Roma 4-0 Brighton: Strong reaction from the back of an Italian taxi

SussexWorld

Sussex World columnist Ian Hart gives his views on Brighton's painful Europa League defeat in Rome from the back of an Italian taxi

Transcript

00:00 We're delighted to be joined by Ian Hart this morning, the Sussex World columnist and

00:06 lifelong Brighton fan.

00:09 Ian, really, really disappointing night on the pitch in Rome.

00:14 How would you sum that up, please?

00:17 Disappointing, yes, but we've got to take stock of where we've been, you know, how far

00:24 we've come.

00:25 We've been on a European journey.

00:31 If someone said to me 10 years ago, 20 years ago, you'll get to the last 16 of a European

00:39 trophy, you'll go in the Olympic Stadium in Rome, you know, where Liverpool beat Borussia

00:46 Mönchengladbach in 1977.

00:50 But you'll lose and you'll lose quite heavily and in fact, I'd probably snap your hand off

00:56 still.

00:57 So, you know, I think you just have to.

01:00 It is disappointing, but we've come back from worse and we just go again.

01:06 You cannot lose two match winning players in Matoma and Pedro.

01:13 You cannot lose because Matoma and Pedro could have won that game last night.

01:17 Not single handedly, but they could have done things.

01:21 So you know, look, we've had a lot of injuries as I put in my column.

01:25 I'll tell you the thing that really disappoints me more than the result, Darren, is people

01:31 putting their seats up for sale straight after the final whistle last night.

01:35 Oh, really?

01:36 Have you heard of fans doing that?

01:39 It's all over social media.

01:40 Well then, I'll tell you what, I hope you get your money back on your ticket and we

01:46 really don't want you as a fan anymore.

01:49 So don't come anymore.

01:52 Because you know, that's a terrible knee jerk reaction.

01:56 I'm looking forward to going next week.

02:00 You know, Sheffield Wednesday, Peterborough last season in the playoffs.

02:03 Yeah.

02:04 Who knows?

02:05 You know, you get an early goal, you get an early red card.

02:09 Who knows?

02:10 Strange things have happened.

02:11 Yeah, you would have thought, I know it's going to be so difficult, but if they can

02:16 sort of get two goals in the first half an hour, then it's game on, isn't it?

02:21 But the way they played last night though, Ian, Roman looked so impressive.

02:28 They are impressive.

02:30 It's always difficult to sort of criticise tactics because you know, Dzibirbi's proved

02:36 in the past that he's so adept in that area.

02:39 Brighton did look wide open, didn't they, at that time?

02:42 Yeah, look, but then, you know, we've had injuries, Steel made a couple of great saves.

02:49 We had chances, didn't we?

02:50 We hit the post at, was it 1-0 or 0-0?

02:53 They did have chances, yeah.

02:55 You know, Welbeck had a couple of chances.

02:57 Look, it is what it is.

03:00 We've got to regroup.

03:01 I'd imagine that they flew home last night.

03:04 So we regroup.

03:06 We need three points against Forest.

03:09 We've then got some exciting games coming up, challenging games, but they're all winnable

03:14 games, aren't they?

03:15 Because we know on our day we can beat anybody in our league.

03:19 So look, you have to stay positive.

03:22 It's been an amazing adventure.

03:27 That could have been a 3-2 yesterday, couldn't it?

03:29 Or it could have been a 4-2.

03:33 It could have been, but it wasn't.

03:34 And as they used to say on the Island of Love, it is what it is.

03:40 We just have to move forward.

03:45 My only concern is, and it's probably knee-jerk, not as knee-jerk as the people selling their

03:52 tickets online.

03:53 I understand, and I'm only hearing this second answer, maybe you can confirm this for me.

03:58 RTZ had a little pop at the owners in the press conference.

04:02 We spoke briefly just beforehand, didn't we?

04:05 What did you make of those comments?

04:06 He said that the owner made mistakes, that he made mistakes, and the players, and that's

04:12 something that they can learn from.

