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JAMES SHARPE: Brighton and Roberto De Zerbi are reaping the rewards of a perfect fit

There was a time, a few years ago, when Roberto De Zerbi slept with a pen and paper by his bed. It was his first season in charge of Italian side Sassuolo and he never knew when lightning might strike. Inspiration often arrived in the middle of the night.

‘I was waking up and writing down my ideas,’ he says. ‘The best ideas come exactly then!’

The Brighton manager doesn’t require a notepad on the nightstand these days, with his thrilling football taking the Premier League by storm, but it takes little to make you realise why football even dominated De Zerbi’s dreams.