West Ham beat Leeds in race to sign centre-back, medical underway in London – reports
West Ham have reportedly beaten Leeds United in the race to sign Silkeborg defender Frederik Alves with the Denmark Under-21 international undergoing a medical in London.
Last month, Danish news outlet BT reported that Leeds were trying to sign Alves, 20, after seeing a bid for him rejected in the summer. Russian club Rostov and Croatian giants Dinamo Zagreb were also linked with him, as well as teams in Germany and Austria.
However, BT has now reported that West Ham are set to sign Alves in a deal worth roughly up to £1.4million.
It is understood that Alves has been spotted with his agent Christian Bysted at the Stratford Hotel in London as he undergoes a medical with the Hammers.
BT adds that Alves will join West Ham on a three-and-a-half-year deal in the January transfer window.
It remains to be seen how badly Leeds have missed out here but Alves is clearly a player that the Whites wanted to sign as they reportedly made a bid for him in the summer.
Although he’s young at 20, the Brazilian/Danish centre-back has been a regular for Silkeborg this season by appearing eight times in Denmark’s second division. He also played 24 times in all competitions last season as Silkeborg were relegated.
Victor Orta has been a big fan of signing young, up-and-coming players from Europe during his time as Leeds’ director of football and more often than not, the youngsters he’s signed have failed to break into the first-team.
But most of those youngsters have not had the senior experience that Alves has had at Silkeborg so we’ll try to keep a close eye on what happens with him at West Ham.
David Moyes has a lot of centre-back options at his disposal so Alves is likely to be stuck in the Under-23s for now.
If he went to Leeds, he might have earned way more first-team opportunities.
In other Leeds United news, Tony Pulis has been gushing about Leeds and manager Marcelo Bielsa.