Albion fans used to have a chant in honour of a football genius.

Without wanting to be unfair, it was probably somewhat ironic at first for their full-back Johnny Crumplin.

Then he had a blinder at Anfield.

A former Albion and Italian League midfielder reckons his old club might have got another genius on their hands after appointing Roberto De Zerbi as coach But he has hinted it may not be a Graham Porter mark II.

Which, for all the fine work Potter did, is a good thing. Time to move on and evolve.

Early indications are De Zerbi, with his possession-based 4-2-3-1 if we want to be simplistic, will be a bit different to Potter and maybe a bit more fiery.

He is regarded as one of the brightest coaching talents to have come through the Italian ranks.

De Zerbi, 43, will be presented to the media today.

Then, with a sizeable coaching staff, he will look towards a hectic month of Premier League fixtures.

Actually, he is probably looking at that already.

De Zerbi’s former Napoli team-mate Christian Bucchi, who went on to become a coaching counterpart and is currently in charge at Ascoli, said: “Roberto is a very good coach and above all is very good in the role of manager, so I think the Premier League will be perfect for him and his idea of football, which is very similar to that of (Pep) Guardiola.”

Bucchi’s distinction between coach and manager suggests De Zerbi will play the role differently to Potter.

The new Albion head coach was finding his feet in Serie A with Benevento when Andrea Orlandi got the closest look at his teams while playing for Novara.

Th ex-Albion man, who now works in the football media and as a talent-spotter, said: “De Zerbi is kind of a football genius in Italy.

“He was a bit of a rebel as a footballer.

“An attacking midfielder, a quality player, never really fulfilled his potential and then as a coach he is a student of the game.

“In Italy, everyone speaks highly of him.

“There’s huge hype about his personality as well because he is someone who doesn’t necessarily follow the rules and who takes jobs if he believes he can improve the team and if he sees he has the kind of players to play the style of football he wants to play.

“Which is basically very Guardiola-esque in terms of having the ball, getting to the opposition half through combination play.

“He is very followed and studied by so many young coaches in Italy.

“Even when he was at Foggia in Serie C, he had a huge following and everyone was speaking about this young coach who was going to be the next big thing in Italy.

“He got his chance in Sassuolo, played really well, got good results and the big move to Shakhtar Donetsk.

“Due to the war he left and I think Brighton is a fantastic challenge for him.

“He would be, I think, a really good coach for Brighton.”

In terms of type of appointment, Tony Bloom has done it again.

The Albion chairman and owner went for safe hands and experience in Chris Hughton when the club were struggling in the Championship almost eight years ago.

But that was very much the exception in terms of successful candidate.

Over the last 13 years, he has given Poyet his first job as a No.1, Oscar Garcia and Sami Hyypia their first chances in England and Graham Potter his first in the Premier League.

Now he brings in the club’s first Italian boss for his first crack at English football.

De Zerbi is understood to be strong in English and Spanish languages.

He twice took Sassuolo to eighth place in Serie A.

In the first of those campaigns, and his second at the club, they ranked third for both possession share and passing percentage, behind only Juventus and Napoli.

The season before that saw De Zerbi’s Sassuolo come 11th, which is somewhat overlooked now but was still a fabulous effort.

They were in the top seven for both passing and possession and piled up an Albion-esque 16 draws in 38 games.

Di Zerbi’s third season at Sassuolo saw them again finish eighth. Their possession share dropped to 12th in Serie A at 31.3% but they used what they had well enough with a passing completion rate bettered only by Juventus.

In that breakthrough stint at Foggia, to which Orlandi referred, De Zerbi’s side averaged 1.86 points per game across 90 matches.

His record in the Ukrainian league with Shakhtar was a hugely impressive 15 wins and two draws in 18 games.

While his most common formation is 4-2-3-1, we have seen with Potter that those convenient numbers and hyphens are just part of the story in terms of how a team sets up and reacts in different on-field situations.

Football genius? Let us be the judge of that.

It all starts back at Anfield.