West Ham’s lacklustre transfer window has seen an exodus of promising players, but the club have already reportedly started on their January recruitment.
With the announcement of Craig Dawson signing on a season-long loan from Watford, West Ham’s defence core is stronger albeit in a non-flashy way. Dawson provides depth and Premier League experience with minimal financial cost to shore up a shallow unit, but reinforcements are reportedly on the way in January.
If you are to believe the report from the Danish football website bold.dk, West Ham have agreed to a fee of £1.2m for defender Frederik Alves from Silkeborg FC from Denmark’s first tier of football. The 20-year-old Dane is prepared to come to London in January once the international transfer window reopens.
A brief background on the player, Alves is Danish and has 6 international appearances for Denmark at the U20 and U21 levels, two and four matches respectively. He is also 6’3″ which would add some solid physicality and height to West Ham’s backline.
Last season, Alves played in 16 league matches as well as ten additional matches for cup and non-league action. His near-constant 90-minute matches suggest the youngster is strong and reliable at the back. He has played all six of Silkeborg’s matches this season contributing to a 4-2 record for his 4th place club at the moment.
Bold.dk has hinted that the clubs do face issues over ‘Brexit’ impacting the sale and addition of the player to the Hammers squad, but seem confident of the deal being completed prior to January with little time constraint on the negotiations. It is also reported that personal term negotiations are also ongoing.
While this player is extremely unknown to the masses of West Ham supporters, this is a signing that jives with the often memed comments from manager David Moyes where he stated he would like to follow the Redbull model and sign lesser-known players with high potential in the hopes that they turn into regular, quality players.
If these rumours are true, good on the board for negotiating for January player prior to the window opening. There is no reason to not take advantage of this opportunity so this should be supported. Here’s hoping we see Alves in claret and blue once the January window opens to support this defensive backline!