UD Salamanca have announced this afternoon that they have reached an agreement with Arsenal to loan Arsenal’s Reserves captain Håvard Nordtveit for the coming season.
Håvard joined the Gunners from FK Haugesund last summer for £2 million, and although injury saw him miss out on a Carling Cup debut, he earned a place on the bench for the final Premiership game of the season.
Nordtveit missed three months of last season with an injury, but returned with some solid performances as the campaign drew to a close. One goal against Birmingham was a highlight, along with a start against Barnet in pre-season.
He will fly to Spain this afternoon for a medical examination, and will be presented to UDS fans tomorrow afternoon. The Norwegian Under 19 International will then link with another loanee – Pedro Botelho on the Union’s pre-season tour of Portugal.
South American Chief Richard Law spoke in depth about the player Arsenal would loan the Segunda side, enthusing the player would be ‘exciting’ and somebody with ‘amazing potential’. You can read the complete interview Here.
Young Guns will of course be keeping you updated throughout the season of Håvard’s fortunes.
Article By – J.Sanderson
No one saw that coming. I can’t help thinking he’d do better in the Championship.
Slow of the mark on this one Sanderson!
Mr Bird beat you to the punch!
I think it would be good for him as he would gain lots of experience at Salamanca, which is always gonna be a step up from reserves football anyway. He might return to Arsenal next season to fight for first team places hopefully.
Why so I Gooner?
Better forwords in the Championship? Bollix
good for him with pedro aswell I believe
http://theworldsmostbeautifulgame.wordpress.com/
This will be probably the first of his 2 year loan period.
C defenders tend to peak between 25-30
He will get a chance to actually play football here, rather than be forced to adapt his play into long ball.
Salamanca were chosen because they play good football
yeah pedro and nordtveit will build a good defense
HI
there was a mention that Merida (excuse spelling) may be laoned out again with the option of a permanent move and that Wenger has not made a decision. Do you have an update on this. I find it surprising since he has such high regard for this player that he may be considering this.
Great articles by the way, ery informative
Spanish forwards have better technique and receive much better service from mid field.
In the championship the mid fielders constantly try to get down the line to whip in crosses
His fee COULD rise to 2m after 40 first team appearances with Arsenal, don’t count chickens before they’ve hatched.
Hey Sanderson with Eboue improving in the anchor role, will Wenger buy a DM after the Twente game?
Especially with the return of Song and the steady performances of Deilson?
Are second-tier English strikers any worse than second-tier Spanish strikers. By playing in England, he’d get used to the physical nature of our league. As a centre-back, it is probably the least important outfield position for style of play to be a factor. I can understand the calls for flair players to hone their skills in Spain, but just think England would be better for Nordveit to grow in stature.
Anyway, that’s my two cents.
No way duckster. Eboue is put in central midfield as a temporary measure. Song is seen by Wenger as a CB and tbh, Song plays CB better than he plays DM for Arsenal on a few occasions already.
Yes they are worse – English Players are muck. where do you think all those young European Championship winning Spainish players learn their trade?
We’re all hoping Wenger will but he’s been making sounds about letting Djourou and Denilson develop by getting more games.
let em have theo on loan too he is so frustrating to watch he seems lost out there at times i know im being a lil harsh on the kid as it was his first game v WBA but he needs to learn to attack his marker and try and beat him ade wasnt any better yesterday geez he was so wasteful henry would have had a hatrick in that game one of his shots was closer to the corner post then the back of the net damn shame barca didnt snatch him of us for 30 mill and such a one tricky pony always trying to round the keeper open footed geez try near post chip the keeper and for gods sake some one please teach him the offside rule ok rant over
Well a lot of them start playing for their B sides in the third tier of Spanish football.
I dont think championship will play him enough for Wenger’s liking becuase that league is very physical and Nordtveit is still physically weak, not yet imposing.
WHAT TYPE OF CENTER BACK WOULD U COMPARE NORDTVEIT TO??
IS HE THE JOHN TERRY / VIDIC TYPE??
OR FERDINAND OR WOTEVER
SOMEONE TELL ME PLEASE BECAUSE IVE NEVER REALLY SEEN HIM PLAY
WAS NOT IMPRESSED BY ARSENAL ON SATURDAY BY THE WAY…I CANT SEE WHY ARSENE THINKS OUR DEFENCE IS GOOD ENOUGH
MAYBE ITS JUST ME..
Wenger has to think very hard about sending players on loan, at their age its very easy to pick up bad habits by playing with non-technical teams.
A loan period can make or break a player so its important that if they go it is for the best.
The whole point they go to Salamanca is that they play good football that requires high technique like Arsenal.
paul farrah’s actually made some good points in his rant, like Adebayor’s one dimensional finishing and Theo’s inability to use his pace (his best strength) to get past his marker. Though he did that towards the end of last year so he should improve.
This loan move is dumb , this is meant to be the biggest defensive prospect , and if he cant deal with the physical prospect of the championship , let him go so he can get stronger , like simpson has done this season…. he goes salamanca and than he plays some amazing football
he comes back to arsenal with great skill , BUT HES STILL NOT PHYSICALLY READY ….
This will do havard the world of good he allready reads the game well , has good positional skills and uses the ball very well.The only thing he lacks is physical presence.I just hope Arsene has had a good talk with the coaching staff at Salamanca about keepin the young man on a muscle gain diet.A greater presence in the defense is basically all he lacks and at his age gaining muscle and growing will not be a problem.he`ll be a top player very soon.
How’s Nordtveit’s pace? Say if you would rate him 1-20 (FM-style :P) both in pace and acc. JS or someone who has seen him a lot.
I’ve only barely seen him play at occasions :/
Nothing is going on with Bugdev.
Somebody posted a poor rumour on the blog yesterday, i did some research i found little info on the player, nothing on the newspaper that reported the story – except for two blogs that had been setup with one post… you guessed it.. just the story.
It was a hoax.
Does this mean Simpson will be getting the captains armband back in the reserves?
Really hope i can watch some Salamanca games this season what with pedro and Nordtveit both there now. Hopefully they will both be pretty much constant fixtures in the side, and if they are Salamanca couldent do much better than them 2 players.
PeteE, Nordtveit has good pace, often likes to take the ball on runs down the right wing. Not sure how it rates out of 20 but its probably around 15 for both pace and acceleration.
As for who will take over as Captain. Simpson is probably teh favouret but Thomas captained the U18s last season and was a great captain so he could be in with a chance. Cant think of any other obvious candidates. Barazite is quite vocal but im not rly sure hes the type to put in constructive criticism if u get what i mean…
Does this now mean that we wont be gettin Jibril now J? Im guessing so as he’d have to go to Salamanca as we’d almost definatly not get a permit, but they have the required 2 players now.
Pete, if you want to know how he is *in FM*, he’s pretty slow. Something like Acceleration 11, Pace 10. However, his mental aspects are excellent. In my game I very reluctantly sold him for £12.5m to Man City because I had better, faster defenders, but *in the game* he is excellent.
phader please don’t type in all caps. I’d say he is more of a Rio out of those players.