General Premier League Thread 2023-24 Mod Note in op 27/6/23 And 21/05/24

They lost their entire world class midfield, their keeper, and had their best attacker out injured most of the season. Would look at all that before I’d talk about De Zerbi spiralling into inevitable endless decline.

Given the constant links to big clubs it makes a certain amount of sense to part ways now, so the club aren’t caught short.

Former for me.

What are you talking about? Facts are facts, he's 29th in the league for fouls.

Well I don't see much slack being given to the six clubs in the league who have had more injuries than Brighton.

I've seen plenty of clubs have their down-spells rightly explained by injuries… it's not unusual… if clubs (especially smaller ones, for obvious reasons) are missing their best players they tend to do worse…

As for the Xabi Alonso comparison in the next post, I mean, I'm not even sure what to say to that. The suggestion is that it looked like De Zerbi was a bit unsettled. Perhaps they had a conversation at the club; "Hey Roberto, what are ya thinking?", and he perhaps expressed his frustration over trying to implement his style while having his whole midfield sold, and that if a good offer came in, he'd probably like to take it. So perhaps the club said "well, if you're not fully committed to the project, how about we call it quits?". And then they did. (literally the opposite of everything that happened with Alonso, where he was getting interest, went to his club and said "i dont care i want to stay", and that was the end of it).

The alternative is that Brighton sacked a manager who did brilliantly for them, built a successful new approach to playing football, and then after losing a bunch of important players still squeaked out a decent enough top half finish (a very similar finish to what earned Potter the Chelsea job). That, to me, sounds worse than what I'm suggesting…

I'm a fan of Bloom, but if you're right and this is actually just him sacking De Zerbi after what he's done, it'll make me think a lot less of him. And it'll make other managers think twice too, if someone who did as well as De Zerbi got sacked so easily.

I don't for a second believe that's actually the case though.

I suppose it’s the nature of the fouls. 41 cynical fouls.

So the alternative is that Bloom thinks De Zerbi is the real deal, but charitably decided to give him up for free with Europe's elite circling overhead?

The success of Brighton is completely down to Bloom. The recruitment has been outstanding and De Zerbi just arrived in time for the peak and got all the credit for riding that wave. Like so many foreign managers before him, his key attribute was being unknown.

I wonder will Will Still be linked with the Brighton job. He's done well in France and I could see him being the type of appointment Bloom would love

Is that not completely illogical though? We better hire an inferior manager because if we have a good one he will leave.

Bloom seems like the type of guy who had a list a long time ago of potentials. Especially as De Zerbi was making noises about not being happy months ago.

Did Spurs send over some lasagne?

I can't remember exactly when the article was, might have been last summer, but apparently Bloom has a massive potential manager plan drawn out for a number of years, with potential routes it certain things happen.

So for example when Di Zerbi came in, Bloom already had his replacement lined up, based on what the club was doing, so a suitable manager for bottom half and trying to break into top half a suitable manager for EC level trying to break into EL, a suitable manager for developing younger players or more experienced players and so on. And he'll have options 1,2,3 for each route too.

Bowen didn't make their matchday squad.

i'm just dreading the sky klopp circle jerk that will be going all day.

Rumours of surgery for Nunez this summer on the foot injury he's nursing since the last international break. But it's just rumours and they're half hopeful he won't need it.

Reckon that's the title and PFA POTY settled in one fell blow

tonsilitis

Will continue with the Munster hurling for the afternoon so

Which is a better game for viewership than any other possible games, with so little left undecided, tbf.

How many people want to watch Brentford v Newcastle over any of the other games today for example.

Can see it being 6-0 City if they're arsed.

Arsenal will do well to stay focused and win.

I've felt sorry for Wolves all season with refs.

But that is deserved.

Like me though, the crowd barely reacted. I don't think they necessarily wanted a red in this game.

There's some amount of ironic hilariousness about Wolves leading the charge to get VAR scrapped and then VAR giving them a red card in their next game.

Everton beating Arsenal now lol