Tottenham Hotspur appear to have dodged a big bullet with Mikkel Damsgaard, who flopped at the World Cup alongside his international teammate and Lilywhites star Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.

Denmark underwhelmed as the dark horses of the tournament in Qatar after they were sent packing in the group stages. A 1-0 defeat to Australia sealed their fate as winless and bottom of the standings.

The versatile winger excelled at Euro 2020, leading to Spurs' interest in his signature. The Evening Standard's Dan Kilpatrick claimed that Damsgaard was on Fabio Paratici's summer shortlist in 2021, with Liverpool also mooted. Some reports even suggested that the Italian was prepared to pay €25m (£21.5m).

A move never came to fruition for Spurs, though. However, the Dane would find his way to the Premier League in the end after he signed for Brentford back in August, costing the Bees around £16.7m.

His impact thus far has been minuscule, having registered just one assist across 11 appearances and that came in a Carabao Cup defeat to lower league minnows, Gillingham.

Damsgaard's struggles in England continued into the World Cup, where he failed to make an impact despite notching three further caps by featuring in all of Denmark's group games.

He was entrusted to start as a floating no.10 in their biggest match against holders France but in the 2-1 loss, only two of his teammates recorded a lower rating by Sofascore. In 73 minutes of action, the Brentford ace made only 23 passes with just one leading to a key chance created, whilst he also lost 60% of his duels and was dribbled past on three occasions, perhaps highlighting his true ability against the very best.

One journalist even suggested he was "ineffective" in his efforts to defend Kylian Mbappe and co, with Calciomercato also claiming that he was a 'shadow of himself' in Qatar.

And with Spurs competing for a top-four finish, it's hard to imagine that Damsgaard would have made much of an impact to help their cause.

Despite once being lauded as "magical" by TV2's Martin Mikkelsen and a "prodigy" by his former manager Claudio Ranieri, it's clear that the Dane's recent career progression has not gone to plan since his breakthrough at Euro 2020 and as such, Paratici must be glad he dodged a £21.5m bullet by not signing him last summer.

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