04:13 What mistakes do you think he was referring to?

04:17 He's hurting.

04:18 He's come back to his home country.

04:21 He is not the great white hope of Italian football, but his stock is high, and he's

04:27 come back and he's basically been punched on the nose.

04:31 I think that hurt him more than any other defeat in his career.

04:40 So he said things probably in the heat of the moment, in the wake of this heavy defeat,

04:48 and maybe mistakes were made.

04:53 Maybe we should have been more active in the transfer window.

04:59 But again, it is what it is.

05:01 We've just got to move forward.

05:03 I hope that they can have a, not a clear the air meeting, but I hope when the dust settles,

05:11 Tony Bloom is a good fit for Brighton Albion, clearly, with what he's done for the club.

05:17 RDZ currently is a good fit.

05:22 I appreciate that coronas were flowing despite the defeat last night, but I was in a good

05:29 very nice bar called the Miami Bar, which is just near where we got dropped off in the

05:35 buses.

05:36 We had a good old Brighton sing song, they had a kiddie with a guitar singing, good stuff.

05:41 But a couple of people mentioned the P-words.

05:44 They said if RDZ goes, we're going to get Potter back.

05:47 Please, please, no.

05:48 You might find me selling my seat then.

05:52 No, no.

05:53 If you were to put some, if you were pressed, would you say, do you think De Zerby will

05:58 be there next season?

06:00 I hope so.

06:01 Yeah, yeah.

06:02 I can, you can never say never.

06:04 You see, I'm old, old enough to remember 80, 81, where we, we looked dead and buried.

06:13 We then won the last four games of the season to stay up on the last day.

06:17 Alan, Alan Mullery had a bit of a transfer war chest because we sold Mark Lawrenson to

06:23 Liverpool.

06:25 And then Mullery fell out with the chairman.

06:27 He was gone.

06:29 The king is dead.

06:30 Long live the king.

06:31 You know, that you have to, I don't know.

06:35 And football is so unpredictable.

06:39 You know, if, see, in Brighton's favour, I don't think RDZ will be touted for these big

06:47 jobs as much.

06:48 No, no, no.

06:49 That's how fickle it is, isn't it?

06:50 After last night, because you'll be going, you'll be going the hierarchy at Barcelona

06:56 and Liverpool would have been going, oh well, you know.

07:01 But look, who knows?

07:03 We could now go on a winning run, finish back in the European places, even if it's the European

07:09 conference, because I'd take that now.

07:11 And then we just go from there.

07:13 So can I quickly say Jack Stevenson, who's Albion Jack, who was unfortunately stabbed

07:20 on Wednesday night.

07:21 He's made a great, he made a great recovery.

07:24 Yeah, I saw.

07:25 He got a great reception.

07:26 And he got a great reception, although they were singing at the end, there's nothing wrong

07:31 with you, or words to that effect.

07:34 But, and he's got to be, and I love Jack.

07:37 He's a great character.

07:38 He's a real Albion fan.

07:42 He's got to be nailed on for supporter of the year now, which is a positive.

07:48 Yeah, well, maybe, maybe not in the circumstances he would have wanted, but he could be going

07:53 there.

07:54 But yeah, because that was obviously a really, you know, could have been much, much worse

07:59 in incident.

08:00 Did you, what sort of vibe did you get from, from Rome?

08:05 And how was your experience?

08:08 Because obviously Worthing, apart from being a Brighton Oval, a Brighton Oval being a hot

08:13 bed is also a Manchester United hot bed.

08:17 And a number of friends from Worthing who support Manchester United, I do have friends

08:22 that support other football clubs, had been to Rome for the Champions League.

08:28 And sadly, one of my mates was actually stabbed.

08:36 Because they don't stab you to kill you.

08:38 They just stab you to, to, they stab you in the buttocks.

08:42 So it makes it very difficult for you to sit down.

08:44 And it's a very small blade.

08:46 So it's not life threatening.

08:48 It's just horrible.

