Despite popular opinion, VfB Stuttgart has stated unequivocally that they cannot afford to recruit Deniz Undav this summer.
According to Kicker, as recounted by BW 24, the German club has informed Brighton that they cannot pay the striker’s €20 million buy clause in his loan deal.
According to the newspaper, Stuttgart, which has been deliberating on a permanent move for Undav for months, has now made a firm decision to recruit him this summer.
They have informed Brighton that they cannot pay the €20 million cost agreed upon, and that a deal cannot be completed at that price point since it is simply ‘too expensive’ for them.
Thus, all indications are that the striker, who has 16 goals and nine assists in 25 Bundesliga games while playing only 64% of available minutes, will return to Brighton.
This could explain Roberto De Zerbi’s ‘bizarre’ words earlier this month, when he stated that Undav would return to his squad this summer.
That caused some misunderstanding throughout Germany, but BW 24 speculates that it was due to the Swabians’ previous unambiguous stance.
In actuality, it appears that Stuttgart is simply playing games, knowing that the striker wants to stay and not return, and trying to use the poverty card to reduce the asking price.
Brighton don’t appear to have any intention of doing so, and considering how they’ve negotiated deals in recent years to regularly get what they want, it’s unlikely they’ll change strategy here.
Leave a Reply