Bologna director makes Roberto De Zerbi and Claudio Ranieri claim before Brighton move
De Zerbi joined Brighton on September 19 after previous boss Graham Potter left for the riches of Chelsea. De Zerbi, 43, has made a solid start to Premier League life as Brighton are seventh in the table and are targeting a place in Europe next season, once the season resumes after the World Cup break.
It could however all have been very different as – according to Di Vaio – De Zerbi had detailed talks with Bologna after they sacked Sinisa Mihajlovic on September 6.
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Hide AdIn the end Bologna opted for former Barcelona, Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Italy midfielder Thiago Motta as their new boss after weighing up De Zerbi and also former Leicester City and Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri.
A week after Motta’s appointment, De Zerbi, who previously managed Sassuolo and Shakhtar Donetsk, agreed to the Brighton role.
“Motta was chosen from the list of options, which included De Zerbi and Ranieri,” Di Vaio told Radio Nettuno and reported via Football Italia.
“We exchanged ideas with them too, but only after firing Mihajlovic. Our experience with Sinisa was important and we decided to interrupt our rapport with him before contacting anyone else. After discussing it with the other alternatives for a week, we chose Thiago.”