Roberto De Zerbi says he will always be grateful for the opportunity Tony Bloom has given him with Albion.

He did so in reply to questions about whether he had held further talks with Bloom about next season.

De Zerbi had earlier been asked about his vision for next season.

Asked about those further talks, De Zerbi said: “I will be grateful for the rest of my life with Tony, because Tony gave me the chance to work in the Premier League, to work in Brighton, to know my players and to know the fans.

“No-one can cancel that. We can disagree in terms of the transfer market, targets (for the team), organisation of the club.

“Anyway, the owner is more important than the coach.

“The coach can say their opinion and I always want to say my opinion, because I think I have that right.

“I am working always for the good of the club, not for other things. And then when we speak I don’t think there will be any problems.”

So was he pretty sure he would still be at the club next season?

De Zerbi said: “First of all, we have to speak with Tony, with Paul (Barber, chief executive), with David Weir (technical director), we have to analyse the situation.

“If you are asking me if I have any club behind me to change my idea, no-one.

“If I say there isn’t any club that can change my idea, you have to believe, because in one year and more I have always been honest.

“I looked you always in the eyes and I think it can be possible to respect, to believe in me. There isn’t any club behind me.

“But with me we reached the Europa League and I would like to have a great result every year.

“First of all because I can’t accept for myself.

“Not only me, we reached the Europa League together, but with me on the bench, and I would like if I stay in Brighton to reach every season the highest target we can.

“But with Tony, with Paul, the other part of the club we argue and I have to be grateful.”

The replies were in English but still open to interpretation.

“Argue” sounds drastic but is likely to mean lively debate and differing opinions.

What counts is that there is under-lying agreement about philosophy and approach.

Purely my own interpretation – it sounds like there is.

That is going not just on what was said at Lancing yesterday but also piecing together clues from recent weeks and adding in a bit of personal opinion.

De Zerbi says he is well within his rights to say his bit and that he does so in a polite manner.

His comments about not having anther club waiting in the wings should put an end to all those stories to the contrary.

Should do – but probably won’t.

There have been numerous references to what he hopes to do with Albion, as a unit and in terms of individual players.

He was asked yesterday for the moments which will stick with him from the season and replied: “I would like to keep the good memories like Marseille at home, Athens away, Nottingham Forest away and Villa at home but we played as a team.

“Then we have to remember the big defeats - Luton, Fulham, Rome.

“We didn’t play an amazing game (at Roma) but a good game because we have to keep something good and something bad.

“If you want to improve you can’t be totally negative but you can’t be totally positive.

“If you analyse the goals, xG fifth, goals conceded seventh.

“This season we didn’t finish at the higher end of the table, because we didn’t score enough goals, not because we conceded too many.

“Tottenham conceded more, Villa two less, all other teams that were not big conceded more or less the same goals.

“We scored 18 goals less than last season.”