Tottenham have confirmed the signing of Pierre-Emile Hojberg from Southampton on a five-year deal. We’ve also confirmed that Kyle Walker-Peters has gone in the opposite direction in a separate deal. Sky Sports say we’ve paid £15m for Hojbjerg while BBC Sport say the Saints have paid £12m for Walker-Peters.
Who got the better deal?
Tottenham. We’ve managed to strengthen our midfield with a player in Jose Mourinho’s image without paying a premium. In the Premier League last season, Hojbjerg completed 78.1% of his 1823 passes, won 55/98 of his aerial duels, made 40/52 successful dribbles, created 30 chances, blocked 49 shots/passes/crosses, made 49 clearances and averaged a tackle (80) or interception (46) every 22 minutes.
The sale of Walker-Peters means we’ve only paid an extra £3m to strengthen an area that was a previous weak point, and all we had to do was sell a defender that had made only five appearances in all competitions for us in 2019/20. Hojbjerg isn’t a world-beating midfielder, but he has all the qualities to be effective in North London, so it’s really good business by Daniel Levy.
How Hojbjerg could end up costing us more than £45m
While we have done well to sign Hojbjerg for £15m and sell Walker-Peters for £12m, the Danish international could end up costing us more than £45m by the end of his five-year contract. Hojbjerg will reportedly earn £100k-per-week/£5.2m-a-year which will turn into £27.5m, excluding £4m in performance-related bonuses. Here’s hoping he’ll be worth the outlay.
The 25-year-old will take home more money than Toby Alderweireld (£80k-per-week/£4.16m-a-year), Erik Lamela (£80k-per-week/£4.16m-a-year) and Lucas Moura (£80k-per-week/£4.16m-a-year), so we have a lot of faith in him.
What other positions do we need to strengthen?
With Serge Aurier being linked with a move to AC Milan and Juan Foyth being made available for sale this summer, we’ll need a new right-back for next season – Zeki Celik, Ainsley Maitland-Niles. With Jan Vertonghen leaving, we could benefit from signing another centre-back. With links to Ismaila Sarr, Said Benrahma and Leon Bailey, it appears we’re on the hunt for a wide-man. And with no adequate cover for Harry Kane, bringing in a striker will be the priority – Arkadiusz Milik, Habib Diallo and Callum Wilson are among those on our shortlist.
In other news, Newcastle are on the hunt for Tottenham’s left-sided midfielder
I saw some police violence a couple of weeks ago and when people started making iPhone videos the police said, Nothing to see here, folks, move along.
Nothing to see here, folks, move along.