s insistence that he remains at Palmeiras for the next two months to deliver the Brazilain title is also admirable.
But does it tip the balance in favour of the immediate appointment of other candidates on the shorlist, like Roberto De Zebri, Franck Haise or Kjetil Knutsen?
There are seven Premier League games between now and the winter break. Bloom might look at that fixture list, see the names of Liverpool, Spurs, Manchester City and Chelsea and conclude that it is a difficult run of fixtures the Albion would be hard pressed to take points from.
Suddenly, it becomes a little easier to leave Crofts in charge until November. Ferreira would then arrive and have a four week mini pre-season to work with those Brighton players not at the World Cup before the resumption of domestic football on Boxing Day.
If there were ever a season where you could willingly delay a managerial appointment by two months, it is one with five weeks off caused by a winter World Cup being slapped in the middle.
On the other hand, the Albion have shown they can compete with all those top clubs. Appoint the next Brighton manager quickly and if the transition goes well, the Seagulls could continue to soar near the top of the table by taking points from their fellow European contenders.
Only Bloom will know if he wants Ferreira that much that he is willing to potentially sacrifice 21 points by playing seven games with an interim head coach in charge. Only Bloom will know if Brazilian and Portuguese media is correct when it says Brighton have been interested in Abel Ferreira for months.
There is no doubt he would be a hugely exciting appointment. But is he worth the wait? It is another consideration for Bloom to factor into his decision making. This selecting a manager lark isn’t easy, is it?
