West Ham United must come out on top in the emerging Premier League tussle for Silkeborg defender Frederik Alves, now noted to be a possible transfer target for Leeds.
What’s the word?
According to BT, Leeds are now in contention to sign Alves in the upcoming January market, reviving efforts to land the 20-year-old after seeing an offer rejected this summer.
It had been expected that Alves would be moving to the London Stadium come the turn of the year after Bold claimed the Denmark U21 international was close to agreeing on a deal, following successful negotiations between the two sides.
West Ham were said to have struck an agreement at 10million Danish Krone (£1.2m), after Silkeborg confirmed they expected to announce a rise in their financial results to that sum through negotiations to sell Alves in January.
The sale was noted to be contingent on individual reservations but expected to be finalised before the end of 2020, after Alves agreed on personal terms earlier this month.
Leeds may now scupper West Ham’s plans to sign Alves, who BT claim was also the subject of several rejected bids from Russian side FK Rostov this summer and is a potential target for Dinamo Zagreb plus clubs in Germany and Austria’s top divisions.
Alves has started all seven of Silkeborg’s NordicBet Liga fixtures thus far this term, in which the Danish second-division side have kept three clean sheets and taken five wins.
GSB must beat Leeds
During their failed efforts to sign Alves this summer, Rostov are thought to have submitted a top offer worth €1m (£903k) but could not come to an agreement as the NordicBet Liga side did not wish to part with the 20-year-old who is under contract through to 2024.
Silkeborg rate Alves highly, with former Southampton striker Kent Madsen – now a director at Silkeborg – telling BT in July: “There is quite a lot of interest in Alves, and you can understand that.
“Especially in the second half of the Superligaen season, he has just been getting better and better. He is a player that we believe can benefit from further development with us. We really want to keep him and also have a long agreement with him.”
Alves started 21 of his 22 Superligaen appearances last season but could not help Silkeborg avoid relegation as they sat rooted to the bottom of the table throughout the campaign, but impressed his potential suitors with an average 6.0 clearances, 5.5 duels won (2.7 ground, 2.8 aerial), 2.5 interceptions, 1.8 tackles and 77.2 touches a game, per SofaScore.
The promising Danish talent also completed 92% of his passes in Silkeborg’s half of the pitch for 40.7 accurate attempts a game, while offering 3.1 long balls, 0.3 key balls and only being dribbled past 0.5 times a match.
Alves still has much room for development and needs to taste football at a higher level than the Danish top-flight, but his record shows a player worth courting – especially at a bargain fee of close to £1m – and one West Ham could regret allowing Leeds to sign.
AND in other news, West Ham frustrated a rival club with one of their summer deals and could spark greater anger by reviving efforts to sign a 6 ft 1 ace.