Norwegian Tippeligaen outfit Lillestrøm have confirmed this afternoon that they have signed Arsenal defender Håvard Nordtviet on loan until August 1st 2009.
The news comes after the 18-year-old was left out of the Reserves 1-0 defeat to West Ham yesterday – fueling speculation that he was set to leave London. Arsene Wenger also admitted his desire to loan out the centre back during an interview with Arsenal TV last week.
Håvard flew back to his home land yesterday to finalise details of the loan. All this came after Lillestrøm’s chairman told Setanta Sports earlier this month that they had no money to bring in any recruits – including loanees.
However, Wenger was keen to push through a deal, as the Frenchman is a big fan of Lillestrøm’s coach Henning Berg, who has a terrific record of developing young talents.
Speaking to the local media, Nordtveit revealed the reasons behind the switch.
“This is very important to me, to both get to play and get some experience. I hope to play and to play to win points. This is something that Arsenal wants us younger players to do, and I think that´s extremely important to me right now.”
“The coach, Henning Berg (former Blackburn- and M.United-defender and also captain of Norway), has played in the Premier League himself, and so he knows how it is. He´s got all the answers I need and I believe the loan move will do me good.”
After being shown around, the press asked what he thought about the difference in facilities between a Norwegian Premier League club and an English one.
“I have seen the stadium and everything seems very professional. It´s almost like a little Arsenal-club.”
Young Guns will have more on this transfer shortly.
Article By – J.Sanderson
dont know much about the quality of football out there but suppose it musy be a good move and probabley more likely to get a lot of football so good! good work on the story m8
It’s good that the coach is respected but surely if he is being loaned for experience a league with a higher standing than norways would have taken him if he is as good as we are told? Even a championship team would have been better? What do you think?
gr8 news for the lad. hope he gets good match to play in the first team.
Hey J. its just a curiosity but at position is Lillestrøm placed in the norwegian league ?
The Norwegian season starts on this Sunday. Lillestrom plays away against Stabæk.
Lillestrøm have been fighting in the top of the norwegian league for most of the last years. Good club with long traditions.
But don’t know if this could be the best alternative though..
i’m from norway, and i can tell you that the “tippeliga” has maybe the same standard as your english league 1 or maybe the best teams in league 2…As i know the league i can also tell you that he should rather be loaned to a league 1 club to get to prepare him for the roughness of the prem, however he will playa almost every single game for lillestrøm if he is as good as i’ve heared :-) also the tippeliga (norwegian league) doesn’t start before march 13 (ish)
The norwegian league starts up on sunday, so its pre season in norway at the moment. The norwegian league is physical league, and he will gain great experience. Lillestrøm is a top 5 club in Norway, but Rosenborg is dominant club (played against arsenal in the group stages a coupple of seasons ago).
sry, march 15…
I am not sure about this at all. He’s failed to settle on his Spanish loan, he hasn’t made any team, reserve or other, since coming back and now he’s being shipped off home. It sounds a little to close to the Vincent van den Burg situation. I fear (hopefully I’m wrong) that his temperment isn’t right.
the reason he hasn’t played with us is because players cannot play for more than two clubs in one season.. if he played for us then he wudnt b able to be loaned out again.
I think he will benifit from this far more than his Salamanca loan. The norwegian league is fairly physically challenging which I think will be great for him. Henning Berg is reknown for giving the younger players their chances and I belive Howie will get quite a few games for Lillestrøm.
He does seem to be having issues settling but it’s def. not a van den Burg situation – Nordtveit has talent! As long as Nordtveit is playing regularly and learning the trade, hopefully one day he will hopefully live up to his potential but I think we’d all just like to see him playing and happy for now. At 18 it’s not like he’s any sort of option (maybe the CC next season?) so if he sorts out his mentality, then he can go on to figuring out how to play like a professional.
I am not suprised by the move, he is just not ready.
Wait…so will Haavard play the whole season at Lillestrom and not get any break?
That maybe a good thing because then he can come to preseason with us fit and ready to go.
Lillestøm is a perfect club for Håvard.
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off-topic, but does anyone know the u16s result against chelsea last saturday
This certainly would be a good club for him as he has an extremely good coach waiting for him there. hope he gets into the starting line up. How long is the loan deal? And what are his special qualities?
And top post JS! It has not even been mentioned in other top sites as far as I know! Great job.
J, one doubt. Henning Berg became a manager of Lillestrom only on 1 jan 2009. how can he have a terrific record of nurturing young talents in such a short time?
I’m from Norway aswell, and I doubt Lillestrøm is the right place for him to go to. It’s true that Lillestrøm has traditions of being in the top 5 (in a 14 club league), but last season they were relegation threatened most of the season. The year before that they also struggled.
Lillestrøm’s playing style is equivalent of Bolton’s and Blackburn’s; long balls, and in general a physical approach. I don’t know if their attacking play has too much influence on his development, but he certainly won’t be developing too much attacking vision.
Besides, I’m not sure he will start as many games as he should, as the two centrebacks in Lillestrøm is two reckognized and experienced (yet injury plagued) players in the Norwegian league.
To sum up: I’m pessimistic, I’d rather he went to the Championship
I do have to laugh at you chaps on here who thinks he should have been loaned to a Championship team at least,clearly you have never seen him play,the lad was dreadful at reserve level
come back better son
good for him
Well….he must be a complete tool. Probably the worst club in Norway, compared to Arsenal`s style of play.
Lillestrom = The Bolton of Norway. He should be good at heading…
Had high hopes for the lad….new senderos maybe?
Why does it take this long for my comments to get posted?????
I think its a good option thinking about the physical level of the norwegian league and the working discipline of the players…not the least Henning Berg who has a history of giving youngsters a chance and due to the financial nature of his old club Lyn, sold many of those talents both to other teams in the league, as well as Germany, Italy and England. Ogbuke of Hoffenheim is an excellent example
Good move, Littlestream’s main CB’s are like 32 and 37 yrs old, so Nordtveit will probably play, if he takes his chances when gets them. Henning Berg wouldn’t throw away one of the best Norwegian defensive talents ever, by not playing him.
He is very aware that his career may not be top notch, or at least reach it’s potential, if he acts like those c*nt partners of ours in Segunda División…
Henning Berg was the coach of FC Lyn before this season. And have given a lot of young players the chance in Lyn.
I think Nordtveit will do a good job. maybe he even will be a part of the national team by summer?
Henning was a great player, Bjarmann was a great player, he’ll be playing with national team players Kippe and Riseth(former) And can hopefully learn something from all of those defenders, I’d say the Tippeliga is pretty equal to some of the championship teams, some are to good some are to bad for tippeligaen, you all saw how Rosenborg did against Chelsea last year and they are not the best team in Norway anymore, and remember, Nordtveit came from the division under the Tippeliga and if Lillestrøm has to fight against relegation then Nordtveit will get a thougher job and learn more!
A couple of examples of players who was rather good in the Tippeliga and has become stars is Chinedu Ogbuke in Hoffenheim, Carew in Villa, Solskjaer in Manu, Mikel in Chelsea and Hangeland in Fulham, Solskjaer was the only one who dominated the series of these players, Hangeland was actually not very good but has taken PL with storm
Carew was class in Tippeligaen, scored a hell lot of goals as an 18/19 year old and his potential was immense! Too bad he never bothered to work hard enough to fulfill it though :/