I mean as great as your post is, and I mean that genuinely, I feel you have overly, almost, romanticised his impact on us.
For me he is almost stuck in the middle on what he wants to be because he is not exceptional going forward or as a defensive midfielder for me and although I can accept he has done a job for us we could and should do better in that area. We are aspiring to be pushing on and he is not in the same league as the likes of the Modrics and Carricks who were very good in that role and I think we have every right to compare him to those types as for me thats the level so when we you say "he is a very good player" I mean there are levels to it, compare to Michael Brown he is but should the benchmark be that low?
Modric became arguably the best in the world, one of the best in his role in a generation. Clearly (imo) world class. Carrick was the best English player in his role in a generation and an exceptional, though probably not truly world class, player.
Hojbjerg isn't at their level. One can be a very good player without being at those levels the way I use words at least.
Compare him to whoever you want. I compared him to Bentancur, Bissouma and Skipp. I'm definitely open to the idea that two of those will eclipse Hojbjerg given enough time. I'm just not seeing it happening yet. If it does, if they become better in the eyes of Conte I will gladly agree that they are better.
When I said he's a player that we've lacked for years and years it's that combination of ability on the pitch and mentality. I think he's very strong in that regard. It's something we've definitely missed.
He's not world class, he's not exceptional. There are better players out there, some of them we could even sign given enough investment. But the combination of being very good, with a very good mentality and being a good fit for our system is a very good combination. Ticking one or two of those boxes isn't enough, we've had plenty of players that have and suffered for it. He's nowhere near the top of what would be my priorities for further business for that reason.
We could be better with someone else. But there are many ways to improve and improving as a team with him, to a very high level, seems perfectly possible. To me he's exactly the kind of very good, but not great/exceptional player one should have. Unless one manages to get all exceptional players, we're quite a way off that.
I also happen to think that upgrading on him would be more difficult than those who are more critical of him seem to think.
Bissouma has come in. Regarded as one of the best in his role outside the top 6 in the PL. I know it's early, but he hasn't replaced Hojbjerg. I'm in a position of waiting to see what happens, he may, he may not. That will tell us more about how highly Conte rates Hojbjerg.
