Let us deal with the important stuff first. Unfortunately, Fabian Hurzeler has not appointed a Gregg Wallace look-a-like to his Brighton coaching team to replace Vincenzo Teresa, who left the Albion along with the rest of Roberto De Zerbi’s huge entourage.
That is the bad news. The good news is Hurzeler has brought in an assistant with an uncanny resemblance to 2008-09 Brighton Player of the Season Andrew Whing as one of three new members of backroom staff.
Only one of these fresh faces follows Hurzeler from St Pauli. Both Brighton and Hurzeler have shown respect by not asset stripping the German outfit of an entire coaching team, like Graham Potter and Chelsea did to the Albion.
Either that or Tony Bloom and Paul Barber OBE found St Pauli’s sporting director Andreas Bornemann an even tougher negotiator than his reputation suggests and opted to avoid further talks over more staff.
Both Andrew Crofts and Jack Stern maintain their positions as first team and goalkeeper coach respectively. The duo offer some continuity from the De Zerbi Era and will have an important role to play in helping Hurzeler settle in.
The fate of set piece coach Nick Stanley meanwhile remains unclear. Hurzeler has already spoken about the importance of corners and free kicks, saying: “You have a plan against the ball and you have a plan with the ball and on top of that there’s set pieces.”
This will be music to the ears of Albion fans who have long moaned about Brighton being crap at attacking set pieces and even crapper defending them. It will be interesting to see if Hurzeler opts to keep Stanley on board.
Here are the three new recruits joining the Brighton coaching team of Fabian Hurzeler.
Jonas Scheuermann – Assistant head coach
Jonas Scheuermann is Hurzeler’s new assistant and the aforementioned Andrew Whing look-a-like – which also means he looks like the character Bill from Guess Who?
He joins the Albion from Bundesliga outfit Augsburg, where he was made assistant head coach in 2016 aged only 30. The mathematicians amongst you will deduce that means he is 38-years-old now, continuing the theme for Fabian Hurzeler of a young coaching team.
Despite his relatively tender age, Scheuermann will have picked up plenty of ideas during his time at Augsburg. He worked under seven different head coaches in Bavaria.
Like Hurzeler, Scheuermann began his coaching career in the German non league ranks. He spent a decade with Munich-based amateur club SV Waldeck-Obermenzing before joining Augsburg in 2015, initially as Under 19s coach.
Within a season, he was promoted to the role of first team assistant. Out of respect for his work at Augsburg, the German side were more than happy to facilitate a move to Brighton with the terms of the deal undisclosed.
Although Scheuermann and Hurzeler have never worked together before, the two are familiar with each other. They travelled to England during Germany’s winter break when Hurzeler attended Brighton’s 4-2 win over Spurs at the Amex.
Hurzeler has a reputation as a hothead in the dugout, racking up seven yellow cards for St Pauli last season. That leaves the strong possibility Scheuermann could find himself in charge at some point should the Albion head coach be banned.
Brighton fans are used to such scenarios playing out. The suave and sophisticated Andrea Maldera stepped in for De Zerbi on several occasions when the fiery Italian was banished to the stands. Or back in Italy/Turkey having emergency dental work/hair transplant.
Marco Knoop – Goalkeeper coach
Marco Knopp is the only coach to follow Hurzeler from St Pauli to Brighton. He will work alongside Stern with the Albion’s impressive roster of goalkeepers.
Knopp was a very popular character at the Millerntor-Stadion, where he was quite possibly the only goalkeeper coach in the world to take post-match interviews. Imagine the scenes when he is put in front of the press following a 3-0 home defeat to Southampton.
With a 13-year goalkeeping career through the German regional leagues, Knopp is the most experienced member of Hurzeler’s team in terms of playing football at a decent level.
Knopp moved into coaching with VFL Bochum in 2006. He has since worked with Borussia Dortmund Under 19s, Fenerbahce and Nordsjaelland before joining St Pauli six months before Hurzeler was promoted to head coach.
Max Lesser – Tactical Analyst
The third and final coaching team appointment by Fabian Hurzeler is Max Lesser, who arrives at the Amex is a tactical analysist.
Lesser started out as a coach, working under his father Henry as assistant manager with TSV Lehnerz in 2013 aged 18. Yes, an 18-year-old assistant manager.
He went onto manage SG Johannesberg, a German amateur side as opposed to a club in South Africa. A spell as number two at Kickers Offenbach followed before Lesser moved to Stuttgart, where he assisted with the Under 19s.
It was at Stuttgart that Lesser made the move into tactical analysis, quickly rising up the ranks to lead the club’s department across the 2021-22 and 2022-23 season.
He moved to Ajax last summer, so will presumably have some knowledge of the Albion already seeing as Brighton faced the Dutch giants in last season’s Europa League.
Now aged 29, he becomes the youngest member of the youngest coaching team in the Premier League.
