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Tottenham Hotspur: Darren Lewis claims Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg signing is ‘underwhelming’ but still ‘good business’

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Image for Tottenham Hotspur: Darren Lewis claims Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg signing is ‘underwhelming’ but still ‘good business’

Speaking recently on the Football Writers Podcast, Darren Lewis claimed that Tottenham Hotspur’s impending signing of Southampton’s Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is ‘underwhelming’ but still ‘good business’.

Since joining Southampton from Bayern Munich in what was a £13.5 million deal back in 2016, Hojbjerg has gone on to make 134 appearances for the club, scoring five goals and providing six assists.

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Last season, the former Southampton captain featured 33 times in the Premier League for the club, scoring no goals and providing one assist, averaging a WhoScored match rating of 6.83/10 – ranking him as the club’s joint-fifth-best performer.

It has recently been reported that Tottenham have agreed a deal to sign the 25-year-old this summer, after initially falling well short of Southampton’s £25 million valuation of the midfielder.

On the subject of Hojbjerg’s proposed move to Spurs, Lewis criticised the signing as being slightly underwhelming, however, that it was a good deal financially for Tottenham.

He said: “I look at Hojbjerg and if I’m honest, I’m quite underwhelmed by Hojbjerg as a signing – I don’t really know what he does. I’ve seen him play many, many times, he hasn’t really struck me as being an outstanding performer. But, it might well be that [Jose] Mourinho sees him as being able to do a job defensively in midfield.

“The fact is, that while I think Everton are willing to pay in excess of £25 million for him, Spurs are paying considerably less – with the rest of it structured on what he actually ends up doing for the club. And to me, that seems like good business.”

TIF Thoughts…

One would imagine that Mourinho does indeed plan on using the defensive midfielder in such a role within the Spurs side, and with Hojbjerg averaging 2.4 tackles and 1.4 interceptions per game for Southampton last season, it would seem as if he is fairly capable of playing that role.

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Football Writer for Snack Media