West Ham have moved closer to securing the free transfer of defensive midfielder Havard Nordtveit, according to London Evening Standard.
The 25-year-old has confirmed that he will be leaving Borussia Monchengladbach when his contract his expires in the summer, and the German outfit have already announced the arrival of his replacement – Tobias Strobl.
On the face of it the potential capture of Nordtveit could be with the intention of replacing Alex Song, who isn’t expected to sign for the Hammers permanently once his second loan spell from Barcelona ends in the summer.
And if we do manage to bring the Norwegian to east London this summer, it looks as if we’ll have secured yet another bargain transfer under Slaven Bilic.
But what will Nordtveit add to Bilic’s already impressive side?
Although it is mentioned above that he’s a defensive midfielder, Nordtveit is also capable of playing as a centre-back, right-back and in central midfield…
With four goals and one assist this season, it’s clear he’s able to chip in with the attacking duties when needed, while his 83.1% pass accuracy across all competitions this season suggests he’s a very efficient, all action and tidy player.
He is also very efficient across the field too, registering 1.6 tackles, 2.2 effective clearances and 2.4 aerial duals won per Bundesliga appearance. Not bad, eh?
His strengths and style of play also appear to compliment Bilic’s philosophy…
It’s always good to have another player capable of taking set-pieces, while his tendency to do layoffs could benefit our other attacking players who enjoy running on to the ball at pace and making things happen in the final third.
You can see how comfortable he is on the ball in the below video, which is highlights when playing against Schalke earlier in the season.
Transfermarkt.com value Nordtveit at £4.5m, so the fact we could be getting him for nothing shows just how much a bargain he might turn out to be.
Bilic has already secured bargains for Dimitri Payet (£10.7m) and Manuel Lanzini (£7m) and very much looks like it could be bargain number three in the bag ahead of next season.
