VERY FRANK BRUNO
Brighton cult hero on surviving in the top flight How he tamed Barca and Real in team of minnows Why Hughton is a match for PSG’s manager
AfTER the heartache of so many near misses, Brighton captain Bruno made a deal with himself and God that he would climb a mountain if the Seagulls ever soared to promotion.
When Chris Hughton’s men finally achieved that monumental feat in May, the charismatic, bearded full back headed to the top of Montserrat, a 4,055ft-high (1.25km) mountain in his native Catalonia.
The way the defender explains it at Brighton’s plush training complex, it was a walk in the park compared with the 42 league games he put his legs through last season.
He said: ‘There is a church there. Quite a lot of people, they make promises. They say if I get that job, if something (is good) with health, I am going to go up there walking. I made that promise that if we got promoted, I would go there. And I went.
‘It was three hours walking up to the mountain, but it was nice. I got there and I went to the church. I’m a Catholic person. I went to say thank you for what we achieved.’
Bruno is still counting his blessings that they went up in his fifth season at the Amex Stadium. The year before, Brighton missed out on automatic promotion on a devastating day at Middlesbrough and were then knocked out of the play-offs by Sheffield Wednesday.
There was also a failed play-off push in each of his first two seasons at the club. for the 36- year- old, the question was whether he would ever make it.
‘Since I came, we’ve been close,’ he said, ‘but for me every year was a disappointment. Sometimes, it was, “We are not going to get there” — but we kept fighting.’
Age was not on his side. Bruno calls himself an old man, and he will be the fifth oldest outfield Premier League debutant if he features this season (after Trevor francis, Graham Alexander, Graham Rix and Richard Gough) but few in the squad look after themselves so well as brown-rice devotee Bruno, a player whose career has always shuttled along at a slower pace than most.
More than 10 years ago he was considered a late bloomer in Spain as he helped minnows Almeria, who had been in the top flight only once in their entire history, reach La Liga. The similarities to Brighton, now third favourites to go down, are clear. Bruno takes optimism from his own history. He said: ‘Everyone thought (with Almeria) “you are going to be relegated”.
‘We finished eighth in La Liga. We beat Real Madrid. We drew with Barcelona. We played away at Deportivo La Coruna and beat them 3-0. That was a good start.’
Brighton’s task on the first day of the new season could hardly be tougher. They are home to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, a game Bruno says will be ‘ the special one’ for him and Brighton. The Amex, opened in 2011, has never hosted Premier League football. Brighton have not played in the top flight since 1981-82.
The Spaniard also has a personal reason to look forward to the game. Last year, when Brighton were knocking on the door of the Premier League, he said City were the club he would like to play for.
He explains: ‘When I was young, Guardiola was my idol. He was playing for Barcelona when he was 18. All the boys, at maybe 13, looked at him like a role model.
‘I like his style as well. I’m so lucky because I met him a couple of times, he is a top man.’
Those youthful days in Barcelona are long gone. Bruno has Anglicised himself during his time in Britain. He even put photos of himself playing cricket on his social media accounts this summer, his bearded face conjuring visions of WG Grace.
His manager may have represented the Republic of Ireland but Hughton was born in England and is one of few British coaches plying theirs trade in the Premier League. Bruno gives huge credit to Hughton, who he even puts on a par with Paris Saint- Germain manager and three-time Europa League winner Unai Emery, who coached him at Almeria and took him to Valencia.
‘Every manager is different. from every one you learn different things. Chris — the way he manages everything — he is over every small detail.
‘Unai Emery, tactically, how he prepared the games, maybe he is one of the best. That is why he is at PSG but, everything together, Chris is really good.’
Pre-season has been impressive. Brighton won their first three games without letting in a goal. But Bruno admits that what he faces in the Premier League has not really sunk in yet.
‘We don’t realise where we are. We have had the same pre-season. Until you get to the first game, it is almost the same. I think when we get there, we are going to realise that we are Premier League.’