Huddersfield Town are currently being heavily linked with Lincoln City wingback Lasse Sorensen. And not the kind of wishful thinking rumour, dreamed up by a 14-year-old who opened a Twitter account last week, more the sort of rumour that gets out because he’s done his medical and is about to be announced. Though any transfer can fall apart at any stage until it’s officially announced I suppose, but this seems more all but certain to be confirmed in the next few hours, if it hasn’t already by the time you read this introduction.
In this article I’ll dig into who Lasse Sorensen is, imagine how he will fit in at Town and comment on whether it’s a good signing for the new-look Terriers going into our first season back in League One.
Who is Lasse Sorensen?
Sorensen played youth football in Denmark before being plucked up by Stoke’s youth system when he was a teenager and he made a solitary Premier League appearance for them and a handful of Championship run outs. He then went on loan to MK Dons where he got some decent League One experience. Off the back of that he was bought by Lincoln in 2021 and has played there for the last three seasons.
He started his footballing career primarily as a midfielder, with most of his appearances being in defensive or central midfield but he’s most recently been adapted into a right wingback, which has brought out the best football of his career. The season we’ve just finished saw him register six goals and eight assists from 51 appearances across League One and the various cups.
Sorensen has played in England from an early age but is Danish and has played for the Danish youth International team up to Under 20 level. He is currently 24 years old, so in theory has not yet reached his peak but is most likely approaching his prime years. He has played 139 League One games, so knows this level very well and has played a good number of games for the last few seasons, showing he’s got a decent level of fitness and durablity.
How much will we have paid for Sorensen?
Transfer fees continue to be a closely held secret, so there will be no official number circulated about how much we’ve paid for this player. According to player stats website, Transfrmrkt, he’s worth around £500,000. Given we were rumoured to be spending more than that on the players we signed in January and Kevin Nagle has said he intends to carry on investing in the club, it wouldn’t stun me if the fee was around this figure.
His contract at Lincoln runs until next summer (after theyvrecentlybtrigger a one-year extension), so they may be worried about him leaving next year on a free, so maybe we managed to negotiate a lower fee but I would expect it would still need to be significant enough to justify letting a player go to a team that could see as a rival in the league – I think of this as the Marcus Steward problem, after we sold him to Ipswich and that helped them achieve promotion at our expense.
So, I’ve set myself a question on the fee for Sorensen that I can’t possibly answer but I’ll just make a wild guess anyway because why not? I’ll say that Huddersfield Town have agreed to pay £320,000 to Lincoln for Sorensen’s services because it sounds specific enough to have the ring of truth, despite the fact I’ve just made it up. The fee will rise to £400,000 if Kevin Nagle shaves off his moustache, which seems odd but the suits at Sincil Bank drive a hard bargain and we really wanted this player, so had to agree.
How will Sorensen fit in at Huddersfield Town?
This signing is the clearest sign yet that Town’s Plan A under Michael Duff will be to play with wingbacks, most likely the 3-5-2 system that he’s played for most of his managerial career. So Sorensen has been signed as a specialist for the right wingback slot in that system. He can comfortably play in either central midfield or defensive midfield, as that’s where he has played most of his career but I think he’s been signed as our first choice right wingback and will play most of the season in that role.
I’m pleased we have made this signing, as last season we struggled with a make-do-and-mend approach with fullbacks, wingers and midfielders having a go but never getting to grips with it. Wingback is the sort of job that feels like anyone can have a crack at, because it needs a bit of everything in terms of skills but to do it well you need a very well-rounded and balanced player who can hold down a wing on their own and make good decisions between attacking and defending. Having a specialist that has already done well in the role at this level will give us a much better chance of success this season.
In terms of competition, Brodie Spencer and Ollie Turton are the most obvious players that will challenge for this role with Sorba Thomas theoretically vying for this position too but nobody realistically expects him still to be at the club when the new season kicks off. I have a feeling both Turton and Spencer may be possible options on the right-side of central defence if we are playing three across the back and need mobile players in that role. Spencer has also shown he’s capable of playing on the left too, as well as being another player that could attract transfer interest from other clubs.
Wait, he was at Stoke’s academy? Does that mean his agent is…
Some Town fans might have missed this, but Town’s Sport Director Mark Cartwright used to work at Stoke and was also involved at the sport agency Beswicks. Because of these connections, some fans now get in a bit of a flap whenever we bring in players or coaches with any connections to either of these organisations. So, those people will be unsurprised to hear that Sorensen is indeed a client of Beswick Sports.
It’s possible that this is a complete coincidence, as Beswick Sports are a pretty big agency and Stoke’s academy sucks up and spits out a lot of young players. However, it’s also possible that our Sporting Director may either remember a decent young prospect from his previous jobs, or has connections from those jobs that have tipped him off about an option that might be good for us. Is that so bad? If Sorensen comes in and looks like he’s never kicked a ball before then questions might be asked. But on the surface, this seems like good business and the crossover between this player and Mark Cartwright’s past may well just be him working his rolodex in the club’s favour. I suppose the challenge for him will be to show, in the rest of our transfer dealings, that he can land good deals for players that aren’t with agencies he used to work for.
Are there any YouTube videos of him looking like the best player in the world?
I thought, oh well, now we’re in League One, we can’t expect our signings to have YouTube compilations of them artfully edited to look amazing. But, actually, Lasse Sorensen does indeed have his own clipped up video on YouTube, so feast your eyes below on a tidy looking player. It’s nice to see that he seems to have an eye for goal, even from right wingback. (But remember Adama Diakaby looked incredible on YouTube too!)
There’s also an interview from a couple of years ago from when he signed from Lincoln which is full of the usual sort of platitudes but he seems like a very well-spoken and nice young man. There’ll no doubt be a Huddersfield Town version along shortly.
There was also this goal from inside his own half he scored the season before last, which showed a good mix of quick thinking and excellent execution.
I live in Lincoln and he is highly thought of by their supporters. We have also been linked in the past with Lincoln City’s defensive midfielder, Ethan Herhahon, who again is highly rated by their supporters and could be a good long term prospect to replace the aging Johnathan Hogg.
*great piece
Great price as usual, even got a bit giddy over Nagle’s tash and the pricing of a player lol.
If and when the transfer goes through then surely that’s the trigger for Sorba to exit the club.
The new brush will hopefully sweep clean and bring a new culture to the club very soon.
Like the fact Sorensen looks reliably fit as we have players here who fitness cannot be relied on.