Sussex World columnist Ian Hart gives his views on Brighton's painful Europa League defeat in Rome from the back of an Italian taxi
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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.
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13:26 I'm glad we can bring that.