According to media reports Saints are about to agree a deal with Tottenham Hotspur that will see Pierre Emile Hojbjerg move to North London & Kyle Walker Peters to move to the South Coast.

Media reports on this transfer deal have varied greatly over the past few weeks, now it seems the national media seem to think that Hojbjerg is about to join Spurs and the local media down here are still saying that Spurs are way off Saints valuation and the deal is not anywhere near the line.

This seems to suggest that Tottenham are now using the media to turn up the heat and force Saints hand.

The departure of Hojbjerg will not see mass wailing from the Saints supporter base but it will leave a sour taste in the mouth and it will evoke memories of 1992 when Spurs "unsettled" Neil Ruddock and got him cheap at a tribunal and then Victor Wanyama in 2016 when Spurs again used the players desire to join Spurs to again make derisory offer for a man with a year left on his contract meaning that Saints got slightly less for a player that who with no experience in the Premier league they had signed in 2013.

Everton however where willing to pay £25 million for the player, but it seems that Saints have to accept defeat and Hojbjerg has shown his gratitude to Saints for turning hm into a Premier League player by holding them to ransom by saying it is Spurs or nowhere.

So there isn't a Saints fan in the land who is surprised about the news that the player will leave the club for barely what we paid for him 4 years ago.

Saints supporters may hate Liverpool for the way that they targeted certain players in our squad, but at least they put their money where their mouth was and didn't haggle over every last penny and paid a fair price.

Surprisingly though Spurs value Kyle Walker Peters a player who has barely played for them at almost the same price as the experienced International Hojbjerg.

To older Saints fans Spurs were a club who were known for their class back in the 1960's under Bill Nicholson and who did things the right way, that reputation was long gone by the early 1990's and the Alan Sugar /Terry Venables era and by 2001 when Rupert Lowe dubbed them North London Yobbos after the poaching of Glenn Hoddle and then Dean Richards.

Hojbjerg will do well to note though that it hasn't ended happily for those that have taken the Spurs bait, Neil Ruddock stayed just one season and left after his mentor Venables was sacked, Glenn Hoddle failed to turn Spurs into a force, Dean Richards did not produce his Saints form and Wanyama's career saw one good season and then he was a squad player, recently he joined MLS side Montreal still aged 29.

There will be a feeling of relief though to get the deal done, Walker Peters has impressed and it is felt Hojbjerg will not be missed, he has the ability but his passing and goal scoring ability often fails to impress.

Photo: Action Images

inthebox added 22:11 - Aug 4 https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/aug/04/tottenham-agree-15m-fee-for-sou
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Boris1977 added 22:55 - Aug 4 £15 m in cash and peters coming to Saints would be acceptable but not as it seems us paying them £12 m in transfer fee in return. This is a nonsense. Under the circumstances this transaction needs to happen as in real terms saints are getting the better deal but this is an illustration of how we are seen by other clubs and certain players.
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A1079 added 22:55 - Aug 4 We can paint the picture of Spurs being the bad guys and Levy Satin, but at the end of the day he is doing whatever he needs to do to get the best for his club whether we like it or not or whether we think it is fair or not. To try and up the ante towards Spurs and Hojberg is to gloss over our own shortcomings when it comes to the transfer market and lets be honest, our record is not great in recent years! When it comes to playing with the big boys over transfers we appear to be weak in negotiations and ultimately tend to lose out, though no doubt it will be glossed over. Don't get me wrong I hate Spurs with a passion, always have done for some reason and nothing to do with their transfer dealings, I just find them a vile club, but we cannot blame others for our own failings when it comes to player transfer dealings.

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KriSaint added 22:55 - Aug 4 I´m as frustrated as any other Saints supporter about Tottenham and Daniel Levi, but at the end of the day I´m pleased that it looks like we got KWP over the line.
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SaintNick added 23:23 - Aug 4 It is not a sign of Saints being weak in negotiations, it is a sign of what football is these days where players have all the power and certain clubs use that to their own ends, Hojbjerg has refused a new contract and run it down to the last year and now we are again caught in a situation where we will not get his full value, same thing happened with Wanyama, Saints stood firm then and didn't back down but it cost them money

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AmericanSaint added 23:49 - Aug 4 I think the thing that is being overlooked in this weal is that it probably shows how weak we are financially that we can't lose 15M by making PEH play for the under 23s for a year. We are obviously strapped for cash, so we caved. I know this is not what we want to believe but there can't be any other explanation that we would cave to Levy after these past dealings. Finally, I think PEH will regret this very quickly and realize that when he is sitting on the bench and not playing and he wonders where his career has gone. Time to move on.

