VfB Stuttgart’s tough stance in negotiations with Brighton and Hove Albion over striker Deniz Undav saw the Seagulls asking price ‘significantly reduced’.
That’s according to BILD, who look back at the transfer today and how Stuttgart had lined up a replacement for the striker if the talks had failed.
Undav’s return to Stuttgart after his highly successful loan spell at the club last season proved to be one of the major soap operas of the summer as negotiations between the two sides dragged on.
Stuttgart had initially wanted to buy the striker back using a clause they’d negotiated but found themselves blocked by Brighton. The Seagulls used a buy-back clause to immediately counteract the German side, wanting more for the striker if they were to sell permanently.
Undav continued to publicly make it clear he wanted the move, and the two sides negotiated endlessly before eventually striking a €26.7m deal.
BILD now report that the deal only came about because VfB ‘remained tough’ in those negotiations. That stance paid off as in the end, Brighton ‘significantly reduced’ the price they were asking for the striker.
Even they had started to grow concerned a deal wouldn’t happen, though. SO much so, they had negotiated a deal for Stade Rennes’ Arnaud Kalimuendo when the Undav deal was ‘on the brink of collapse’.
They held several video calls with the striker’s advisors, with the player at the Olympics at the time. Ultimately it never happened as a deal was finally done with Brighton for Undav.
That was only because the Seagulls significantly reduced their asking price, perhaps after the German side threatened to walk away and sign Kalimuendo instead.
