Latest media reports suggest that there is plenty of interest from Premier League clubs and even from Germany, but the player himself want's to go to Spurs, that is fine but he should tell them to stop making laughable offers and get on with it.

Daniel Levy of Tottenham Hotspur is often described as a shrewd operator, but there is a difference between wanting to get the right price and being realistic.

It is well known that Everton came in for Hojbjerg and were willing to match Saints valuation of the player of £25 million, a reasonable price for a player who is being described as Spurs top transfer target of the summer window.

The media are reporting that Spurs offer at the moment is £15 million, a long way short of Saints valuation and indeed an offer that they have on the table.

The offer is also laughable in that it is only a couple of million ore than the £12.8 million Saints paid Bayern Munich 4 years ago, back then Hojbjerg was a 20 year old unknown on the fringes of the German club's squad with limited Bundesliga experience mainly in a couple of loan Spurs.

Now he is an experienced Premier League player with well over 100 Premier League appearances to his name and an established International player with his country Denmark.

So is Daniel Levy a rank amateur or a Del Boy style chancer to try and tell us that having gained all this experience and becoming a better player, he is only worth £2 million more than we paid for him.

It is made even more of a farce in that Levy also seems to want to charge us exactly the same money for Kyle Walker Peters, a player who has barely played any football in his career, indeed, his Premier League career at Spurs is only 2 games more than his short loan spell at Saints.

Older fans will remember that Spurs employed the same tactics 28 years ago when trying to sign Neil Ruddock offering exactly the same fee we had bought him from Millwall for.

So once again here we are left with a sour taste in our mouth's after dealing with Spur's, once described by former Saints Chairman Rupert Lowe as North London Yobbos, although North London Barrow Boys might be more appropriate.

Saints are not trying to stop Hojbjerg leaving the club, in fact quite the opposite, but we are not going to give him away, so far Saints have stood firm and dealt with it in the right manner, they should tell the player and his agent that unless Spurs match Everton's offer then he either goes to Goodison Park or stays at St Mary's, we could probably still get £12 million for him in the January window, although the player himself might find that Spurs have moved on and are not interested.

Photo: Action Images

derbydog added 10:44 - Aug 1 You’ve been doing much better with your misplaced apostrophes of late but they’ve begun to creep in again. Today: wants, mouths and Spurs are straightforward plurals and don’t need the apostrophes. There are a couple of Spurs’ and Saints’ in your article which are possessives and do need apostrophes but shall we leave that for another day? B+ I think today... Best Dd

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Boris1977 added 11:05 - Aug 1 Thanks for the grammar refresher Dd, a useful reminder of the things learnt at school but generally forgotten in adulthood. If you've never read any of the books on the English language by David Crystal I think you'd enjoy them. Anyway to the crux of the article - this takes player power too far. This player has made it clear he wants to leave and only one club is willing to meet the valuation. This should be pushed through with the player getting a big pay day and wage and saints getting a stupid amount of money for an average player. I know that this is the way of modern football but saints do not need the player and the player doesn't want to stay. It's frustrating and he will invite the ire of the majority of most saints fans of he decides to sit on his backside and go for free next sumer while picky up his tens of thousands a week. The way to avoid this situation is to accept the offer from spuds but with peters coming to us as part of the deal. Get it done asap and get on with the planning for next season.

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redj added 12:08 - Aug 1 I appreciate Spurs are trying to do shrewd business ,but if they continue to play these sort of games it could backfire on them. This image of hard negotiators could make players think twice. Firstly it shows they don't have a giant budget, maybe it's not as big a club as they make out. Secondly, when it comes to negotiating or renegotiating contracts they will have the same drawn out process. Big team stadium, big team manager but small team mentality and image.

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SanMarco added 13:07 - Aug 1 This is about power in modern football. If you believe that Saints had no power in deals like the Van Dick and Wanyama ones (I am not convinced that was the case but we behaved like we didn't) then the key question is do they have power now? Levy is definitely weaker than he was at the time of the Wanyama deal. We can either say no to all his shenanigans or we bend to them again. The cards he holds are PEH's wishes and KWP. The former are irrelevant unless the prices are at least equal. KWP is an issue but I don't really see what barrel he has us over on this one. Why would we buy KWP for a vastly inflated price? Why would be sell PEH at millions under value? In my view, even in this corrupt neoliberal world of football, Levy does NOT have the power to force this on us. I hope Saints don't buckle. If they do it will feel like another nail in the coffin....

