Anyone brave enough to call out Vladimir Putin in public deserves the utmost respect. Anyone who follows that up by slaying one of the giants of English football should be taken seriously.
And it is why Roberto De Zerbi is the most fascinating story of this Premier League season so far.
Brighton & Hove Albion’s new Italian manager is back at work eager to dampen the euphoria surrounding his side’s 4-1 demolition of Chelsea last Saturday.
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From his unofficial control room of Donatello’s family-run Italian restaurant in the heart of the sophisticated Sussex town, De Zerbi has been further plotting his mission to reroute Brighton’s future.
Parachuting in following the sudden departure of his predecessor Graham Potter last month was a daunting task. Albion underwent a cultural revolution in three-and-a-half years under the man who endured a tortuous return to the Amex Stadium last Saturday.
The outpouring of emotion when Pascal Gross slipped goal number four past Chelsea’s stranded keeper Edouard Mendy did not reflect the image of a man with guarded steely nerve and simmering determination.
Watching Brighton’s assistant coach Andrea Maldera leap into his manager’s arms, eyes bulging, mouth agape, was an eruption of instinctive Latin joy and pent-up frustration.I
n the short-attention-span world of modern football, a win had been a long time coming. Less than a month but six games in all. But the reaction and response from De Zerbi and his dugout brothers was a statement of intent and emotion that makes this newcomer to English football even more intriguing.
Donetsk, in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, has become familiar as a pot-holed ruin at the centre of a terrifying war with Russia.
De Zerbi’s job as manager of the local football team Shakhtar was immediately redrafted when he was dragged unwillingly into a bloody conflict. Evacuated to the capital Kyiv, he defied incessant shelling, refusing to leave until all his foreign players were safely out of the country.
After standing firm against the Russian army, fielding a team to face Graham Potter should hold no fears. There is no need for a team talk ever again in the Brighton dressing room when the manager can call on such genuinely terrifying experiences.
In the wake of Brighton’s pummelling of Chelsea, his first triumphant proclamation was that ‘Putin stole my team’. De Zerbi is unlikely to get revenge on the Russian tyrant but it is obvious the memories of Ukraine still burn deep and they make him all the more resolute about keeping Brighton successful.
There hasn’t been a lot to change at Albion, making the new manager’s job a little easier. Captain Lewis Dunk was adamant that recent performances were up to scratch and the only difference between defeats to Tottenham Hotspur, Brentford and Manchester City were goals.
They came in floods last weekend amid a testosterone-fuelled performance from De Zerbi’s team that saw an illustrious Champions League side savaged.
It was a near-flawless exhibition of energy turned loose on an unsuspecting enemy. It felt like a lot of De Zerbi’s feelings built up over the last seven months were being released.
Come Monday morning he and his coaching staff were quick to politely tell fellow staff members that while it was fine to enjoy that feel-good feeling of a thumping victory, it had to be reined in. By lunchtime, De Zerbi was focused solely on this weekend’s match at Wolves. He wants more goals, more focus and more points.
Every night he is studying English for one hour in addition to the considerable demands of managing a Premier League side.
This midweek, training ground staff finished work then headed to a nearby pub for food and to watch the Champions League fixtures - no doubt dreaming it could be Albion there one day.
Members of De Zerbi’s backroom staff, including number two Maldera joined the ‘work event’, eager to gel and ingratiate with their new workmates.
There have been visits by Ukrainian refugee children to Brighton’s impressive training complex. De Zerbi personally welcomed the group and let them watch the players do their stuff. It was a small thing, easily arranged, but little treats mean a lot to kids with lives ripped apart.
The past is still at the forefront of De Zerbi’s mind while he gets on with his unexpected new career in the safe haven of east Sussex.
Whether or not Brighton win another match this season, De Zerbi deserves our interest at the very least because his story is riveting.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject to Change
