Graeme Souness has criticised Brighton and Hove Albion’s appointment of Roberto De Zerbi because he has ‘seven jobs in nine years,’ but probably hasn’t taken a close look at why the Italian coach moved on so many times.
The former Sassuolo and Shakhtar Donetsk boss was chosen to replace Graham Potter, who was poached by Chelsea, and has his first Premier League experience.
Souness complained about the CV of the 43-year-old, noting “seven jobs in nine years – if you’re an outstanding coach, people want to hold onto you.”
That doesn’t really tell the story of De Zerbi, because his general career path has been one of constant progress.
Retiring as a player in 2013 after an experience in Romania at CFR Cluj, De Zerbi started from the bottom and moved his way very rapidly up the ranks.
In two years at Foggia, he got them to the Lega Pro promotion play-offs and won the Coppa Italia Lega Pro, but despite extending his contract to 2019, he left by mutual consent in 2016 due to a fundamental difference in strategy with the club hierarchy.
A brief spell at Palermo followed, a club famous for going through coaches at a rate of knots, then took over a Benevento side bottom of the table and almost managed to turn things around.
He was the one who left Benevento for a step up to Sassuolo, impressing over three seasons with his attractive style of football, securing eighth place twice and only missing out to Roma on the Conference League qualification on goal difference.
Again, De Zerbi was the one who walked away because he wanted a new challenge at a higher level, participating in the Champions League with Shakhtar Donetsk.
Sassuolo would’ve been more than happy to keep hold of him and indeed tried to convince the coach to stay on.
He won the Ukrainian Supercup, but the season was cut short by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, so his departure from that club became inevitable in the circumstances.
Graeme is an old grump. Nothing original to say.
The same thing was said when Klopp was appointed at Liverpool