De Zerbi new Brighton manager.

Premier League side Brighton have confirmed that Italian Roberto de Zerbi is their new manager.

He succeeds Graham Potter who left the club to join Chelsea following the sacking of Thomas Tuchel two weeks ago.

De Zerbi has signed a four-year deal at the Amex Stadium, although his appointment is subject to him being granted a British work permit. He is expected to bring his coaching staff with him, although they too will need work permits before taking up their new appointments.

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Now 43, de Zerbi had a largely undistinguished playing career in Italy mainly in the second and third tier, although the attacking midfielder did have spells with AC Milan and Napoli, in an itinerant journey that saw him feature for 14 different clubs.

However, he has enjoyed far more success as a coach, although his first job with Palermo ended up with him getting the sack after a string of poor results.

A brief spell in charge at Benevento followed, where he was praised for his possession based attacking style of football, and also for his acuity in the transfer market.

However, it was at Sassuolo that he really made his name, enabling what, in Italian terms, is a small town club, to punch well above their weight in Serie A, and guiding them to two eighth placed finishes.

In May 2021 he left Italy for the Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk and won the Super Cup with them. They were leading the league before the war with Russia brought an abrupt end to proceedings.

The continued hostilities led to him leaving the Ukrainian side in July.

He has a tough act to follow in Potter. The Englishman helped mould Brighton into an established Premier League side, although he was helped by the executive structure around him, with an excellent recruitment strategy that has enabled the club to find little known players from home and abroad, groom them into accomplished performers, and then sell them for a substantial profit.

Although they have not played since Potter’s departure, with their matches against both Crystal Palace and Bournemouth both postponed following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, they are still fourth in the Premier League table, having lost just once since the start of the season.

They do not have the resources to stay there, but if de Zerbi can keep them in the top half of the table, he will probably have met expectations.

He could, though, have wished for a kinder introduction to life in the Premier League, with his first match in charge at Anfield when Brighton travel to play Liverpool on October 1^st.

In the meantime, he will be getting to know his new charges, although, like all managers at the moment, there will be plenty of absences with players away on international duty with their countries.

It may take a little time for him to adapt to his new club and circumstances, but Brighton have faith in him as attested to by the fact that he is the only man they considered for the job.

And the fact that Juventus were also considering hiring him to replace the underfire Max Allegri indicates that the South Coast side could have pulled off another coup by appointing him.