Brighton and Hove Albion manager Fabian Hürzeler has insisted they sold Deniz Undav this summer because of the player making it clear he wanted to leave.
Fussball News cover comments from the Brighton boss today about why they decided to sell Undav despite reports he wanted to keep the striker.
Undav returned to Brighton following a successful loan spell at Stuttgart last season, where he formed a deadly partnership with Serhou Guirassy that fired the German side to the Champions League.
He made it clear from day one that he wanted to return to Stuttgart on a permanent basis but that required a deal being done with Brighton.
The German side had tried to use a purchase clause included in the loan deal but were immediately countered by Brighton, who used a buy-back clause to essentially block a deal.
That led to a long, drawn-out negotiation process between the two sides that at one point looked unlikely to be concluded how Stuttgart wanted.
He eventually would depart in a €26.7m deal and Hürzeler now says it was the player’s clear desire which made Brighton eventually accept.
“I have expressed my appreciation for Deniz and Pascal clearly and repeatedly in public,” Heidelberg report him saying in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
“It was about what the players wanted, about their thoughts and needs. That should also be taken into account in today’s football world. We saw what they had done for the club and then we accommodated them – we did that with all our departures.”
“On the one hand there is the player who has to perform on the pitch and on the other hand there is the person with their private needs and wishes,” Fussball News report him saying on Undav to Sky Germany.
“That is exactly what happened in the case of Dennis Undav. Our thought process was: How well can we integrate him here? How much is he still mentally focused on Brighton, or how much are private issues weighing on him? It was important for me to recognise these things.
“I knew from the start that he would like to stay in Stuttgart. In the end, it was crucial to take his private wishes into account, and we cleared the way for him to Stuttgart.”
