Roberto De Serbi “I’m not Graham Potter“
Roberto De Serbi (43 years, contract until mid-2026) became Brighton and Hove Albion’s first ‘Italian’ to take charge of a Premier League side in A city surrounded by the sea Chic atmosphere with many festivals throughout the year, but that doesn’t matter to him.
“Football is not just a job. But it’s about putting everything into it. Other than that, I didn’t really care. My focus is on the team, the players and the game.”
“Eternal change” is inevitable. It’s always changing in football and Brighton face a dramatic change. When their stalwart manager. Graham Potter was approache by a big club like Chelsea. With the job offer he chooses to take on a new challenge there. At his time at Brighton he was being assess by fans as “extraordinary” with his excellent performances. And a player in a team without a star, but the performance is so bad, of course, Brighton doesn’t want to lose him. Although receiving a small amount of compensation But when people are going to hold on to it, it’s even more difficult. Searching for a replacement was a must and that was the start of the meeting between the club and De Serbi.
World-traveling young coach
De Serbi has been a professional footballer before. He’s a youth player for AC Milan. But of course, if you’re not familiar with his name in the Rossoneri. That means that. He was not push up to play in Milan’s big teams. His life as a teenager moving teams with the transfer of more than 10 clubs. At some lower level top league.
And used to travel far to play football in Romania, tried it. Until finally he retired from football in 2013 at the age of 34 and immediately entered the coaching profession. With a period of struggle with many clubs Until seeing his name with taking Sasuolo in the years 2018-2021. It is clear that he is a good team manager. when making a team to maintain the standard of survival comfortably It also finished in single digit rankings for two seasons.
And that led him to go on a big journey with Shakhtar Donest, taking charge of the team playing in the Champions League for the first time in his life. And it would have been a good time for him if the “war” hadn’t happened. and brought Ukrainian football to a halt. While he did not want to be with the team anymore in the war. The departure came after all the foreign players of the team.
Who wish to leave Ukraine had been exhausted. He wanted to make sure everything was okay before he ended his role there. On the day Shakhtar Donetsk is the top of the league. That if the race is completed they will become the champions of the league. It was his first success that didn’t happen because of the war.
At just 43 years old, De Serbi is a very young man in the industry, and with his last four years of performance, interesting profile and make Brighton Go ahead and approach him immediately.
“Brighton contacted me through my agent. And the agent told me that Brighton was interest in negotiating a job with me. But they wanted to meet me first. We have an appointment in London. It’s a talk that can be said and done. and listened to the offer and ideas of both sides Which for me is very satisfying to work together. I see the team as a serious team. There are very good players in the team. And it’s an opportunity for me to work more than before. but for Brighton They took a little time to make a decision, and a few days later they called back and discussed signing a contract.”
De Zerbi has decided to turn down an offer for hometown club Bologna. And ahead of his four-year contract signing, he had spoken to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola about taking up the job, with De Serbi hailing Pep as manager. The best team in 30 years, but for him. The coach he admires And to look at for example former Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa. Who he watch Bielsa in action for a week at Lille in 2017. And has always become one of his important role models in his work.
middle-of-the-road no matter what work Nothing has ever been easy. You didn’t prepare the plan from the beginning. There wasn’t much time for trial and error. What can done is Try it out and compete with it. Learn the job as quickly as possible which will surely get better If he can buy the players in the team to create a new team together with him. After having to wait 5 games to win, his 6th game in charge was fulfilling. And it was due to Graham Potter’s meeting with Chelsea, who he replaced. It was an overwhelming 4-1 win, followed by a win over Wolves the following game. Even before the break into the World Cup The team will come back to lose again. but has seen the improvement of the team
“I think happiness is a condition of good performance. Not everyone can have it. If I still manage the team and the results come out bad I want to do the team the way I want but Of course it has to work too. Otherwise, doing it would be of no use. The team is still in a difficult situation. And still have to fight a lot But I think the very first point is attitude. It was difficult to work with.”