Jose on Pierre and Joe

Jose Mourinho has no doubt as to the impact our new arrivals Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Joe Hart will have on the dressing room.

“They are going to make our Club stronger,” stated Jose after handing the pair their first appearances in our pre-season opener against Ipswich Town on Saturday.

Early goals from Ryan Sessegnon and Heung-Min Son (2) settled it against the League One side as Pierre put in a 65-minute shift and Joe featured in the second half at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

“It’s a pity, empty stadium, I imagine if it was normal times we would have a few thousand here, and that’s one of the things that attracted Pierre to our Club, to play in this stadium with people, and we miss it,” said Jose.

“I think people can get an idea of what he can do for us. For (Harry) Winks, it’s very comfortable to play with Pierre on his side.”

On Joe, Jose added: “Michel (Vorm)... I don’t know if he was in the last year of his career, but he was close to it, and to bring in Joe, 75 caps for England, lots of experience, that’s great protection for us to have these three goalkeepers, all of them internationals, all of them good goalkeepers.

“You can sleep well because you know any injury, illness, any problems, we have three goalkeepers and with some crazy fixtures that are waiting for us, playing all the competitions, starting the Carabao Cup immediately at the same time as Europa League and Premier League, even goalkeepers cannot play every match, so it’s very, very good business for us.”

You can watch this week’s pre-season matches against Reading (Friday, 3pm) and Birmingham City (Saturday, 3pm) via our special N17 Live streaming service.