Gold shares how journalists reacted to Stellini’s De Zerbi comments

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Journalists came away from Cristian Stellini’s press conference before Tottenham Hotspur’s clash with Brighton at the weekend thinking that he had actually done a better job of bigging up Roberto De Zerbi than De Zerbi may have done if he went for an interview for the Spurs post.

That is according to Alasdair Gold, who was discussing the clashes between the two bosses during Tottenham’s 2-1 win over the Seagulls on his YouTube channel.

As reported by Sky Sports, Roberto De Zerbi accused Cristian Stellini of disrespecting him with his comments before the game.

It appears that the Tottenham interim boss’ comments had been interpreted by some as a claim that De Zerbi is only continuing the good work of Graham Potter.

Stellini full of praise for De Zerbi

Of course, De Zerbi is receiving all kinds of plaudits for the work he has done since arriving in the Premier League. Brighton have kicked on since Potter’s departure. So you could understand the Italian’s frustration if Stellini had downplayed the work he had done on the south coast.

However, Gold does not believe that is what Stellini said at all. In fact, he shared how many of the journalists reacted after hearing Stellini be so positive about the Brighton boss – who has been linked with taking the Tottenham job.

“I don’t think he could have been anymore complimentary about De Zerbi,” he told his YouTube channel.

“We all walked away from it, and honestly, this is absolute honesty, this is not revising it with hindsight or anything, honest truth, as soon as the press conference finished, various journalists, we all said to each other: ‘wow, that was a better interview for De Zerbi than De Zerbi could have done himself if he wanted the job’. Because he really, Stellini, raved about him, glowing reports about the way he coaches, everything.”

It does appear that Stellini’s comments have been misinterpreted by some. Of course, English is not the Tottenham boss’ first language. And there is always a danger that comments can read slightly differently once they have been translated into another language.

It will be interesting to see what Daniel Levy made of everything surrounding De Zerbi over the last week. Reports have suggested that De Zerbi is in contention for the Tottenham job.

And the work he is doing with Brighton shows exactly why. They are playing stunning football. And no Tottenham fan has denied that they were robbed by Saturday’s result.

But he is clearly a fiery character. And that may perhaps have an impact on whether Spurs look to make an approach for the 43-year-old in the summer.