Colin Sheridan: It's just who Spurs and Brighton are, mate
WHO THEY ARE: De Zerbi has gone from being Pep’s successor to - perhaps!- contemplating the Ireland job
Remember the halcyon days of early September 2023, when Brighton were flying high in the Premier League, Roberto de Zerbi was the next coming of Christ, and Evan Ferguson, fresh from bagging a hat-trick against Newcastle United, was staring down a 20-goal season? It was a glorious time. Anything was possible, especially for the dreamers who choose to ignore the inevitability of Manchester City’s monetised monopoly of glory and joy and promise and random acts of brilliance.
Brighton shone brightest then, not just because of their manager and their teenage sensation of a striker, but they had a Japanese winger Kaoru Mitoma who they plucked from a Buddhist monastery in Kyoto where he studied his PhD on dribbling and the afterlife of cherry blossoms. It was a beautiful story of hope and happiness and origami. Brighton and Hove Albion were a panacea to the modern ills of the beautiful game. What has happened since? Life, that’s what.
