Jose Mourinho targets Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg
According to the Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera [Print Edition] via Sport Witness (h/t The Mirror), Jose Mourinho has identified Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg as a potential target ahead of the summer transfer window. The central midfielder has been a regular under Antonio Conte, even if he was left on the bench in the 2-0 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers recently.
Mourinho has turned his attention towards Hojbjerg after failing to prise Granit Xhaka from Arsenal. The AS Roma coach was the one who signed him from Southampton when he was at the managerial helm at N17. He is planning to facilitate a reunion to bolster his midfield following a series of inconsistent performances.
It is claimed that the Dane has “somewhat” fallen out of favour with Conte due to the presence of Oliver Skipp and Harry Winks. Rodrigo Bentancur’s arrival in the January transfer window also adds to the Dane’s reduced prominence at Tottenham. It is stated that he could “end up on the market” at the end of the 2021-22 season.
Laughable!
The first reaction to this piece of information would be to sweep this talk aside since the 26-year-old is anything other than being out of favour under the Italian. After all, he has featured a total of 16 games from a possible 19 matches since the latter took the managerial hot seat.
Even though the Tottenham ace has run into a difficult time recently, the situation is far from the end of the road for him in North London. It does not make sense in any way for him to be deemed dispensable when he has been sensational since joining us from the Saints.
Moreover, the departures of underperforming stars like Dele Alli, Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso have reduced the depth in midfield to a great extent. So there arises the question of why we would sell the Danish international and thus shoot ourselves in the foot in the process.
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The integrity of this news is questionable for the reasons mentioned above. Even if we consider the attempt from the Roma manager to be true, there is no reason why we should be entertaining such proposals for Hojbjerg. After all, we should be strengthening Conte’s hand and not weakening it.
That being said, it will be interesting to see the extent to which the Special One will go to land his desired target. Our ex-coach can try all he wants, but there is no incentive for us to consider any potential approaches from his side for Hojbjerg. Whether a proposal would even be made, to begin with, remains to be seen.
