Tottenham agree midfielder sale in deal worth £16.8m - reports

Tottenham Hotspur have agreed to sell Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg to Ligue 1 giants Marseille in a deal worth €20m (£16.8m), multiple reports have revealed.

The 28-year-old joined Spurs from Southampton in 2020 having spent four years on the south coast following a move from Bayern Munich.

Hojbjerg has been a mainstay of Tottenham's side throughout his time in north London, playing 145 Premier League games from a possible 152, but his place as a regular starter diminished last season under Ange Postecoglou.

The Greek-Australian's expansive brand of football often saw Pape Matar Sarr, Yves Bissouma and Rodrigo Bentancur placed ahead of Hojbjerg in the pecking order, with the Dane's introduction from the bench often a mechanism to help preserve leads.

Atletico Madrid have been regularly linked with a move for Hojbjerg, who has just a year remaining on his Tottenham contract, but The Athletic among other outlets have revealed that Marseille are the team to agree a deal.

Tottenham are expected to receive a total package worth €20m (£16.8m) for Hojbjerg, who now looks set to end his eight-stay in England providing he passes a medical and agrees personal terms, with €14.2m (£12m) of that coming up front.

Recouping a transfer fee, rather than allowing Hojbjerg to potentially wind down his contract, will be viewed as good business by many, particularly as Spurs have invested a significant amount of money in talented teenager Archie Gray.

The 18-year-old penned a long-term deal earlier this summer in a move that could eventually be worth £40m to Leeds United, joining another highly-rated youngster Lucas Bergvall at the club - he turned down the advances of Barcelona in order to further his footballing education at Spurs.

Further outgoings are expected, with Joe Rodon and Troy Parrott having already exited on a permanent basis, while signing a new striker is also on the agenda. Brentford's Ivan Toney has been linked, as have a host of other strikers, with Son Heung-min currently operating as the spearhead of Spurs' attack following Harry Kane's departure 11 months ago.