Rumor: Italian clubs interested in Hojbjerg

One of the players most heavily linked with an exit over the summer transfer window was Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. Though the Dane has been a fixture of the starting XI over the last few seasons, his contract has started to wind down, and it seemed that the leadership at Tottenham Hotspur thought that it would be a good time to cash in on our Viking midfielder. A number of clubs were interested, but while Atletico Madrid came the closest to signing Hojbjerg, no club managed to meet Spurs’ valuation for the central midfielder.

As his time in the team has dwindled somewhat under Ange Postecoglou, rumors have started to appear once more that Hojbjerg could be headed for an exit, and it’s not just driven by the club. In the last couple of days, Fabrizio Romano reported that Hojbjerg has been hunting for a new agent to secure himself an exit from the club; and over the last 24 hours, Sky Sport (who seem to be quoting the Italian football media but could have sources of their own) have reported that Juventus are interested in a potential loan plus option-to-buy deal.

The reporting says that Spurs aren’t especially keen on this deal, as they would prefer a permanent sale, or at the very least an obligation-to-buy - the more Hojbjerg’s deal runs down, the less other clubs are likely to pay. The numbers being quoted for Spurs’ ask are around the €30 million mark, which seems reasonable, but may be a challenge for some of the continental clubs to pay (as we saw over summer).

In addition to Juventus’ interest, Italian tabloids have also been reporting that Jose Mourinho is interested in bringing Hojbjerg to Roma. Hojbjerg was initially brought to Spurs under Mourinho’s tenure, where they reportedly had a strong relationship; so these links aren’t exactly surprising (though they could just be the media creating a story out of 2+2=4).

This is all very murky at this stage, and the Italian football media are notoriously unreliable but... where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and after the links away over summer this feels less like rubbing sticks together and more like somebody sending up a flare. Let’s see what happens.