Real Madrid’s impatient teen should seek Huddersfield switch
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For a few days of the summer silly season, talk of Real Madrid’s Martin Odegaard moving to Liverpool on loan came up, with some media outlets even suggesting the Reds had made an approach, despite such a switch making no sense.
Judging by the wealth of forward talent on show at Anfield this term, the 18-year-old would merely be swapping one bench for another, without the comfort blanket of Los Blancos’ Castilla side keeping him on the radar in the third tier of Spanish football.
Both Real and Odegaard’s father were thought to favour a temporary switch to the Bundesliga over the summer, but though Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburg were mentioned as possible destinations, the precocious teenager remains at the Bernabeu.
Manchester City’s Champions League Group C counterparts Borussia Monchengladbach are the latest side to insist they have no plans to sign Odegaard, who was repeatedly rumoured to prefer a season under Jurgen Klopp.
He could compromise by heading to Championship Huddersfield, where Klopp’s former Borussia Dortmund pal David Wagner is getting a fine tune out of the Terriers having taken over at the John Smith’s Stadium less than a month after his old boss arrived on Merseyside last October.
Wagner kept the Yorkshire outfit up comfortably last term and has turned them into a force over the summer, with Huddersfield winning all four of their home matches this season and taking seven points from visits to Aston Villa, Newcastle and Leeds.
A 1-0 defeat at Reading meant Norwich knocked Wagner and co off the top of the second-tier pile over the weekend, but with a favourable-looking set of fixtures coming up, and four points separating Huddersfield from seventh-place Barnsley, their 7/2 promotion odds look worth a nibble.
Playing for an up-and-coming German coach in a testing league for a side that may indeed require moments of magic from an 18-year-old as the season unfolds would surely aid Odegaard’s development.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
