“Heavy loss” – De Zerbi gutted at Brighton’s sale of player, reveals day he told him to get out of his office

While Roberto De Zerbi may have already moved on from Moises Caicedo, that doesn’t appear to be the case about Alexis Mac Allister.

The Brighton manager gave a huge interview to Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday, where he touched on a lot of subject, including the Argentine’s departure from his squad.

Sold at a quite frankly very low price for such a talented player, the loss is one the Seagulls have tried to fill with the likes of Mahmoud Dahoud and the return of Steven Alzate, but there’s no denying he will be missed.

In fact, that’s exactly what the Brighton boss opened up with when the Italian newspaper pointed out he was managing in Serie D just 10 years ago and has since overseen the sale of a World Cup winner.

He said: “Heavy loss. Strong personality. The more the ball is hot, the more he would get it. His good fortune? An ex-footballer father who played with Maradona and made sure he did nothing wrong.”

Gazzetta then ask the Brighton manager for an anecdote that demonstrated the personality of the Argentine, and De Zerbi didn’t have to think twice.

He replied: “On the eve of the away match at Newcastle, I told him: ‘Alex, tomorrow you rest, you stay on the bench’, and he said: ‘If you don’t want to win, then rest me’. Laughing, I told him: ‘As a personality, I’m definitely not coming second to you, get out of my office’. The next day, I benched him. We then lost badly.”

For those who don’t remember, Newcastle won that game 4-1, with Deniz Undav scoring the only goal for Brighton that day.