Jose Mourinho hails ‘amazing’ Joe Hart and Pierre-Emile Hjojbjerg signings

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho has branded the signings of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Joe Hart as “amazing” business for the club.

Midfielder Hojbjerg signed from Southampton for a £20million fee last week while goalkeeper Hart joined on a free transfer following his release from Burnley.

Both men made their Spurs debuts in the 3-0 friendly win over Ipswich at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Hojbjerg playing 63 minutes and Hart 30.

Mourinho was particularly impressed with his chairman Daniel Levy for getting 25-year-old Denmark international Hojbjerg to the club for such a relatively modest fee.

„The club found very intelligently the moment to do it,“ Mourinho said on Spurs TV.

„It was the last year of contract for Pierre, his club was in a difficult situation in terms of negotiation so I think Mr Levy did amazing for us getting such a good player for us.“

Hart, 33, has signed a two-year deal and although he starts off behind Hugo Lloris in the pecking order, Spurs’ hectic fixture list will see him get plenty of game time along with fellow stopper Paulo Gazzaniga.

„I think the club did amazing in both because they are going to make our squad stronger,“ Mourinho added. „To bring Joe, 75 caps for England and lost of experience, he is great protection for us to have three goalkeepers.

„All internationals for their country, all good goalkeepers, you can sleep well because any injuries or problems that we have, we have three good goalkeepers.

„With some of the crazy fixtures we are going to have, playing all the competitions, the Carabao Cup at the same time as Europa League and Premier League, even goalkeepers cannot play every match so it is very, very good business for us.“

Spurs won the game against their League One opponents with three goals in the opening 30 minutes, with Ryan Sessegnon’s opener followed by a double for Son Heung-min.

Mourinho’s men were not at full strength for the game, with Harry Kane in quarantine following his holiday to the Bahamas and a number of other first-team regulars training at the club’s base in Enfield.

Mourinho, often criticised for his reluctance to give youth a chance, handed game time to 16-year-old duo Alfie Devine and Dane Scarlett in the second half.

„We saw some good things, we gave the opportunity for some young players to play and some of them really, really young,“ he added. „Alfie was playing for Wigan under-16s a few months ago and Scarlett is 16 – closer to 15 than 17.

„I think it was good overall and we managed to save players from playing 90 minutes which is too premature in this first week of pre-season.

„Ipswich are League One but they have been training for a few weeks, they played with two teams so they kept intensity in the game so I think it was good.“

Analysis: Why Tottenham are signing Hojbjerg
Sky Sports’ Lyall Thomas: Jose Mourinho has been in the market for a new – what he calls – ‘positional’ midfielder since attempts to adapt Eric Dier to the position proved unsuccessful and he was moved to centre-back.

Mourinho likes to play a single ‘pivot’ in midfield – think back to the likes of Claude Makelele at Chelsea – who will protect the back four dependably and consistently. It’s a key role in his system, and although Moussa Sissoko has done reasonably at it, they need someone more specialist at this position.

As the stats illustrate, Hojbjerg is that specialist; ideal for the role and both young yet still very experienced at big clubs and at international level. For £15m, he could present a shrewd bit of business by Spurs and Mourinho.

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