Brighton & Hove Albion have confirmed the appointment of Andrew Crofts as interim head coach via the club’s official website following the departure of Graham Potter to Chelsea.
The Seagulls’ U21 head coach will be supported by his assistant Shannon Ruth, set-play coach Nick Stanley, assistant goalkeeping coach Jack Stern and ex-Liverpool midfielder Adam Lallana.
The club will begin the process of appointing Potter’s successor after Saturday’s Premier League game at Bournemouth, as Brighton will not have any fixture until October 1, following the postponement of their home game against Crystal Palace.
The break will give the Brighton bosses ample time to scour the market and select a candidate good enough to continue Potter’s impressive work at the Amex Stadium.
There had been speculation that first-team coach and former Brighton player Bruno would be appointed interim coach, but he has decided to join Chelsea as part of Potter’s backroom staff, and Crofts has now taken on the role.
Lallana, who will assist Crofts in the dugout, is currently injured and is not expected to be fit until the game against Liverpool, by which time Brighton hope to have appointed a new permanent head coach.
Crofts was delighted with the chance to lead the club he once represented during his playing days but is fully focused on the trip to the Vitality Stadium.
“At the moment all I am thinking about is the group and what the group needs over the next few days,” he said.
“I’m proud and excited, I’ve been associated with the football club for such a long period over different spells, but it’s not about me, it’s about what the club needs and what the players need.
“The main focus is going to Bournemouth, to stay in the moment that they’re in as a group, to fight as hard as we can to get more points on the board, and with what I have seen this season, they’re in such a good place, such confidence, you can see they’re really enjoying their football and looking forward to the next game.
“They know where they’re at and what they’ve had to do to get to that point, so it’s very much a case of keeping it the same as what they’ve been doing. We don’t need to change anything.
“We just have to help drive what they’ve been doing. They’ve worked so hard as a group to get to where they are now, it’s just a case of helping them in any way we can.”
In addition to Potter and Bruno, Brighton have lost assistant manager Billy Reid, first-team coach Bjorn Hamberg, goalkeeping coach Ben Roberts and assistant head of recruitment Kyle Macaulay.
