After overseeing Brighton’s highest Women’s Super League finish, you could forgive Dario Vidosic for being in a celebratory mood. But that is not his style. “I’m not too interested about being the best of the rest, I want to be the best of the best,” he says at the end of his first season in English football. “That’s going to be our mentality, that’s what we’re going to strive to achieve.”
Brighton finished fifth, eclipsing everyone except the so-called “big four”. Doing so has proved to be something of a curse in recent years; in 2021, Everton dropped to 10th the following season while in 2022, Tottenham were ninth a year later. After finishing fourth in 2024, Liverpoolparted ways with their manager, Matt Beard, in February and dropped down to seventh.
Vidosic is keen to not only ensure no such drop-off is repeated by his side but that they keep pushing forward and challenge for silverware. “We want to build, we don’t want to be a one-off where we have a good season and then we fall. We’ve set that platform now.
“We’ve not achieved anything yet. We have to be proud of what we’ve achieved. For me, ’d have loved to have done a bit more.
“At the start I said we want to win trophies and compete in all competitions. We’re trying to win, we’re trying to build towards that. We go out every game with the intention to play our football, to try to get the three points. Until it’s mathematically impossible or until we get knocked out of a certain competition, that [winning] is always the goal. That’s how we train, that’s the mindset we try to instil.
“We want to make real history for the club and bring a trophy. We weren’t able to do that this year but that’ll be the ambition again next season.”
Brighton’s home form has been key to their improvement. Only Liverpool and Manchester City managed to win there. Chelsea and Manchester United were held to draws, while Arsenal, nowthe European champions, were beaten 4-2 at the Broadfield Stadium last month.
Under Vidosic, Brighton have developed a modern playing style: they were ranked fourth in the WSL for possession and had the fifth-highest number of touches in their opponents’ penalty area. Only Arsenal had a greater shot-conversion percentage.
“As a player, I always loved to have the ball,” Vidosic says. “When I didn’t, I’d try to run off to press to win it back so it stems a little bit from my playing days. I always wanted to have the ball at my feet. It’s the sort of football I think is enjoyable for the players.
“It needs to be enjoyable, the way we play. It’s something I want people to enjoy, to say: ‘We like to watch your team play football, we want to sacrifice our weekends, we want to travel crazy hours to all parts of the country to watch you and we know we’re going to watch a good game of football.’ That’s really important.”
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Vidosic deployed the same style in his first managerial job, coaching Melbourne City to the 2024 A-League Women title. That success caught Brighton’s eye and their approach last summer took the Croatia-born former Australia and Adelaide United winger by surprise. “It all happened very, very quickly over the course of three or four nights, and then after that was told they would like to offer me the job and then the visa process, that took some time.
“It’s more true in this day and age – where you just never know who’s watching. That’s something I always say to my players – your life can change sometimes with one game. If you do the right thing, you work hard, it doesn’t matter where in the world you are, that opportunity might come.”
For the 38-year-old and his young family it was a big decision but one he is evidently glad he took. “I was excited with the project and also wanting to test myself in what’s regarded as the best league in the world,. I felt I was ready. I thank them very much for taking a risk on a young coach to give me an opportunity.
“It’s an ambitious, supportive club, especially of the women’s game. We want to challenge the establishment, we want to be right up there. We feel we can compete.”