[Albion] Tony Bloom interview

[Greg Bobkin]

And the so called disagreement with De Zerbi stemmed from the sudden departure of Graham Potter to Chelsea. I would assume though that Hürzeler needed the time at St Pauli to refine his managing skills at his younger age in order to succeed so quickly at Brighton & Hove.

I took that to read that there wasn't disagreement originally (no way they would've taken him on otherwise), but RDZ - with European football assured - believed he could change the model. Or that he thought better.

Dangerous game to play and there will always only be one winner!

 

[HeaviestTed]

That politely and succinctly explains why RDZ is no longer with us.
Apart from the last few months it was wonderful while it lasted.

Gone but never forgotten. We will always have Europe 23/24, no one can take away those mad trips from us.
Importantly, since RDZ helped to make us believe, everyone associated with the club now has a mindset that it is achievable again.

But was he sacked or did he decide it wasn’t working for him?

 

[Albion my Albion]

But was he sacked or did he decide it wasn’t working for him?

It seems through interviews with the club officials that it was a disagreement over the selection of players that came to an agreement to part ways.

 

[HalfaSeatOn]

Marseille to RDZ. ‘Were you sacked’ ‘no’. ‘Did you resign’ ‘no’. ‘So you’re still manager of Brighton’ ‘no’. ‘And it’s going to cost us a few million to appoint you’ ‘yes’. ‘Chateauneuf du Pape!’

 

[Guinness Boy]

Wooosh & (IMO: you’re entirely correct in everything you say and I fully agree FTR.) haha

Fair enough, consider me well and truly wooshed

 

[Albion my Albion]

Marseille to RDZ. ‘Were you sacked’ ‘no’. ‘Did you resign’ ‘no’. ‘So you’re still manager of Brighton’ ‘no’. ‘And it’s going to cost us a few million to appoint you’ ‘yes’. ‘Chateauneuf du Pape!’

Marseille will soon start dynamic pricing and RDZ will be demanding expensive players. What they paid for RDZ will soon be a drop in a bigger bucket.

 

[WATFORD zero]

I took that to read that there wasn't disagreement originally (no way they would've taken him on otherwise), but RDZ - with European football assured - believed he could change the model. Or that he thought better.

Dangerous game to play and there will always only be one winner!

I think there was an element of this, as when RDZ first arrived he talked about how impressed he was with the recruitment model and let his own recruitment expert go back to Italy within months.

I wonder if, after his initial success, he thought that he was contributing more than the 'process' was and started wanting to change it. Maybe Tone thought differently

 

[el punal]

Let's face it, TB and Co were probably thinking about it from January.

Wasn’t Fab ‘invited’ to watch a couple of Albion games around that time? Sowing seeds n’all that?

 

[Anger]

I'm posting these two extracts because, as far as I can see, it's a free article. If @MODS disagree I'm sure they'll remove them

Fabian is more of a head coach. He is aware of players, but the model at St Pauli was that the recruitment is done more by the sporting director and the head of recruitment. In terms of shortlists and players to go for, that comes very much from the data, the recruitment team and the scouting.

Has that dynamic worked more smoothly so far than it did with Roberto De Zerbi?​

Bloom: The process hasn’t changed, the philosophy hasn’t changed, but it is fair to say Fabian has bought into it a lot more than his predecessor. Roberto had thoughts on certain players, but that is not the way we as a club work. The club will decide on the players potentially to bring into the club, in conjunction with the head coach.
It’s not a situation, the way we work, that the head coach says, ‘I like this player and that player’, and that’s what we do (in terms of signings). If a head coach has some ideas, that comes in as part of the process, but a head coach really liking a player has got to fit many characteristics, it has got to fit with the data analysis we do.

When Roberto came in (in September 2022, after Graham Potter left to manage Chelsea), we explained the process and the philosophy. If there is non-alignment between the head coach and the club, things are never going to work out long-term.

Reading that, I think it is clear that he was moved on or to put it another way, he was sacked.

Now how do we merge this with the De Zerbi was not “Sacked” thread? Anyone know?

 

[Weststander]

No shame from TB, appearing after freezing Gilmour out of the only club he had eyes for .

 

[kevo]

That politely and succinctly explains why RDZ is no longer with us.
Apart from the last few months it was wonderful while it lasted.

Gone but never forgotten. We will always have Europe 23/24, no one can take away those mad trips from us.
Importantly, since RDZ helped to make us believe, everyone associated with the club now has a mindset that it is achievable again.

