Tottenham have been linked with numerous targets this summer and while some of them have been simply ridiculous (Alexis Sanchez, The Sun) there have been one or two that are credible and to some degree highly likely to happen.
One of those credible rumours has been the links with former Southampton captain Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
Matt Law at the Telegraph is not a journalist that is generally associated with silly transfer gossip and so when he makes a headline statement it is worth paying notice to.
Law reckons that Tottenham is “confident” of signing the 24-year-old midfielder who has refused to sign a new contract at the Saints which has resulted in the Danish international being stripped of the captaincy (BBC).
Whether one feels that Hojbjerg is a Tottenham type of player or whether he is Tottenham quality is kind of irrelevant right now, what is relevant is the fact that the club does feel confident that they can sign the player.
Now, it must be said that it is not as simple as Daniel Levy getting on the phone and asking his Southampton counterpart the price and then making payment.
It seems, according to the report, that the Saints want a cool £35 million for Hojbjerg and that Tottenham will have to sell first in order to fund this transfer.
So, there is still some way to go but the bottom line is that it is a credible journalist making these claims as opposed to a hack spewing out tabloid fodder.
The difference now is that he hasn’t got his lap dog to feed treats to, Mourinho will come back hard if he doesn’t close deals for players he wants.
Having said that the (starting) price quoted is ridiculous – maybe half that?
Transfermarkt value him @ £10.8 m and Winks @ £28m one over valued and one under valued?
There,s one thing for sure…There will be little to no transfer completions or discussions between us and other Premier League clubs before the season is over. It makes no sense from a financial point of view and we all know Levy will wait to see who goes down first.
If Bournemouth go down they have a few good players we could strengthen out bench with. In Europe the likes of Draxler, Donnarumma, Upacamenco, Alex Telles or Timothy Castagne will be good value also. With a little Levy savy we could really improve the teams depth and quality and none of the above mentioned would really break the bank.
In the current climate Levy needs to understand that 3 years worth of financial investment this off season will save him in the olng run. We should re-build the squad whilst it cheap and balance the book over the next few years.
If Levy delays the way he does and the way he scuppered the Grealish deal I can see Everton paying the asking price. They have sold Morgan Schneiderlin and aren’t very happy with Siggurdson, so they need midfielders. Don’t say I didn’t warn you Daniel.