Tuesday’s edition of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten carries an interview with the country’s national manager Åge Hareide, and in it he’s quite scathing of Pierre-Emile Højbjerg.
With a clear suggestion the Southampton midfielder has an attitude problem, Hareide stated: “Pierre Emile Højbjerg has his own thoughts on how to do things, and I wasn’t happy.
“I asked him who he wanted to demonstrate for and what he would achieve with that? Are you dissatisfied with your teammate who gets on the pitch? You can be angry at me, but you should not show it. That can only be said to me.”
This is why Southampton’s Højbjerg hasn’t been included by Denmark recently, according to the manager. Hareide also brought the player’s domestic club into the equation, saying: “He’s a young player, and has done exactly the same in Southampton. He’s had the same problems over there.”
That was odd, given Højbjerg can currently have no complaints about the minutes he’s getting.
Now Hareide has tried to calm things by speaking to another Danish newspaper, BT: “He is very active for our squad, and on Sunday, Jon (Dahl Tomasson, over 100 caps for Denmark and now helping the national manager) takes over and watches him play live. I have talked to Pierre Emile and he has just accepted that the team is coming before everyone else.
“To me there are no big things. I have spoken to Pierre and there is nothing between us. We had already spoken before the interview with Jyllands-Posten, but what I said was a clarification of why he had not been on the national team for a long time.”
Maybe all this would have been better kept in private?
