Congratulations to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg!
Many congratulations to Spurs’ Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg who was selected for the Euro2020 official team of the tournament. Not only was the battling midfielder the only Spurs representative in the team, but this was also the first time that Spurs had a current player selected in a Euro's team of the tournament. There were three England players in the team, one of whom - Kyle Walker – is a former Spur. Harry Kane, who scored four goals in the competition finishing one behind joint Golden Boot winners Cristiano Ronaldo and Patrick Schick. Kane was one of four players in joint second place. One of those – Romelu Lukaku – did make the Euro2020 team selection. Two former Spurs players – Steffen Freund and Robbie Keane – were among the panel of technical observers who passed judgement on the players taking part.
Hojbjerg played every minute of all six of Denmark’s games in a run which only ended with defeat to Harry Kane’s England in the semi-final. Pierre-Emile not only demonstrated his usual array of skills, but also provided no less than three assists for his team, a figure beaten by only Steven Zuber of Switzerland. You may remember that along with club captain Hugo Lloris, Hojbjerg was ever-present in our league programme last season, playing every minute of every game.
Spurs’ pre-season friendly programme starts this weekend with the first team playing away to Leyton Orient on Saturday for the JE Foundation Trophy which is named in memory of former Spurs left back and Leyton Orient manager Justin Edinburgh. Players such as Joe Hart, Matt Doherty, Japhet Tanganga, Harry Winks, Eric Dier, Oliver Skipp, Ryan Sessegnon, Erik Lamela, Lucas Moura, Dele Alli, Steven Bergwijn and Tanguy Ndombele are already back in training and could be seen in early friendlies. Younger players such as centre-back Cameron Carter-Vickers, Timothy Eyoma, Nile John, Dane Scarlett, Jack Clarke, Harvey White, Dane Scarlett and Troy Parrott have also been training with the squad. Heung-min Son and Serge Aurier ought to be around by now too.
Carter-Vickers made cup appearances for Spurs as long ago as the 2016-17 season and has 8 senior USA caps, but since 2017 he has had loan spells at Sheffield United, Ipswich, Swansea, Stoke, Luton and last season with Bournemouth. Cameron will be 24 in December, and it remains to be seen whether he can forge a place in the first team squad.
It will be late July before we see players such as Hojbjerg, Kane, Sanchez and Lo Celso return to training with Spurs. All four were involved in the late stages of the Euro20 and Copa America competitions. Others, such as Hugo Lloris, Moussa Sissoko, Toby Alderweireld, Joe Rodon, and Ben Davies should return slightly earlier.
Official first team friendlies are at Leyton Orient, Colchester, and Milton Keynes before we play the higher profile Mind Series games away to Chelsea and at home to Arsenal. By the time we play Arsenal on 8th August, we will be able to see something resembling a full-strength first team, but we also have to take any transfer activity into account. The Harry Kane saga is one likely to roll on beyond the start of the Premier League season, especially as we ply manchester City in the opening Premier League game.
The Premier League and high-profile friendlies attract a world-wide audience and North American readers may be interested in this Betrivers Affiliate Code Pennsylvania. Another item to note is that the draw for our play-off round in the new Europa Conference League will take place on Monday 2nd August. The first qualifying round of that competition is being completed tomorrow (15th July) and there are two more qualifying rounds before we become involved.
