[Albion] Roberto De Zerbi - JOINS AS NEW HEAD COACH (4 year contract)

[Greg Bobkin]

genuinely what were people expecting? it's been a very long time since the press conferences held anything of interest, the club obviously like to make sure everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet at media appearances and them best way to do that is have a generic, base-level of information with the usual phrases about 'succession planning' and 'happy to work in the toughest league' and just leave it at that.

I'm surprised no-one picked up on him saying "...when I leave..."

The earliest "Come and get me" plea in history?

 

[dwayne]

you'll have to wait for the fluff piece on him in the guardian or the times once we've won a couple of games then I'm afraid

I guess all the hype about him being a football genius , master tactician cross between bielsa/pep and potter and all he could say was that he thinks Brighton have a good team and he wants to continue the good form.

He did say his aim was top 10 (I'm guessing that's the target he's been given)

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[lizard]

I'm surprised no-one picked up on him saying "...when I leave..."

The earliest "Come and get me" plea in history?

That's alright, it's not long until xmas...

 

[dwayne]

I'm surprised no-one picked up on him saying "...when I leave..."

The earliest "Come and get me" plea in history? [emoji38]ol:

Hah yer that was a bit of a wtf moment.

Let's see how he gets on. If he can take Donetsk im sure he can acclimatise to Brighton.

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[macbeth]

I guess all the hype about him being a football genius , master tactician cross between bielsa/pep and potter and all he could say was that he thinks Brighton have a good team and he wants to continue the good form.

He did say his aim was top 10 (I'm guessing that's the target he's been given)

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yeah he could've, my point being that it was never gonna happen, was it? can hardly blame him for sticking to the basics when it's his first conference in a new country, he's had to do a lot of it through a translator and sticking to the basics was what the club probably wanted him to do anyway.

 

[axscott]

This is what I jotted down from the presser to share with my mates:

Roberto De Zerbi's First Brighton & Hove Albion Press Conference Main Points

- English speaking isn't good but seems to understand the questions perfectly at native speed, he hopes to be good enough at English by January
- He joined because he loves the style of play Brighton have played recently, feels like he can really build upon that
- Great friends with Pep, spoke to him last night (his football has been likened to Pep's)
- Backroom staff is joining, Crofts will now work with the first team as well as his U21 duties (I assume to help adapt the U21s to emulate first team)
- The goal of this season is to cement our place as a top 10 side, building upon last season's 9th place
- Confirmed that De Zerbi was the #1 choice, nobody else was approached and the interview sealed the deal
- He has already studied every player individually and watched games this season but says that he needs to be in training to understand fully what the squad is about
- In particular he seems to love the fact that the players are system players, I assume this is ideal for him to be able to change roles fairly seamlessly
- Highlights that the culture of the club, the attitude from owner to players all align

 

[ozzygull]

I'm surprised no-one picked up on him saying "...when I leave..."

The earliest "Come and get me" plea in history?

Yep noticed that At least PB and Tony can start looking for their next head coach now, rather then the Potter surprise.

 

[CheeseRolls]

Made all the right noises, gets my vote. His backroom staff will get the usual 'meet a,b & c' interview on seagulls website in due course no doubt.
We can all then say....who?

Aside from Andrea Maldera and Crofts helping out, is there anyone else yet? I maybe just a little impatient, but there are six positions to fill and it is going to be interesting to see, how many are RDZ appointments and how many are local finds.

 

[Audax]

A lot is being made of this "fluent Spanish" thing, but as far as I can see that only really benefits 3 players - Pervis, Moises and Julio. All of our other 'Latino' players are fluent in English.

It's also not a huge surprise. There's a lot of similarities between Italian and Spanish and it's not unusual for speakers of one to pick up the other reasonably quickly. It's even possible for an Italian to speak Italian and a Spanish person who doesn't know Italian still understand (and vice versa). It takes a bit of effort from both sides, but it's possible.

It's a much bigger step from Italian (or Spanish) to English. However ... people who've already learned 1 additional language typically find it easier to pick up the 3rd (etc) language, and if he's already got a level of English that allows him to understand what's said to him then the rest should come quickly as a result of immersion.

 

[Swansman]

Aside from Andrea Maldera and Crofts helping out, is there anyone else yet? I maybe just a little impatient, but there are six positions to fill and it is going to be interesting to see, how many are RDZ appointments and how many are local finds.

PB is getting some work permits for the gang

 

[Icy Gull]

Tough crowd, he could easily have gone all Bielsa but at least he gave it a crack. Of course he is nervous

 

[fly high]

Tony looks like the cat who got the cream, can't stop grinning. Obviously very pleased with himself.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

It's also not a huge surprise. There's a lot of similarities between Italian and Spanish and it's not unusual for speakers of one to pick up the other reasonably quickly. It's even possible for an Italian to speak Italian and a Spanish person who doesn't know Italian still understand (and vice versa). It takes a bit of effort from both sides, but it's possible.

To back up your point, when I first moved to Japan I lived in a guest house. I had an Italian speaking, a french speaking and a spanish speaking housemate. They would talk to each other in their native tongues and all seemed to understand each other fairly well. Not perfectly but enough to have long conversations regularly.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

I thought his English would be worse to be honest, really positive he was happy to give it a go, no car crash for me, a confident young manager who is targeting January to be completely fluent - judging from where he is with it right now, I don't think it will take him that long if he's speaking it every day and has a lesson or two here and there. Funny how different people see different things.

I also took comfort that he can clearly understand the majority of questions asked in English, won’t take him long and fair play to him with opening in English, not an easy situation to be in with the world watching

 

[Driver8]

Anyone know the Italian for booooooo?

 

[Icy Gull]

Anyone know the Italian for booooooo?

Box of rotten tomatoes

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Wow. I really like the look of this bloke. The start was interesting - not a car crash; he's comfortable with silence. Not one question phased him. No lies. No BS.

And no teeth sucking!

Get in.

 

[Mancgull]

I’m pleased that he looked a bit nervous. Shows there’s no arrogance and he sees the size of the job and the media interest in his appointment.
He’ll be pleased to get on the training pitch.

Regarding the point about leaving, every coach will leave at one point. Players and coaches here are ‘coached’ to just say that they are very happy where they are and have total focus with the job in hand. Potter said it, but the first sight of a step up and he was on his way.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I'm surprised no-one picked up on him saying "...when I leave..."

The earliest "Come and get me" plea in history?

He said that when he leaves he wants to leave the club in a better position than when he came. Legacy. I liked the honesty.

 

[Audax]

To back up your point, when I first moved to Japan I lived in a guest house. I had an Italian speaking, a french speaking and a spanish speaking housemate. They would talk to each other in their native tongues and all seemed to understand each other fairly well. Not perfectly but enough to have long conversations regularly.

They're all "romance" languages, all evolved from vulgar latin. Portuguese as well. They all have the same source, and they share a lot of the same words (with variation as they've evolved, and the grammar structures differ as well). But there's still enough similarities that, for example, Spanish and Italian are considered around 85% similar.

While I don't speak any of them, I spent enough time working in a company that localised English into French, Italian, and Spanish (and German) to have had plenty of visual exposure (given I was responsible for publishing some of the localised content to the web).