Hojbjerg: Official - Signs for Spurs

[DRAGONZ_RULE]

On 21/07/2020 at 19:16, DRAGONZ_RULE said:

It's an interesting phenomenon.

Last season, Southampton were struggling, Hojbjerg came into the side and completely transformed it, and was arguably Saints player of the season in 2018/19. He scored some crucial goals and generally had an excellent season.

He then gets made Club Captain for 2019/20, his performances have not quite been at the level they were last season, even before the season started there were rumblings about his unwillingness to sign a new contract. It seems his head had already been turned before the season began and it has probably impacted on his form. Certainly it has impacted on the fans' perception of him, as he is now fairly roundly disliked around these parts.

Throughout all that, Hassenhuttl built the whole team around him, Guardiola has been very vocal over the years about how good he believes Hojbjerg is, and now two of the most successful managers in recent history in Mourinho and Ancelotti both want to sign him for their teams, with both of those clubs holding European ambitions.

So what is going on here? Do the Saints fans who watch him week in, week out have it right, or do 3 of the world's leading managers, plus the current Saints manager, have it right? Or is it somewhere in the middle?

It will be interesting to see what happens over the coming weeks and months.  

Coming back to this a few months later, and it looks as if this has been a move which has worked out well for all parties.

Saints have started the season well, JWP and Romeu have been excellent and KWP was a critical purchase and has made the spot his own.

Spurs are one of the form teams in the league, and whilst he's not getting the headlines Kane and Son are, PEH has become one of Mourinho's most vital players and is putting in top class performances as a defensive midfielder.

One of those deals where everyone walks away a winner - so far at least!

[trousers]

1 hour ago, DRAGONZ_RULE said:

Coming back to this a few months later, and it looks as if this has been a move which has worked out well for all parties.

Saints have started the season well, JWP and Romeu have been excellent and KWP was a critical purchase and has made the spot his own.

Spurs are one of the form teams in the league, and whilst he's not getting the headlines Kane and Son are, PEH has become one of Mourinho's most vital players and is putting in top class performances as a defensive midfielder.

One of those deals where everyone walks away a winner - so far at least!

Indeed. My Spurs supporting friend can't praise him highly enough... "the missing piece of the Mourinho jigsaw" etc etc

[skintsaint]

Played v.well against Sheff Utd yesterday.

[Master Bates]

1 hour ago, skintsaint said:

Played v.well against Sheff Utd yesterday.

I heard that too 🤣 good old BBC

[saintwbu]

Anyone catch his extremely smug post-match interview they showed on MOTD? Kept saying teams all want to beat the ‘number one team’. Glad I don’t have to listen to those interviews for us anymore. 

[captainchris]

3 hours ago, saintwbu said:

Anyone catch his extremely smug post-match interview they showed on MOTD? Kept saying teams all want to beat the ‘number one team’. Glad I don’t have to listen to those interviews for us anymore. 

Agree, It was truly cringable.... 

 

[Micky]

Quietly building a good reputation for himself at Spurs.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55300917

[Plastic]

24 minutes ago, Micky said:

Quietly building a good reputation for himself at Spurs.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55300917

I liked this bit...

[Jeremy Corbyn]

25 minutes ago, Micky said:

Quietly building a good reputation for himself at Spurs.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55300917

He's clearly a better player than we saw here, I think primarily as he has a different, simpler role there.  He's a very good enforcer, he's not particularly good on the ball.

[woodsaint1]

He got run ragged by Wijnaldum and Jones for large periods of the Liverpool game. Booked for literally trying a rugby tackle and was waiting on him being sent off after being turned a number of times. Has had a very good start to his Spurs career, but was one of his poorest performances yet (even though Spurs fans were still gushing over his 'heart' and workrate)

[Jonnyboy]

Wait til Spurs start slipping past 4th place....

[CB Fry]

At the end of the day its win-win. The first eleven we have now are better at delivering Ralph's system than the Danish headless chicken ever was.

But the boy has landed on his feet at Spurs and Jose loves him. To be honest I would like to see Spurs win the league so it could be a great move.

Good luck to Pierre. Bang average while here, I didn't think we'd miss him too much and thankfully we haven't.

[HarvSFC]

Yep, Mourinho has him playing a much simpler role in the Tottenham team, where he simply sits back, breaks attacks with tactical fouls and recycles the ball to a teammate. We/Ralph do not play this way and now you can see that JWP and Romeu are much more capable of bringing the ball forward and hitting shots on target, playing assists etc. (I know Romeu got his first ever League one, but that ball against Arsenal which Redmond hit the bar with was another delight.) Whereas, the less said about Hojbjerg’s ability up the pitch in regards to his shooting and composure to pick out a killer pass, well the less said about that the better. He certainly is not their Eriksen replacement, which they were all crowing about in the summer, only in nationality.

Essentially, Hojbjerg is a passion merchant, who wears his heart on the sleeve and does try to break boundaries with the rules/deceive the ref and Mourinho loves these types of players.