Report: Frederik Alves says goodbye to Silkeborg team-mates ahead of West Ham move
Danish defender Frederik Alves has said goodbye to his team-mates at Silkeborg ahead of joining West Ham in the January transfer window, according to Midtjyllands Avis.
The Danish news outlet claims that Alves, 21, has already played his final game for Silkeborg and won’t be involved in their final match of 2020 against Skive on Friday night.
It is understood that the centre-back was not present at Silkeborg’s training ground on Thursday ahead of a move to West Ham.
Last month, Danish website BT reported Alves was in England to undergo a medical with the Hammers after a deal worth up to £1.4million was agreed with Silkeborg.
Deal all but done
West Ham have been strongly linked with Alves for some time with speculation first appearing back in October after the last international transfer window closed.
But finally, it seems as though the Irons have got their man with a deal all but done for the Danish youngster.
But what can Alves offer at the London Stadium?
Firstly, we don’t expect him to break into the first-team any time soon.
David Moyes has a settled defensive line. When everyone is available he seems to prefer a back-three of Angelo Ogbonna, Fabian Balbuena and Aaron Cresswell. If he goes to a back-four it’s Ogbonna and Balbuena and if either of them are unavailable then Issa Diop and Craig Dawson are there in reserve.
Alves might want to eye that slot after Dawson in Moyes’ pecking order but in order to do that he’ll probably have to get used to Under-23s football or get sent out on loan elsewhere.
Alves is 21-years-old and has 50 first-team appearances to his name from his time at Silkeborg but the bulk of them have come in the NordicBet LIGA, Denmark’s second-tier.
This season, the Denmark Under-21s defender made just eight league appearances for Silkeborg but that is understandable given the speculation surrounding his future.
In those games, stats by Wyscout show that he averaged 7.1 interceptions, 12.12 recoveries and 6.37 clearances per 90 minutes and also completed 95 per cent of his passes.
While we accept that he’s hit numbers like that in an obscure second-tier league in Europe, there’s no denying they are good.
And for as cheap as £1.4million, the deal seems fairly risk-free.
In other West Ham news, Frank McAvennie has hailed David Moyes for signing these three players at the London Stadium.