Tottenham Hotspur completed a series of impressive, headline-grabbing deals over the summer.
Gareth Bale’s return from Real Madrid on a season-long loan unsurprisingly commanded the most column inches, although there was plenty of praise for Spurs acquiring new full-backs in Matt Doherty and Sergio Reguilon, and a back-up striker for Harry Kane in Carlos Vinicius.
Perhaps the most impactful summer signing so far, though, has been Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
The Dane, who joined from Southampton for £15million, has played every minute of the league campaign so far and once again demonstrated his midfield mettle during Saturday’s win over Manchester City, his performance catching the eye of Pep Guardiola.
“We created chances, despite how difficult it was with the physicality,” said Guardiola. “Hojbjerg was following the gaps really well.”
Guardiola would not have been surprised by Hojbjerg’s energy, of course, given how he took the player under his wing at Bayern Munich.
Having come through the Bayern Munich II set-up, Hojbjerg made his debut as a 17-year-old in April 2013, just a couple of months prior to Guardiola’s arrival in Bavaria.
And, as detailed by Marti Perarnau in his book Pep Confidential, which chronicles the manager’s first season in Germany, it only took “a couple of training sessions” for Guardiola to “fall in love” with Hojbjerg.
The Dane was even likened to Sergio Busquets, who had become one of the finest deep-lying midfielders in the world under Guardiola at Barcelona.
Having developed several players at the Camp Nou, Guardiola viewed Hojbjerg as one of his first projects at Bayern. By the time the coach arrived at the Allianz Arena, the likes of Arjen Robben, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm and Mario Mandzukic were already fully-fledged stars.
But Hojbjerg, Guardiola felt, was a player who could come on leaps and bounds under his watchful eye.
Of course, given the stature of the players ahead of him in the pecking order (Schweinsteiger, Thiago Alcantara and Toni Kroos, for example), the youngster’s first-team opportunities were few and far between.
Despite that, he still managed to make 23 appearances in all competitions under Guardiola before being loaned to Augsburg in January 2015. That was followed by a year at Schalke, which culminated in his departure to Southampton in the summer of 2016.
Hojbjerg was ultimately unable to become a regular fixture under Guardiola at Bayern, but that failed to dim his appreciation for the impact the tactician had on his formative years.
In 2018, he told The Times that Guardiola was the ‘most demanding person’ he had ever met, but also that he was his ‘greatest teacher’.
Those intense, one-on-one sessions with Guardiola clearly left their mark on Hojbjerg. While he was too young to enjoy an extended run at Bayern, Guardiola imparted precious pearls of wisdom on how to boss a deeper role in midfield: the anticipation of the opponent’s next move, the appreciation of space and how to fill it.
These key tenets of midfield play stood Hojbjerg in good stead at Southampton. With Guardiola watching from a distance as City boss, his former student quietly established himself as one of the Premier League’s most effective ball-winners.
Last season, as per the Premier League website, he ranked 17th in tackles completed. This year at Spurs, he is currently in a tie for third, with only Everton’s Allan and Oriol Romeu, his former Saints teammate, ahead of him.
Schooled by Guardiola, Hojbjerg was able to take his game to another level under another revered tactician in Ralph Hasenhuttl. Under the Austrian, the midfielder improved his passing, his pressing and learned to become a leader, being named club captain shortly after Hasenhuttl’s arrival.
While his departure from St Mary’s was made somewhat acrimonious by Hojbjerg publicly expressing his desire to leave the club, he will view his four years on the south coast as critical in his development.
Now, he appears to have had a similar effect on Jose Mourinho as he did on Guardiola.
Parachuted straight into Mourinho’s first-choice XI in north London, Hojbjerg has become an indispensable cog in the Spurs machine, helping to shield the back four alongside Moussa Sissoko.
And whereas the Frenchman offers a little more thrust going forward, Hojbjerg’s ability to drop between defenders, press aggressively and make quick, incisive passes to launch an attack have been just as pivotal in Tottenham’ s success so far this season.
Under Guardiola, Hojbjerg acquired the fundamentals needed to become a commanding midfield presence. Under Hasenhuttl, he showed he was worthy of playing for one of English football’s ‘big six’.
Now, though, he is thriving as Mourinho’s midfield general, and with solid performances against both Manchester clubs under his belt this term, he is slowly but surely realising the potential Guardiola identified back in 2014.
