Brighton and Hove Albion’s negotiations with Borussia Dortmund and VfB Stuttgart for Pascal Groß and Deniz Undav are not advancing.
That’s according to Sky Sport Germany, BILD and Fussball.News, who all cover the two situations today and comments from those involved.
First Groß, with Sky reporting that the story between the player and Dortmund ‘does not yet have a happy ending’ as negotiations with Brighton are stalling.
Everything appeared to be going in the right way as Groß had an agreement in principle with the player in place but finding a deal with Brighton has not been as easy.
Dortmund have offered around €7-8m but that’s still too low for the Seagulls, who want around €10m. There has been no breakthrough in negotiations up to this point.
The German club’s sporting director Lars Ricken was pulled into comments on the matter in a media round in Osaka this week, but remained uncommitted, or at least unwilling to make concrete statements, hinting the poker continues between the two clubs.
BILD cover this in a little more detail, explaining that Dortmund and Groß have been in agreement for weeks but the deal ‘suddenly wobbles enormously’.
“I can’t give you final information about Pascal Groß yet,” they quote Ricken as saying on the matter.
“In the end it’s not our player either. In this respect, I find it difficult to talk about players from other clubs. I would like to stick to that for the time being.”
They add that the issue remains a difference in valuation between the two clubs, with Brighton wanting €10m, despite Groß being in the final year of his deal, while Dortmund have only offered €8m at most.
It’s a similar situation with Undav, who Stuttgart have been in talks with Brighton over for weeks but are yet to get close to bringing back.
That’s despite the striker doing everything in his power to make the move happen, even holidaying in Stuttgart and turning up at their pre-season training to make the point publically.
So far, the battle between the two clubs has seen Stuttgart activate a purchase clause but with that countered by Brighton via a buy-back clause to stop the deal happening.
Negotiations have been ongoing since then to try and find an agreement and VfB Stuttgart sports director now says matters are “volatile”.
“It lasts for several weeks and is very volatile,” he is quoted as saying, before adding he does not want to “orientate” his feelings on the matter publically.
It’s all a bit of a mess, with both Dortmund and Stuttgart seemingly growing frustrated with Brighton as talks continue to go nowhere.