Yeah, thought as much really. It wasn't that we weren't signing players, it was that RDZ wanted too much of a say in who we signed. If this was explained to him from the outset, he should have known really that it was never going to work long-term. Fab seems to have bought into the club philosophy much more.

Echo your sentiments re: RDZ, too. It was fun (while it lasted).

 

[Seagull58]

And the so called disagreement with De Zerbi stemmed from the sudden departure of Graham Potter to Chelsea. I would assume though that Hürzeler needed the time at St Pauli to refine his managing skills at his younger age in order to succeed so quickly at Brighton & Hove.

The disagreement with de Zerbi, from what Bloom says, stems from de Zerbi accepting the job after learning how Brighton conducts transfer business and then wanting to do it a different way e.g. Dahoud and Fati.

 

[Flounce]

TB is just one of us but with the wherewithal and intelligence to make things happen. Something most of us can only dream about. Absolute legend and ice cold with it

No different to the rest of us when the whistle blows though, just another fan! How lucky are we?

 

[Change at Barnham]

But was he sacked or did he decide it wasn’t working for him?

I think they gave him enough rope and let RDZ’S ego do the rest of the job for them without him realising.
And rather cleverly managed to get some compensation thrown in from our French cousins.
TB is a genius.

 

[amexer]

I'm posting these two extracts because, as far as I can see, it's a free article. If @MODS disagree I'm sure they'll remove them

Fabian is more of a head coach. He is aware of players, but the model at St Pauli was that the recruitment is done more by the sporting director and the head of recruitment. In terms of shortlists and players to go for, that comes very much from the data, the recruitment team and the scouting.

Has that dynamic worked more smoothly so far than it did with Roberto De Zerbi?​

Bloom: The process hasn’t changed, the philosophy hasn’t changed, but it is fair to say Fabian has bought into it a lot more than his predecessor. Roberto had thoughts on certain players, but that is not the way we as a club work. The club will decide on the players potentially to bring into the club, in conjunction with the head coach.
It’s not a situation, the way we work, that the head coach says, ‘I like this player and that player’, and that’s what we do (in terms of signings). If a head coach has some ideas, that comes in as part of the process, but a head coach really liking a player has got to fit many characteristics, it has got to fit with the data analysis we do.

When Roberto came in (in September 2022, after Graham Potter left to manage Chelsea), we explained the process and the philosophy. If there is non-alignment between the head coach and the club, things are never going to work out long-term.

Thats interesting. Potter I remember before signing for us was photoed watching Webster playing for Bristol. Shortly after joing Brighton Webster signed for Albion so assume it was a Potter requested signing

 

[Han Solo]

Thats interesting. Potter I remember before signing for us was photoed watching Webster playing for Bristol. Shortly after joing Brighton Webster signed for Albion so assume it was a Potter requested signing

Yup. And the final thing Potter did as a Swansea manager was to go and scout Matt Clarke playing a playoff game for Portsmouth, and he signed for Brighton shortly after. As they were young, ball-playing defenders I think the club agreed with those signings in a different way than say the Dahoud signing.

Some people think its good when the manager "challenges the club" or is "not a yes man", because that works well on Netflix. In reality you need people to be on the same page or it'll just turn to shit.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Importantly, since RDZ helped to make us believe, everyone associated with the club now has a mindset that it is achievable again.

Apart from being the first Brighton manager to take us into and play in Europe, I believe this will be the lasting legacy of RDZ.

 

[Han Solo]

Importantly, since RDZ helped to make us believe, everyone associated with the club now has a mindset that it is achievable again.

Yes prior to that, Tony Bloom was probably sitting in his office, trembling with fear and disbelief over his own capacity to bring Brighton further. Probably due to the massive stagnation the club has seen in his time in charge.

 

[el punal]

No shame from TB, appearing after freezing Gilmour out of the only club he had eyes for .

Like many decisions made by the club we, the fans, have absolutely no idea what goes on behind closed doors. You can assume to your heart’s content as to the whys and wherefores of their actions. It is clear that Tony Bloom and his team have always kept their cards close to their chest. You should trust their judgement - the results have invariably been correct.

 

[redoubtable seagull]

Hasn't Naylor just transcribed (presumably with the club's blessing) the podcast interview that was reported on NSC yesterday?

The article states ‘In a wide-ranging interview with The Athletic, owner-chairman Tony Bloom, ….’