Sign Joe Bell to a 3 year deal. And get back Stensness. Our midfield would be awesome.
Bell has Premier League links according to a Norwegian football journalist on Twitter, so it's a bit of a pipe dream to bring him home. Stensness needs a step up too, he was phenomenal last season which I really didn't see coming and the Olympics are corroborating that
What? He played 29 games for Viking last season, and already has 10 games this season. He’s rated as one of the best midfielders in Norway, which is quickly becoming a very well scouted league due to all the young talent coming through, similar to Belgium, just the money is yet to catch up so the clubs aren’t at quite ready to make UCL group stages and what not.
Recent departures from the Eliteserien have been to AC Milan (Hauge), Watford (Zinckernagel), Ferencvaros (Zachariassen), who were last seasons UCL group stage, PAOK (Pereira) etc. I don’t think League 2, or even League 1 clubs would be able to afford what Viking would want for him, not to mention it wouldn’t make sense to go to a league like that. If and when he’d leave I’d imagine it would be to either a top 5-12 or so league, or to a second tier of one of the top 5 leagues.
That was the season before according to Wiki? Yeah the Eliteserien has had some players get decent moves, but there's a big difference between those you've linked and Bell.
Hauge - played over 100 games for the top team in the league the past few seasons and Zinckernagel has played similar.
It's fair to say, I may've been overly critical suggesting League 2, Viking are definitely a decent club, the point I was trying to make was that Bell's not anywhere near EPL level yet. If he did go to a club, he'd inevitably be sent out on loan to a lower league club. I also don't think League 1 is a bad league - some of the clubs in there are large and are only really there due to financial incompetence.
He's absolutely at Championship level minimum imo. He doesn't have to be a nailed-on starter every single week for a West Brom or Fulham, but he's more than good enough to play a significant role at a large number of clubs in the division. He's Viking's best midfielder, and likely a top three player overall.