There appears to be a growing consensus among followers of the English Premier League that Roberto De Zerbi is the best thing since sliced bread.

The Italian took over as Brighton manager in September when Graham Potter left for his ill-fated stint in charge of Chelsea. And to be fair, De Zerbi has done a decent job, guiding the seaside team to what could be their highest ever finish, and maybe even an outside shout at European football.

This has caused an obscene amount of gushing praise from the ranks of English media desperate for a new managerial poster boy to big up and link with every top job around. The thing that gets my goat about all the accolades, though, is that this guy didn’t exactly take over a struggling team with poor players and a broken spirit.

When De Zerbi arrived, the season was admittedly only a couple of months old, but Brighton were in fourth place with a game in hand on the top three and playing some slick football. That was all down to Potter.

The squad was full of high-quality players like Lewis Dunk, Leandro Trossard, Moisés Caicedo and Kaoru Mitoma, not to mention soon-to-be World Cup winning midfielder Alexis Mac Allister. There were also a bunch of promising youngsters in or around the first team. Again, that was down to the previous manager.

This whole thing is symptomatic of the highly irritating belief that flows through the English game: foreign managers with exotic sounding names are fantastic by default

I am not saying that Potter is a genius and De Zerbi merely a lucky man who took over the right team at the right time. That’s far from true. But I think everyone may be losing sight of the fact this is still pretty much the team that Potter built, and not some relegation haunted side that was knocked into shape by a genius Italian.

This whole thing is symptomatic of the highly irritating belief that flows through the English game: foreign managers with exotic sounding names are fantastic by default. Yes, De Zerbi may turn out to be an absolute legend. He may go on to manage a host of Europe’s top teams, win dozens of titles and trophies and end up there on a par with Pep Guardiola, José Mourinho, Alex Ferguson and Carlo Ancelotti. It’s entirely possible, as the chap obviously knows his way around a football pitch despite still being in the early stages of his career.

But whether the Anglo-doubters like it or not, any success being enjoyed by Brighton right now has as much, if not more, to do with Potter’s legacy than De Zerbi’s brilliance.

Everything Potter worked hard to put in place during his three years at the club has continued bearing fruit after his departure. De Zerbi certainly hasn’t broken what was in place, but he didn’t need to fix it either.

Just saying.

 

Paris calling the Special One

I think we all knew that, realistically, Mourinho was unlikely to see out his managerial career with Roma.

When he first arrived in the Italian capital there were some who felt he had maybe found a spiritual home where he could build a nice little legacy before hanging up his boots.

After all, Roma’s current expectations are considerably lower than the likes of Manchester United, Real Madrid and Chelsea, and it wouldn’t take major success to make him a legend to the fans in Rome.

After winning the club’s first trophy in 14 years last season, and all but guiding them to a second successive European final this season, his place in the club’s history has been assured.

But realistically, this was only ever going to be a short-term stay – just long enough for him to regather his thoughts and lick his wounds after the Tottenham Hotspur farce, while biding his time for another attempt at the big time.

Now, if the rumours are true, one of Europe’s big boys is preparing an offer, and if Paris Saint-Germain do come calling, Mourinho will go running.

As happy as he may be at Roma, uber rich PSG will give him one final crack at taking on Europe’s elite and maybe adding to his impressive Champions League haul.

There’s no way he is turning that down. No way at all.

 

Sam’s tenuous England title

Am I the only one who finds it a bit irritating when people refer to Sam Allardyce as the ‘former England manager’ without a hint of irony?

Just about every article I have read since he was appointed Leeds United boss has made it seem like his main claim to fame was leading the Three Lions.

I suppose, technically speaking, the history books do show he was the man in charge of the English national team at one point in its history.

But, as that point only lasted for 90 minutes of actual football and ended in disgrace, I am not entirely sure it’s a title we should be so readily bestowing on Big Sam.

It’s a bit like referring to Liz Truss as former prime minister – factually accurate, maybe, but hardly a role for which she deserves to be remembered.

But anyway, back to Sam.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate his managerial skills. He is my type of no-nonsense manager who doesn’t mince his words or try to be fancier than he should be. And his long, long career is testament to his talent.

But I’m a bit old school, and for me, managing England is a badge of honour that Allardyce comprehensively failed to earn.

Of course, I totally understand why Leeds turned to Allardyce in their hour of desperation. There aren’t many managers with a better record of saving clubs from relegation than the former Bolton Wanderers, West Ham United and Newcastle United boss.

However, I suspect that arriving with just four games left (which will be down to just two by the time you read this) gave him too little time to work his firefighting magic.

If he does keep them up, then it will probably rank as one of the greatest achievements in his long and mostly successful career.

Certainly better than his 67 days running the national team...

 

E-mail: James@quizando.com

Twitter: @maltablade