It’s moving day at Brighton and Hove Albion as two strikers head for pastures new.
Aaron Connolly has completed a permanent move to Hull City for undisclosed terms while Deniz Undav heads back to Germany, on loan to Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart.
Connolly spent part of last season on loan with the Tigers and the Republic of Ireland international has joined the Championship club on a one-year deal.
Hull are managed by Liam Rosenior whose spell as a Brighton player coincided with Connolly’s arrival at the club.
Albion said: “Aaron Connolly has completed a permanent move to Hull City for undisclosed terms.
“The Republic of Ireland international joined us in 2016, going on to make his first team debut in August 2017.”
Technical director David Weir said: “Aaron has spent the last few seasons out on loan but with Hull he settled well.
“He knows Liam Rosenior from their time here together and Liam is the ideal person to get the best out of Aaron. We wish Aaron the very best for the future.”
Albion added: “The 23-year-old had a dream start to his league career with us, netting a brace against Tottenham Hotspur in his first full Premier League start.
“Aaron went on to make 52 appearances in all competitions for us, scoring eight goals.”
Connolly has made eight appearances for the Republic of Ireland although he has yet to score for his country.
Since joining Brighton, he has spent time out on loan at Luton Town, Middlesbrough and Italian club Venezia.
Meanwhlle, Deniz Undav has joined top-flight German side Stuttgart on loan for the 2023-24 season.
Head coach Roberto De Zerbi said: “It is with some regret we decided to let Deniz go and play. Last year he was crucial for us in achieving our goals but he deserves that chance.
“We wish him well for the season with Stuttgart and we look forward to welcoming him back at the end of the season.”
Technical director David Weir said: “Deniz is at a stage in his career where he wants to play every week and we respect that.
“He is a popular guy in the dressing room and did really well at the end of last season but this is a good opportunity for him to get his first taste of top-flight football in his homeland.
“We will be monitoring him closely throughout the year and wish him the best of luck with Stuttgart.”
The 27-year-old joined Brighton in January last year from Royale Union Saint-Gilloise.
He then went back to the Belgian side for the remainder of that season on loan and finished the season as the league’s top scorer, helping Union to a second-place finish.
Undav made 30 appearances in all competitions for Albion last season, scoring eight goals.
I do not like loan players so i hope Brighton do not have another loan player – Levi Colwell was a brilliant loanee who helped Brighton get in to Europe – but all it done was playing him all the time gave him experience which has made him a future England defender and trebled his price all for another team ( Chelsea ) benefit – also at the end of the season you have lost a defender which you have got to replace as he is now too good to buy him – you also have lost a year where you could train up a defender in the loanees place – after watching the Newcastle match in the last 10 minutes you could see the lack of experience in the defence – i think Brighton need at least one more experienced defender to take Levi Colwells place ./
aaron connolly is an embarassment to Ireland.. he started off well but then became unbearably conceited. it just all went to pot and he could not score any further goals… Levi Colwill is also totally overrated… nothing special about him whatsoever – didn’t see any attacking threat from him which i’ve seen from Dunk, Veltman, Duffy, Webster, Lamptey… havent seen much attacking threat from Van Hecke but I like what I’ve seen of him in his limited opportunities