Yahoo Sports 'So far so good' - Barber backs Hurzeler
Brighton CEO Paul Barber says Fabian Hurzeler is aligned with him on his top-10 ambitions for the club and it is "so far so good" for the Seagulls head coach.
The 31-year-old was appointed in the summer as Roberto de Zerbi's successor and although Brighton have recently hit a rough patch, Barber backs his head coach to deliver on expectations.
"We're hoping we can get through January without too much work," Barber BBC told Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club.
"December was tricky. We've gone on a run where we've not won in eight games which is disappointing and frustrating but the performances have been better than the results.
"We look at performances, how the manager is, and how his staff are and things are pretty good. We're playing some of the best players in the world, great coaches, big clubs, and we're still mid-table within touching distance of another European place so there's a lot of football still to play and we're looking forward to the second half of the season.
"In the Premier League, if you're only 1% or 2% off it in any given fixture it can change the result quite significantly. We all know that everyone around us is competing in those European spots. We have to work very hard every week to get our players to peak condition and prepare for the games we can, and on the day we've got to perform. If we don't perform and someone is on their game, even teams from down the bottom, you can get beaten.
"We want to be a top 10 club on a regular basis. We want to be a top 10 club in the Premier League, and a top four club in the Women's Super League. We know that in any given season we can drop out of that top 10, but we want to try and work every season to improve. But being in the top half of the table is our ambition, and when we appointed Fabian we were clear with him about what that ambition was and he was clear what he needed from us. But sometimes we have to take a step back and realise he's just 31 years of age, and he's in his first season in the Premier League working with one of the younger squads.
"We've got more work to do, but so far so good. We like the way Fabian played football and liked the style he adopted and thought he could build on Graham Potter and Roberto de Zerbi. It raised a few eyebrows over his age, but the reality is you don't know how good someone is in the Premier League until you bring them into it. We've done that, and so far so good."
