What to make of Roberto De Zerbi's comments at Roma?

Was he looking to engineer his own exit this summer?

That is a conclusion that many take from several things the head coach says these days.

Or was he painting a picture of how Albion can progress, including him and his players?

Was he telling how this enriching but soon-to-end Europa League campaign can be their next stepping stone on an upwards path with the Seagulls?

After all, no one in the Albion camp put themselves in any shop windows with their performances and result at the Stadio Olimpico.

(Apart, possibly, from Simon Adingra).

Speaking after the 4-0 defeat, De Zerbi said Bloom could learn after this battle with experienced Euro campaigners and the weeks which preceded it.

But, he stressed, it wasn’t just Bloom. It was De Zerbi himself. It was the players.

If you knew none of the background and took it all at face value, to me those were the words of someone committing to help Albion progress.

As they have done in the past.

For a while it seemed like they were fated never to get out of the Championship. But they did it.

For a while it seemed like they would not beat their best-ever finish of 13th, set in 1982. But they did it and now expect to go on doing it.

Reference to Albion having had a meteoric rise is misleading.

The progress has been incremental, step by step, barely noticeable at times.

So, if they were to get back to Europe in the next couple of years and make the last eight, last four, it would be totally in-keeping with what we have seen in the last 15 years.

But, of course, there IS background and there is interpretation pretty much whenever De Zerbi speaks.

This was perhaps his least subtle reference to the January transfer market.

But why talk about learning, why talk about qualifying for European football again if he wants to get out?

De Zerbi spoke with pride and commitment about his Albion squad during his return to Italy, including after the game.

He did so in response to questions which shifted in tone over a little more than 24 hours.

It was noticeable from questions to both De Zerbi and Daniele De Rossi that Italian reporters focus more on the tactical aspect than any others I have come across.

In England, it tends to be more about the human aspect – about emotions, reactions, feelings, opinions, moods.

The Italians appeared to question De Zerbi’s tactics and he was pretty defensive at times, saying the same methods had worked against Arsenal and Liverpool.

It felt like those who had been asking him about returning to Italy on Wednesday evening were doubting him a night later.

So the tactical questions came – and he spoke about mentality and big-game experience.

He said: “It affected all my players. Steele isn’t used to this type of mach.

“Dunk isn’t used to this type of match and pressure.

“The situation for the second goal when he was closing down Lukaku, I’ve seen him defend and close down Premier League strikers such as Isak of Newcastle, Haaland.

“Gross isn’t used to this type of match and did not perform to his level. Gilmour as well.”

Roma were ruthless, clinical and, the Italian jury said, won the tactical battle.

It was a very tough watch for Albion fans and a shattering experience for their players.

In much of the game there was not a four-goal difference between the teams.

There was that poor second goal gifted to Roma by Lewis Dunk’s second such mistake in the Europa campaign.

The third that, in this VAR age, looked offside, just at a time when one felt Albion might eat into a 2-0 deficit.

Those chances for Danny Welbeck which might have been buried and the deflected Adingra cross or shot which hit the post.

The morning after the mauling before, amid tired minds and bodies and thoughts of getting home, one could understand a nagging, deflating thought among Albion fans.

Was that as far as this all goes?

Was that seething coliseum in the Italian capital the place Albion found themselves too far out of their depth?

Maybe. But we have felt that before.

I remember think exactly that when they lost 2-0 at Newcastle early in the promotion season of 2016-17.

At Roma, one felt the full magnitude of the surroundings, the opposition, the history, the occasion, the level – and Albion caught the hosts at very much the wrong time.

When there were moments which could have given Albion a lift, things went against them.

At times they failed to stand up to the pressure.

Roma had a ruthless quality.

So now De Zerbi will demand more of everyone to, firstly, keep Albion where they are – which is at a dizzy height in the context of their history – and, hopefully progress further.

That is what was said in Rome on Thursday evening.

And another thought. What if, instead of talking about Albion’s future progress and being self-critical, RDZ had shrugged it all off?

How would that have been interpreted?

Maybe European qualification is the key to his immediate future.

If he has that challenge again, he will relish it.

All of this, of course, is overlooking the fact he is under contract and assuming the right offer from elsewhere is forthcoming.

Or maybe we should stop worrying about it.

Stop reading into his every utterance or post-match frown.

There are still some important games to come.