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redandwhitedee added 00:11 - Aug 5 He was only ever average on his best day. Never a game changer. Never a match winner. Talked a good show after the match to make it look like he was the grafter. Where was he when Leicester were pumping 9 through our supposed defensive midfield earlier this season ? Where was he when we won away at Man City ? oh yes. On the bench. Happy to get a few quid and a promising (albeit very lightweight under pressure again) right-back in exchange for the guy. Good luck to him. Would rather have had Harrison Reed all season

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perazi added 00:39 - Aug 5 As of late Tuesday night there seems to be conjecture as to whether deals have been finalised or not. It certainly wouldn't be "daylight robbery" if the 15m for PEH and the 12m for KWP was accurate. Perhaps a net gain of 5m rather than 3m might have been fairer but PEH is in his final year of contract; inside the Saints bubble and disregarding some of the statistical read outs on Hojbjerg, his limitations are well known......somewhere between 15m and 18m is probably a fair value. KWP has shown himself (in the last 6 or so games of the season) to be a quality player, and when compared to the 13m we received for Matt Targett, probably looks to be a 12m - 15m player. If you accept the reasonableness of those figures then the reported deals or soon to be confirmed deals are probably about right. I detest Levy as much as the next supporter and he must be a nightmare to deal with.....but daylight robbery? It isn't.

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Crispinmumbles added 00:45 - Aug 5 I posted this on the DE so forgive me for just copying and pasting but - Stich up by Pinhas Zahavi, Hojbjeerg and Levy. Kyle Walker-Peters looks the part and is now used to the way we play plus no language issues. So bite the bullet on this one but let us learn! Future contracts should involve a clause banning Pinhas Zahavi's use as an agent/intermediary. Complain to FIFA and the Prem League re:his behaviour, try and get him banned and seek for evidence of tapping up. Don't let players run their contracts down in this way again. Lastly, once both deals are concluded, tell Levy that we will refuse to ever sell another player to Spuds and maybe insert another clause to this effect in contracts. Simples.

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NYC_Saint added 01:40 - Aug 5 Clearly a red flag that he wouldn’t sign last year so in hindsight should have put him up for sale then. However how much would we have got for him then having just stayed up? I don’t think it would have been much more than 20 mn and with one year left on his contract getting that now would be a reasonable deal imo. The Everton figure I read was 19 mn going up to 25 with certain milestones met - 15 still a long way off though. When the stories started up I didn’t really think we were losing much and frankly think we’ve played better without him. KWP has grown in confidence, knows and seems to fit RH’s system and would be A welcome addrion. I think we are all a little jaded with Spurs dealings and the tough guy image Levy likes to portray and we might lose out by 5 mn on what we think he’s worth but frankly our reinvestment strategy has been inconsistent at best and poor in defense so all in I think I’ll grin and bear it and hope PEH fails miserably at Tottenham (which is more about Spurs than PEH). We should, however, report Tottenham for their part in clearly unsettling A player. But with a year on his contract I’m not sure how much more we can expect. Let’s finish above them next season and we can all tweet him non stop about how his ambition is working out for him (sadly he’ll likely just respond with a screenshot of his monthly pay check which is what this really is all about..)

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wessexman added 07:19 - Aug 5 We should have let him go last Christmas. During the forum last August last August it was quite clear he did not want to be there. Can we blame the board? Unfortunately, look at the saga down the road with Ryan Fraser. You could argue his refusal to play got Bournemouth relegated. With very few exceptions, especially the foreign players, are mercenaries. Also, why should the likes of Hojberg have any allegiance to Saints? The whole thing stinks......and it has not done Hojberg any favours. Welcome to the modern game................

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SaintPaulVW added 09:34 - Aug 5 It's a tricky one. Sign players to a new long contract, you can end up with underperforming highly paid players out on loan; let contracts run down you can end up with low ball offers.
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saintmark1976 added 10:36 - Aug 5 AmericanSaint has got it spot on. Because of the club’s owners inability and lack of desire to fund us other than as a day to day going concern, we’ve no financial “clout”. Hence we fold at the first smell of gunpowder. Put simply we need the money for cash flow purposes, an opinion which I suspect will be illustrated when next we see the club’s annual accounts.