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60yearsandcounting added 14:37 - Aug 1 Agent at play? With PEH and JoM sharing the same one I sense underhand dealings here. Add to that the fact Spuds are broke....! Am I the only one to not rate JoM? He goes to top clubs in top form and wins trophies. But when the big stars and the team fade he can't stop the deterioration. He doesn't have the ability to rebuild a team; buys expensive players and hopes!! Demonstrated this at Real Madrid and Chelsea (twice) And he's shown he can't go to a poor team and build them into a successful side - ManU and, to date, Spuds demonstrate this perfectly. Did you see the excited celebrations when a team who reached the Champions League final a season ago scraped into the Europa League. Spuds would do better with Sean Dyche!! I don't really understand, if PEH really means what he says about playing at the top level and winning titles, he chooses Spuds. Everton have as much, even better (??) chance, although ownership there also seem to have this "buy expensive and win" philosophy which rarely works unless you can buy a whole team. Everton went for Richarlison - didn't work by itself. Same with ManU and Pogba: one man does not a trophy-winning team make. If Levy doesn't cough up the right money whilst trying to over-inflate KWP we walk away. Put PEH with the kids for a year; no "top" club would want him in a year's time. Rom's playing better than PEH has this year. There are a couple of good RBs flouting on the market for realistic prices; we seem to have a new CB (?!?!) Sell some excess for funding?

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SanMarco added 17:17 - Aug 1 I think he was good once upon a time 60yearsandcounting. He's a busted flush now - just a has-been playing an ever more theatrical version of his former successful self.
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SaintPaulVW added 17:44 - Aug 1 We really don't need the distraction. If Everton have made a sensible offer, I would give Spurs a date by which they should match the offer or they are out of the picture. Tell PEH and his agent that unless a matching offer is received by that date he can stay or go to Everton. If Spurs want to fool around all summer over matching a fee, they can explain to their supposed no 1 target why they actually value him so little.

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1teeminants added 17:56 - Aug 1 So from what I understand Ralph wants Weston Mackennie after admiring him from his days in the bundesliga , Wolves and Leicester also want him. Ralph wants to sell Hoijberg to get money for Mackennie Levy won’t go to saints 25 million price for Hoijberg . There are other clubs Interested in Hoijberg from abroad as well as Everton but Hoijberg wants spurs only , all a bit messy. Ralph won’t be happy if he misses Mackennie due to Spurs mucking about and Hoijberg only wanting Spurs .

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ArchersRoad added 18:37 - Aug 1 As a matter of interest is it a given that he could leave for free next summer? Surely BREXIT means the Bosman Ruling no longer applies?
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highfield49 added 19:05 - Aug 1 My understanding is that once Hojbjerg's contract expires next year he becomes a free agent and can sign for whoever he wishes as we will still be part of UEFA.
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ArchersRoad added 21:20 - Aug 1 But the Bosman Ruling refers to freedom of movement within the EU. It's not a UEFA ruling. I'm confused about it myself and would be interested in what the lawyers have to say over the coming months. particularly about the possible reinstatement of compulsory transfer fees.
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stmichael added 10:07 - Aug 2 I’d be happy with £10 mill and KWP. Let’s be honest 25 mill for a player with one year left on his contract who’s first touch is a pass is not realistic...
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SanMarco added 16:58 - Aug 2 I wouldn't have thought that British law forbids freedom of contract Archers. There would have to be a specific UK law that said that workers who came to the end of their contracts weren't free to go where they wanted. PEH could just apply to the British couts on restraint of trade or whatever. And, of course, UEFA would throw us out so no Champions League, Joker Cup or European Championships. Perhaps Boris could get us a quick oven-ready deal with the Americans and Liverpool can play DC United and LA Galaxy instead of Barcelona and Bayern Munich...

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