Pep Guardiola is ready to go head-to-head with Jose Mourinho over the signature of Southampton midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, further complicating his rival's already challenging summer transfer market.
Tottenham have prioritised the Denmark international as a relatively low-cost option for a transfer window in which the club's financial resources have been severely stressed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hojbjerg, 24, is in the final year of contract at Southampton, and, having expressed his desire “to play at an even higher level”, has been made available for sale by the South-coast club.
While there had been a confidence at Tottenham that they could better Ajax's competing offer for the midfielder, Manchester City's interest is a serious concern.
The Abu Dhabi-owned club is preparing to spend heavily in restructuring a team that effectively handed over the Premier League title to Liverpool in December, and works on a pay scale far in excess of anything ever sanctioned by Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.
Guardiola knows Hojbjerg from his three-season spell in charge of Bayern Munich, where the Catalan immediately promoted the then-17-year-old academy product into his senior squad.
With four years of Premier League experience to add to a detailed knowledge of Guardiola's intricate tactical demands, Hojbjerg would reinforce a midfield that will lose David Silva next month, and from which Fernandinho has been absent for long periods this season.
Mourinho's preparations for a pivotal 2020-21 campaign have also been complicated by the decision of one of his assistants to exit Tottenham once the current season is complete. Ricardo Formosinho is understood to have asked to be released from his contract as Tottenham tactical analyst this month.
Formosinho has been part of Mourinho's technical staff since 2016, when he was appointed as Manchester United's senior technical scout. The 63-year-old Setubal native previously coached alongside Mourinho at FC Porto and served as part of the scouting department at Real Madrid.
