Champions League boss brands Tony Bloom a 'genius' as Hearts investor handed top 'visionary' billing
The pair worked together at Brighton and now he faces off against another of the Hearts investor’s clubs.
A Champions League boss has hailed Hearts investor Tony Bloom - as he prepares to face one of his clubs in UEFA’s top club competition.
The Jambos are top of the Premiership by three points after a fantastic win at Celtic over the weekend. They face Falkirk on Saturday for a chance to make that lead six, albeit with the current champions holding games in hand, as talk of a sustained title charge takes flight.
Part of the reason for such a strong first half of the season is the investment from Brighton owner Tony Bloom, who has also brought his Jamestown Analytics recruitment software to Gorgie. It has paid dividends through the likes of Claudio Braga and Alexandros Kyziridis and Marseille boss Roberto De Zerbi knows all about Bloom, having worked as head coach under Bloom in Brighton.
Tony Bloom verdict from Champions League boss
Bloom has also transformed the fortunes of Union Saint-Gilloise, who have won the Belgian top flight, and now compete in the Champions League. They face De Zerbi’s Marseille this week at Europe’s top table and after a disappointing display against Lille in Ligue 1, the Italian head coach wants a Champions League reaction. He did, however, give Hearts some encouragement with high acclaim for the Jambos investor.
De Zerbi said: “We don’t have the time to dwell on results. We know it’s going to be an important match, it can allow us to move on from the Lille performance, which might have been the worst since my arrival. I’m not happy with the quality of our play.
“I’d like us to play better, we’ve had strong spells during matches but not over the course of an entire match. The absences of Hamed Traore and Amine Gouiri have an impact, because now we don’t have a number 10.
“I can talk about the Union Saint-Gilloise team and I can talk about Tony Bloom. Union is a strong squad, which has won a championship in Belgium. Tony Bloom is a genius and a visionary. He's always done things his own way and he turned around the history of Brighton.”
Roberto De Zerbi on Tony Bloom
It’s not the first time Bloom has been praised by De Zerbi, who said recently: “I really miss Brighton. I miss my players a lot. I miss them because I really care for them. I miss the city of Brighton that has its own essence. I miss the seagulls, I miss the wind.
“I had a special connection with this city. I would walk around the city or on the shore with a cap, glasses and Airpods in the rain and I was able to escape with my thoughts. It is something I was only able to do there. I am still very grateful to Tony Bloom and Paul Barber, who gave me the chance to be a coach in the best league in the world.
“But we had a different vision. Not in terms of transfers and signings, not because of a player more or a player less, not about the doctors, but about the vision for the foreseeable future of the club.”