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SaintNick added 11:40 - Aug 5 saintmark, you cite the owners lack of desire to fund us other than as a day to day going concern as an issue with this deal so a few quick questions. 1. Do you think his lack of desire is anything to do with the fact that from day one all he has seen is negative comments about him from a large proportion of the fanbase who have decided that they don't like him without giving him a chance 2. Would you prefer that he had put his hand in his pocket for transfers which would have then been loaded on to the club as debt. 3. What do you see wrong with running the club as going concern rather than seeing it have money be pumped in that ultimately the owner is going to want back. 4. How do you see the situation over the past two years and the disintegrating relationship between China and the west in relation to his inability to put money into the club

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sandywelsh added 11:52 - Aug 5 Radio Solent Sports Editor Adam Blackmore tweeted: "#Saintsfc #thfc Not sure who from Spurs is briefing some on this... BUT neither deal is done "Spurs are not close to Saints valuation of PEH, and he won’t be moving there unless they get close.
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sandywelsh added 11:57 - Aug 5 Hope this is not true. The Telegraph have claimed that Fulham are set to complete their first signing of the summer following promotion to the Premier League, with the £8million permanent signing of Harrison Reed from Southampton.
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Saint4Life247 added 12:03 - Aug 5 The deal/deals are not yet complete so I'd rather wait until its announced officially before commenting on fully but........... I will say that I am completely bemused by the hype surrounding PEH from fans, managers, pundits, media etc.. Have I been watching the same player for the last few seasons?? He is bang average at best. I think we play better without him TBH. £15m is probably about right given his ability, age and fitness etc. Whereas i'd say £12m for KWP is a bit of a steal given that he hasn't reached his true potential When I heard that PEH wanted to go to Spurs I was prepared to accept a straight swap for KWP and I'd have been over the moon with that. In fact it would have been us robbing Spurs. I think there is loads more to come from KWP and PEH has peaked already. I think the media are making it out to be something that its not. PEH will fail miserably at Spurs

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PaleRider added 12:13 - Aug 5 Nick Regarding your points to Saint Mark: 1) If he is that thin-skinned maybe he shouldn't own a football club. Unfortunately much of the mistrust is of his own making - he does nothing to try and "win over" the supporters and shows no empathy for the club, the supporters or the city. He has had more than enough time to make a bit of an effort and he hasn't. 2) Why would this be debt? It is only debt if he chooses to loan the money to the club rather than invest it. If he is the owner he can inject funds as equity - thereby increasing the equity and enterprise values of the club. Furthermore - how much has he actually invested into the club - not buying shares off of KL but actually investing cash into the business? 3) You seem to think being a going concern or self sustaining is the measure of success. actually it is the other way round - many businesses are self-sustaining/going concerns because they are successful. 4) Clearly the China situation has not helped. However, this was entirely predictable. China is not a benign democracy and Gao has a clear relationship with the Chinese government - as have all mainland China based successful businessmen. It is not possible to operate in China without the support of the government and sooner or later China would start flexing political muscle - leading it into conflict with the US and UK.

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saintmark1976 added 13:06 - Aug 5 Nick, in response to your four questions of me. I really can’t add anything further to the very eloquent response made to you by PaleRider. For the purpose of good order I would however confirm that I have no connection with him/her whatsoever.
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GeordieSaint added 13:23 - Aug 5 Seems reasonable enough to me. Spurs have probably come down a bit on what they wanted for Walker Peters to get it through, everyone saves a few quid on VAT, the clubs get the players they want and the players the transfers they want. Pierre has done a decent job and put a shift in and the club has still made a small profit overall. I don’t see what all the criticism of the club is about here, particularly when they clearly would have preferred him jus to sign a new deal.

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PaleRider added 14:45 - Aug 5 Thanks Saint Mark. I am a "he" - also called Nick!
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IanRC added 14:58 - Aug 5 Seems like this is pro Spurs hype as the deal does not appear to be done. If Saints hold their ground, some above may need to eat their words.
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KilkennySaint added 19:07 - Aug 5 I totally agree with Saint4Life247, I just don’t get the hype with PEH. I was surprised when I first heard a value of $25m, I was thinking more of $15m considering his one year left on his contract, I would be very happy with a straight swap for KWP. I really question what homework Everton & Spurs have done on him & what he can really bring to either team, I don’t see him any better to the midfielders either club currently have. Apart from 2 great goals at Brighton a couple season ago and giving honest interviews after games when they were need, I don’t recall too many other performances that really stand out.

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SanMarco added 19:40 - Aug 5 I don't believe this is a done deal. PEH doesn't have the power to over-ride such a gap in valuations. If Spuds were offering 2 or 3m less but 10m??? We have to call his bluff and invite him to see out the last year.
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ItchenNorth added 23:12 - Aug 5 Spurs get PEH, we get KWP. I'm quite happy with it. A win win for virtually no money for both clubs.
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