Jainil Shah
Roberto De Zerbi speaks on his future at Brighton amid Manchester United interest
The pressure on Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag following a series of underwhelming performances is mammoth. Manchester United legend and icon Paul Scholes believes that the Red Devils’ new owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS have already decided regarding the Dutch manager’s future away from Manchester.
Manchester United wants to play an attractive brand of football that the fans could get behind at Old Trafford which complements competing at the highest level and winning silverware. A managerial change could mean commencing a new project at Carrington and Roberto de Zerbi has been highly rumored with a move to United.
Roberto De Zerbi has been intensely linked with a move away from Brighton with the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Barcelona interested in his services. The Italian manager has managed to capture imaginations with his playing style since taking over at Amex Stadium.
Recently in an interview with The Athletic, Brighton’s chief executive Paul Barber admitted that the 44-year-old is free to explore opportunities beyond Amex even if they “don’t want to lose him”.
Amidst the spreading links around de Zerbi’s future away from Brighton, the Italian was quizzed about his future ahead of Brighton’s Europa League round of 16 fixture against Roma.
When he was asked about a possible return to his homeland and Serie A, De Zerbi said:
“It’s not true that I don’t think about it, but usually I do what I like. I do what makes me happy and right now it is to be where I am. I’m lucky now to be able to compete with these teams at this level to play these games. It makes me happy when we win but also when we lose, I feel something special.”
The Italian did vow to come back home at some stage in his managerial career although did say that there were ‘some things’ that he ‘didn’t like’ about Italian football when he moved to Shakhtar Donetsk in the summer of 2021.
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“One day I will come back to Italy, I don’t know when this day will come. But it’s true that when I made this choice a couple of years ago to go to Shakhtar, I did it because I wanted to find a way outside Italy and, without going into too much detail, there were some things in Italy that I didn’t like so I decided to try something else.”
De Zerbi’s future is bright, and he is already been regarded as one of the most exciting upcoming managers.
For Manchester United, they need to stir the boat in the right direction and right now it should be about holding the wheel up to the Champions League spot before taking a long-term decision in the summer.
