Roberto De Zerbi has handed Albion’s renowned player recruitment system another seal of approval.

The head coach had the final say on the decision to part company with Salvatore Monaco.

Monaco was part of De Zerbi’s staff at Shakhtar Donetsk and was brought in as a talent-spotter in October.

But De Zerbi has already spoken of how the Seagulls’ field-leading work in bringing in talent has been an education for him.

That appears to have been further underlined by Monaco’s departure.

Albion chief executive and deputy chairman Paul Barber said: “Salvatore's role was always one that was going to be different in our club versus the clubs that he's been at before.

“In the end we agreed, and Roberto made the final decision, that Salvatore would leave.

“We’ve got a different process to a lot of clubs.

“What we don't do in the way that other clubs do is charge around the world, constantly watching matches looking at players, which is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

“What we try and do is focus on the areas for improvement, focus on the players that we feel can fill that gap and then send our eyes, our scouts to look specifically at those players.

“We don't tend to do what some scouts do around the world, which is constantly circle the world looking.

“I think that was more Salvatore's sort of previous style of operating.”

Monaco was initially brought in to work closely with Paul Winstanley, replacing Kyle Macaulay, who moved with Graham Potter to Chelsea.