Brighton & Hove Albion have already made good progress in the transfer market with three signings in Matthew Ryan, Pascal Groß and Josh Kerr. It is now four, with the announcement of Markus Suttner from FC Ingolstadt.
The 30-year-old has penned a three-year deal at The Seagulls. Suttner started his career at Austria Wien in 2007 after coming through their academy. In his time at Austria Wien he made a staggering 207 appearances, scoring nine goals.
In 2015, Suttner then moved to the Bundesliga side at the time, FC Ingolstadt. The left-back has made 44 appearances in a two-year spell at Ingolstadt, scoring four goals. Suttner also has 18 caps under his belt for Austria but has failed to score for them.
The Austrian full-back is Brighton’s second purchase from Ingolstadt having signed Pascal Groß, as their first summer signing back in June.
The full-back will be a great addition to the Brighton squad for two reasons. The first of these being that he is an attacking full back who likes to try and make an impact in the final third of the pitch as well as in the defensive third of the pitch.
Suttner appears to have a proven set piece delivery having scored free kicks in his time at Ingolstadt. This will be good news for The Seagulls front men who can rely on the left-back as well as the left winger to supply them with some good deliveries to get on the end of.
The second is the amount of experience Suttner has under his belt. With over 200 appearances for Austria Wien including 32 in European competition, e.g. the Champions League or Europa League. He also has experience of playing in the Bundesliga with Ingolstadt. Suttner also has plenty of experience internationally for Austria including playing against the likes of Uruguay and Slovakia so far.
This is one of the reasons I think Hughton signed Suttner because of the amount of high-level football he has played and means Hughton can rely on him to come into the squad and do a great job.
Suttner will also fill an area of the pitch that Brighton were struggling in. Before the Austrian signed, The Albion only had Gaëtan Bong as their only senior left-back in the squad. The Cameroon international had struggled last season as he only made 23 appearances for The Seagulls due to injury hampering him.
With Suttner signed, Brighton do not have to solely rely on Bong at left-back. It also means The Albion now have two quality left-backs in their ranks who they can trust to do the best to make sure Brighton’s defence are stubborn and hard to break down again this season.
With four signings now at the club, Brighton will be looking to add some more quality into the squad especially on the wing and up front to make sure their squad are competitive ahead of their opening Premier League game at home to Manchester City.