08:49 Yeah.

08:50 But to be fair, you could get stabbed in Whitehawk, couldn't you?

08:56 You know, we have stabbings in Worthing.

08:58 So it's, it's an epidemic around the globe.

09:03 We've been fortunate and unfortunate that we've been to four cities that, you know,

09:10 that have had quite robust parts of the population.

09:17 You know, we went to Marseilles, we went to Amsterdam, we went to Athens, and then we've

09:22 been to Rome.

09:24 And if you've wanted trouble, there's been trouble everywhere we've been.

09:31 But thankfully, Jack is on the mend.

09:34 And I believe the other two lads that got stabbed as well.

09:38 I mean, you know, this is one of the advantages and disadvantages, or both, of social media.

09:46 You know, that I was getting texts from my brother-in-law.

09:51 And you know, "Mate, son, are you okay, mate?

09:53 There's been a couple of stabbings and they haven't said any names."

09:57 I said, "Yeah, I'm fine."

09:58 You know, you just have to keep your wits about you.

10:08 It was an experience.

10:09 I do believe we're not going to get this deficit back, sadly.

10:14 But it's been a great experience.

10:17 And I do think that, you know, in time, well, we definitely will learn from this.

10:25 And yes, we've made mistakes, but we all go through life making mistakes.

10:31 The thing about mistakes is that you have to learn how to, you know, come back from

10:37 them, don't you?

10:38 Come back.

10:39 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

10:40 Hopefully come back stronger.

10:41 But we spoke just beforehand as well, Ian, that it has been such a ride for Brighton

10:46 this season, like you say, Amsterdam, Athens, Marseille, Rome.

10:51 And you mentioned something about, you know, the time that you've had, you know, that it's

10:55 allowed you to, you know, have had some quality time with your family over on these trips.

10:59 I've had the best time, you know, you can't beat it, can you?

11:03 Yeah, it's brilliant.

11:04 I've had the best time with my boy.

11:06 He's shortly to become a dad.

11:07 So it's almost like a rite of passage now because, you know, I've got another grandchild

11:12 coming and these will probably be the last times that we can do trips like this.

11:18 You know, and it's been really good.

11:20 Great memories.

11:21 And we and we've stayed in some really great hotels.

11:24 And we've also stayed in the worst hotel in the world, the Mansion Hotel in Athens.

11:29 Don't go there.

11:30 Please don't go there.

11:32 There's a crack house one side and a house of ill repute the other side.

11:36 And it is in the middle of water in Athens.

11:38 But my cab is just...

11:39 Not the romantic getaway then for the boy.

11:42 No, certainly not.

11:43 Certainly not.

11:44 I am still with you.

11:45 I've just got to pay the cabbie and then we'll keep talking.

11:50 Yes.

11:51 Are you on your way to the airport at the moment?

11:54 No, I'm at the airport now.

11:55 I'm in a cab.

11:57 It's just...

11:58 Is the cabbie a Roma fan?

12:05 You've gone on mute, Ian.

12:12 How much is it?

12:17 Are you putting a tip on?

12:21 We're not allowed to tip.

12:22 You see, English taxi drivers take note.

12:23 You're not allowed to tip people here.

12:24 He's not a Roma fan, is he?

12:25 I haven't got any cash now.

12:26 Cheers, my friend.

12:27 Thank you.

12:28 Oh, pin.

12:29 Hold on.

12:30 This really is live, Derren, isn't it?

12:31 Yeah, I know.

12:32 This is the background info that you missed.

12:33 Yeah, I just haven't put my link up.

12:34 I'm glad we can bring that.

12:35 I just haven't put my link up.

12:36 I'm glad we can bring that.

12:37 I'm glad we can bring that.

12:38 I'm glad we can bring that.

12:39 I'm glad we can bring that.

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12:51 I'm glad we can bring that.

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13:00 I'm glad we can bring that.

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13:09 I'm glad we can bring that.

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13:26 I'm glad we can bring that.

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