Markus Suttner moves to Fortuna Dusseldorf
Auf Wiedersehen, pet. Brighton have released Markus Suttner from his contract to allow the left back to sign a one-year deal with Bundesliga side Fortuna Dusseldorf.
Suttner spent the second half of last season on loan at the Merkur Spiel-Arena, having a hugely positive impact on Fortuna’s climb from the Bundesliga relegation battle to the relative safety of 10th in the table during his time in the land of Altbier.
He scored one goal and assisted another for Fortuna. Head Coach Friedhelm Funkel was glowing in his praise of Suttner upon the expiration of his loan deal, telling RP Online that believed the Austrian to be “a class footballer and a great person.”
Some Brighton fans believed that Suttner could be one of the players frozen out by Chris Hughton who might get an opportunity under Graham Potter – especially if the new Albion boss adopted a system which required wing backs.
Suttner’s best attribute was his crossing ability, which is why Hughton spent most of last pre-season experimenting with him as a traditional left winger rather than a left back.
With Hughton valuing defence over anything else, Suttner was always likely to be third choice behind last summer’s £9m arrival Bernardo and Gaetan Bong as they are both superior defenders.
The theory went that a more attacking manager like Potter might find Suttner’s skill set more appealing. If Potter wanted his full backs to get forward more, then that would play into Suttner’s hands and could elevate him above Gaetan Bong into second in the left back pecking order behind Bernardo.
None of that has come to fruition though. In fact, it was telling that in the Albion’s first public use of wing backs under Potter in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Birmingham City, it was Solly March who got the nod on the left.
Potter talked afterwards about using Bernardo as a left sided centre back, indicating that if Brighton do play with a back three then it will probably involve March at left wing back. As a result, the writing was very much on the wall for Suttner.
Which is a shame as we quite liked him, and not just because his name was incredibly close sounding to Sutcliffe. It seemed like Suttner never really got a fair crack of the whip, playing just 14 Premier League and three FA Cup games during his two seasons at the Amex.
He was clearly desperate to play in England as well. Before the Albion and Ingolstadt eventually settled on a £3.8m fee for Suttner’s services, the two clubs haggled over £500,000 with the player even coming out with a ‘let me go plea’.
A little over two years later and Suttner returns to Germany. At 32, he’s in the twilight years of his career, so it’s a good move for all concerned.
But there’ll always be a little sadness on out part that we perhaps never got to see the best of him. Good luck for the future, Markus, and enjoy the Altbier.
