Roberto De Zerbi announced his departure from Brighton & Hove Albion in mid-May, but the club have been forced to wait nearly a move to secure his successor.
Brighton actually moved quickly for their first choice having already done work on who would be best to step in at the AMEX Stadium and their analytical based approach came up with Ipswich Town’s Kieran McKenna.
However, despite agreeing terms on a deal with McKenna, he opted to stay put with the newly promoted Championship side and signed a new long-term contract at Portman Road.
That meant a new search for Brighton and it brought them to another second-tier boss, but not from England…from Germany.
Fabian Hurzeler agrees terms with Premier League Brighton
HITC can confirm that Brighton have agreed terms with St Pauli head coach Fabian Hurzeler – after making him their top target last week.
The Texas-born 31-year-old has been in charge of St Pauli for two-seasons and led them to the Bundesliga Zwei title, but he won’t be around to coach them in the top-flight.
Hurzeler is now on course to become the youngest full time manager in Premier League history – beating the previous record of Chris Coleman, who was 32 when he was appointed Fulham boss after being their interim manager.
New coach is set to bring Bayern Munich DNA to the AMEX
Hurzeler began his footballing career with Bayern Munich’s academy, playing for the second team over a couple of seasons before spells with the reserve teams at Hoffenheim and 1860 Munich – before going into coaching at just 23.
He is now set to move to England and many won’t know what to expect, but he admits that much of his early experiences at Bayern have impacted on him.
Speaking to the Bundesliga official website last month, he revealed: “Of course at the moment it looks like I am a defensive coach and like to play defensively, but it’s not like that.
“I played for Bayern Munich for many, many years and there the DNA is that you must win and you must have the ball. It was always such that we had the ball and I liked that as a player, so of course I like it as a coach. To have the ball and to dominate the game.”
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