Norwegian Tippeligaen outfit SK Brann are reportedly in talks with Arsenal over the possible loan of defender Håvard Nordtveit.
The 18-year-old centre back has been turning out for Neil Banfield’s second string since January, when his registration finally came through after an acrimonious parting of the ways with former loan club Salamanca.
Yet the club’s coaching staff are keen to further Howie’s development, and the 2007-2008 ‘Eliteserien’ Champions are desperate to bring Nordtveit back to his home land until the end of the campaign.
However, Agent Jim Solbakken has suggested that Brann have compeition in the race for the former Haugesund stopper.
“I can reveal that several Norwegian clubs have enquired if it’s possible to loan Håvard”
“But I don’t want to say which.”
Newspaper reports this week suggest that the initial enquiry has progressed significantly, and now Brann are closing in on a deal to loan the Norway Under 21 international for the closing months of the season.
Many would see the transfer as a step back in terms of League quality, but playing in a competitive top flight division could help kick start Håvard’s development.
Article By – J.Sanderson
In my opinion havard nordviet gotta be patient like jonny evans he has to wait until 21/22 until he breaks into our first team. The guy needs to games to improve his physicality hes a good talent
It’s much better if Håvard played in Austria or Holland. The norwegian league is rather bad!
Hi J.
Keep up the good work!
Has his performances lately for reserves given you any sign of first team potential ? I have the impression that his form seemed better last season. I was surprised he was left out of both the Plymouth and the Cardiff games our defensive absentees in mind.
Wasn’t he already playing consistently for a norwegiean ‘top flight’ team before he joined arsenal. Surely this would be a step back in his development. Or do the arsenal coaches using this as a smoke screen to say that the player can’t cut it? Or his devlopment is to slow (similar to Fran Merida in body development)?
Well – as a Norwegian myself – I can tell you that Nordtveit won´t just walk straight into Brann´s team. Remember that he came from a “Championship club” (FK Haugesund), only being a sub even there. He will have to raise his game to Hangeland´s level (also Norwegian, playing at Fulham). I can see him playing more RB than CB. But I also think Norway will suite him better than Spain, because football here are played quite the same as in England.
Thanks for another fine article J., I always keep tabs on your site. One little correction; as a Rosenborg supporter I couldn’t help notice you wrote 2007-2008 Champions Brann. They were only champions in 2007 (the full sason is played within the same calendar year in Norway, from ca. march to november).
On a more relevant note, I agree with you that I think Nordtveit will benefit from a loan deal, to me he seems to weak physically and will have to improve that aspect to cope with the Tippeliga, which is very physical.
Do you think he has what it takes to break into the 1st team in 3-4 years?
Please don’t, it will prevent his develompment. Sure he’d get games, and such. But going back to the Norwegian league will be like a long-term injury break.
Look, anyone who says him going to the Nowegen top division would be a “step back” are to put it bluntly, talking a load of crap. Yea it’s not a top european league but the level of play is decent, most of the clubs are about championship quality, maybe the stragglers being more league one, plus Brann is one of the better sides over there so if he could get a run of games for them it’d be a great bit of experiance and do his development no harm atall.
Also as other people have already said the Norwegen game is faster and more physical but less technically demanding than the spanish first div, and he needs to improve physically, whilst already being technically capable of being effective to premiership standards, something you can already see when he plays for reserves, against technical oponants who try and beat us by playing our own game he tends to stand out and have good performances, while against the more physical oponants who try and overwhelm us with crosses, long balls and crowding the box with physically gifted players when going forward, while corwding their half when on the back foot, he tends to have tough games, get shakey and make mistakes. Maybe throwing him in at the deep end will be a disaster but so was sending him to Salamanca, it could also be brilliant for him, and yea sending him to somewhere like Holland, or even getting a smaller premiership side, or la liga side, would be better, he just hasnt proven himself enough yet to get that kind of interest and opertunity.
According to the norwegian press, Arsenal want´s to loan Nordtveit to Lillestrom (one of the top clubs in Norway for ages) coached by former Blackburn- og M.United-defender Henning Berg. He´s had a very good record with young players over the last years, and Wenger might also have noticed that.
Link: http://www.nettavisen.no/sport/fotball/tippeligaen/article2564705.ece
tres bien ,, merci
I was rather hoping that he was gonna get match time with the first team, he certainly looks good enough to handle the jump up a level.
“I was rather hoping that he was gonna get match time with the first team, he certainly looks good enough to handle the jump up a level.”
Nah, not yet, put him in the first team and make him face a side like Stoke and he’ll be over powered.