De Zerbi gives firm answer on Brighton future: I love this club & I want to stay

Facing the press for Friday’s media duties at Brighton’s training ground may have felt a little more manageable this week for Roberto De Zerbi.

The Italian had already come through quite a grilling from some of the club's fans at an open forum at the Amex Stadium earlier in the week. Top of their list of questions - and they asked a number of tough ones - was unsurprisingly the speculation around his future.

Over the last few months, De Zerbi has been linked with some of the biggest jobs in Europe. His contract at Brighton runs until 2026, but when asked a few months ago, his answer was "not close to signing a new one," which only fuelled speculation over an early exit.

His answer for the supporters this week was simple that if he is happy in his work, he stays. Perhaps not the absolute guarantee the fans were looking or hoping for.

But De Zerbi went further at the very end of our interview.

"We're going to speak with Tony [Bloom, the Brighton owner]," he said. "I think I would like to stay in Brighton because I love my players. I love this city. I love my club, my fans.

"I said in the meeting with the fans, if I'm happy, there isn't any club can bring myself to change a team but I want to keep my passion always."

So the question is if you are Brighton how do you keep De Zerbi happy?

"I want to be happy because I would like to compete every game with all my potential qualities in the players, the squad, the style of play, the quality of the players and this season, especially in the last three months, we couldn't do that," he added.

"I think the squad we had when we have started this season, was enough to compete. If you can rotate the players, you can reach the crucial part of the season in different way.

"Some of my players like