As Roberto De Zerbi would attest, a month can be a long time in football. At the start of March, the Brighton manager was being linked with a move to Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Liverpool in the summer after taking Brighton to the last-16 of the Europa League.
Yet having admitted this week that his future on the south coast remains uncertain despite having two years left on his contract and demanding talks with owner Tony Bloom “to understand their plan”, the manner of his side’s performance in this clash of styles is unlikely to have convinced any of Europe’s big hitters that he is the manager to take them forward.
