Boro have a strong relationship with a number of the top tier’s leading clubs and have developed a fine reputation for their handling of gifted young players,
It’s how they won the fierce battle to sign Liverpool’s Ben Doak last season, and how they were able to sign the likes of Cameron Archer on loan a couple of years earlier.
Boro don’t necessarily go into transfer windows with these sorts of players as active targets, simply because there’s no guarantee that the parent club will deem a loan move the best course of action.
But what they always make sure to do is stake a claim early in the window, make their interest known and ask to be kept in the loop on plans.
Then, if and when the parent club settles on a loan move, Boro are not only ready to strike but they’re already in a position where they’ve laid out why the Riverside would be a wise and progressive move.
And that’s the backdrop to Middlesbrough’s eye-catching loan addition of Sverre Nypan from Manchester City.
Comments last month from Nypan’s father, Arne, provide insightful evidence of just how much of a coup this is for Boro.
Confirming that a loan move this season was always part of the plan for Nypan after his £12.5m switch from Rosenborg to Manchester City this summer, Arne said: “We will make arrangements for him to have the best conditions to take new steps.”
He continued: “It’s part of the plan, and it’s always been that way. We’re going to find a middle ground between the Eliteserien and the Premier League, and that’s been a key element in how we intend to do it.
“At the same time, there are seven or eight clubs that have signed up and are very eager. We still haven’t decided, there are some small things left, but it’s just around the corner.”
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What a significant boost for Boro, then, and what it says about their fine work with young players that they were deemed the club where the “best conditions” would be offered. Several top tier overseas clubs are understood to have been interested in Nypan this summer.
And Boro know their new recruit and his game well, for they scouted him themselves in the past.
Whether it’s in League One or Two or a lower profile top division abroad, Boro are constantly keeping their eye out for players who break into first teams at an extremely young age. That’s how their interest in Harley Hunt, who joined the club last summer, came about. Nypan made his Rosenborg debut in 2022 when he was just 15, just eight months after joining the club from district side Nardo FK
In this case, however, Boro quickly realised there was an awful lot of noise around Nypan and significant interest from some of Europe’s biggest clubs. Manchester United watched him closely. Arsenal and Aston Villa were both keen. Boro knew they couldn’t compete for his signature.
But that doesn’t mean they stopped watching the youngster. While they weren’t actively scouting the midfielder, if he was playing in a game Boro were watching, they’d still compile a report. They kept tabs on his situation.
And when Manchester City signed him this summer, Boro were quick to make it known they’d be interested in a loan. Boro have a strong relationship with City, with chief executive Neil Bausor close friends with Brian Marwood, the City Group’s managing director of global football.
City didn’t rush to a decision this summer but are understood to have deemed Boro and the Championship the ideal home. Boss Rob Edwards loves the look of Nypan as a player and was equally as impressed by his character when they spoke on the phone this week.
Nypan was himself heavily involved in the discussions as to which club was best to call home for the season. The young midfielder may be well ahead of schedule in football terms but when it comes to decision making he’s said to be extremely patient and deliberate. He visited several of the leading interested clubs in England earlier this year before joining Manchester City.
While Nypan’s long-term ambition is, naturally, to play for Manchester City, the Northern Echo has learned from sources close to the player that he chose Boro for a number of reasons.
Nypan is understood to have prioritised staying in England this season so he can adapt to the culture. This is his first time living away from home so the youngster wants to throw himself into the environment and build a stronger understanding of what it takes to succeed in English football.
Nypan is well aware of some of how important stints in the Championship have been for some of the players who are currently the leading lights in the Premier League.
But it still had to be the right fit, and Nypan is said to have been struck by not only the ambition of the club, having held positive talks with Rob Edwards as well as Kieran Scott and Chris Jones, but also the hunger of the supporters. He’s also said to be well aware of the club’s history.
Sources close to the player say Boro’s style of football, combined with a manager who knows what it takes to win promotion, convinced him that this Boro aren’t just the best place to develop and to learn, but somewhere he could make a real contribution for the club itself.
So, on the pitch at Boro, where does he fit in? What’s his best position?
“As a central midfielder,” Rosenborg’s former academy boss Roar Vikvang told the Manchester Evening News earlier this summer.
“I think his best position is at number eight because he’s covering the space from the box to the other box. And I think he’ll have to play further forward so they [Man City] can use his finishing skills.
“He can also deal with playing number six or a number 10, but I think a number eight is his best position.”
It was the 2023/24 season when Nypan really broke through in his homeland, making 17 league starts for Rosenborg and playing three times in the Conference League, including two games against Hearts, when he was just 16.
“We knew he was a special player and he showed that,” said Hearts boss at the time Frankie McAvoy.
“He also appears to have a good head on his shoulders and when you can do what he does in the final third by creating and scoring chances then you have a big opportunity to be successful.
“He has a massive future ahead of him.”
Norwegian football journalist Andreas Korssund agrees.
He told the BBC last month: “I have no doubt City have secured one of the best upcoming midfielders in the world.
“He’s that kind of player we feel is going places. How people talk about him is similar to how Nusa, Odegaard and Haaland have been spoken about, both in the media and by the fans.”
The age. The profile. The nationality, obviously. Comparisons with Odegaard are inevitable.
“Both are technically skilled and have good passing abilities,” said Korssund in that BBC interview.
“Odegaard might be more of a dribbler, while Nypan is more someone who controls the game from midfield.
“He is a bit more box-to-box than Odegaard. In my opinion he’s definitely going to become one of Europe’s absolutely best midfielders.”
An unnamed Norwegian scout told one national newspaper Nypan is a “generational talent”. The Guardian, meanwhile, included Boro’s new loan recruit in their list of the 60 best young talents in world football back in 2023.
Vikvang, Nypan’s youth coach quoted above, tells a story about a humiliating 10-0 defeat his side suffered on the midfielder’s debut for Rosenborg’s academy.
Nypan’s reaction?
“He said ‘Wow, they have good players, I have to go back home and train harder to compete at that level’,” Vikvang told Sky Sports.
“There was no excuse that he was three or four years younger.
“He was only thinking about the level of the play and he wanted to be competitive.
“If you go on the pitch, playing against 18 or 19-year-old players, his mentality was to be competitive. His mentality is something special.”
Not just his mentality.
“He is something special,” said Vikvang.
“In one or two years, his market value will be much higher. You haven’t seen the best of Sverre Nypan yet.”
Premier League loan signings can be game-changers for Championship clubs. Doak last year provided very recent evidence.
“They can be important,” said Edwards last week.
“It’s got to be right – both for the player and the club.
“The player and his mentality has to be right. He’s got to be coming understanding why it’s important for their journey.
“But I think we saw a good one here last year, and we all know from that how it can benefit everybody.”
There’s a hope – and confidence – at Boro and Manchester City that this is very much win-win for all involved.
