Spurs appear to have won the race for Djed Spence

Tottenham Hotspur appear to have their wingback business settled, and while Fabio Paratici and Antonio Conte went and got a proven winner on the left side in the name of Ivan Perišić, the scattergun has hit a bullseye on a much younger target for the right flank.

According to Will Unwin of The Guardian, Spurs and Middlesbrough have agreed to a deal for right wingback and England U-21 player Djed Spence.

First, hats off to Will. He’s on holiday and had to write this up on a bus it seems. The good ones never rest on a big story. According to him, the deal is about what was expected.

Tottenham have agreed a deal to buy Djed Spence from Middlesbrough, with the fee understood to be about £20m. The England Under-21s right-back last month finished a season on loan at Nottingham Forest, where he played a significant part in their promotion to the Premier League.

Spence, who was born in London and was in Fulham’s academy, is one of the country’s most highly regarded young defenders and was on Thursday named in the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Championship team of the season.

Spence will count as a homegrown player, which helps given the club have at least one outbound in Harry Winks. He’s a big guy at 6’1” (1.85m) and will give Spurs quality depth behind whichever of Matt Doherty or Emerson Royal survive the summer as the other wingback.

£20m isn’t a lottery ticket purchase. This is a purchase a club makes when they believe a player can contribute right now. Nottingham Forest wanted him back badly for their return to the Premier League, but Spence has played in the Championship for the last three seasons on a pretty consistent basis and had enough eyes on him where it was clear he wanted to take the next step.

Wages aren’t expected to be an issue here. The reported range of his weekly pay was anywhere from £3,000/week to £5,000/week, so he’s going to get one heck of a pay bump no matter what Spurs agree to.

If you want to see some numbers, Statsbomb dropped a radar of him back in February. Overall, it looks pretty good.

That statement about Boro not caring is pretty accurate. Isaiah Jones is quite good so Boro were swimming in talent at the position. They’re happy to cash in and use the funds elsewhere after finishing seventh in the Championship.

Expect word of a medical being scheduled and wages agreed upon in the next couple of days. And, as usual: Nobody move.

UPDATE (1:40PM): Alright, who moved? Gold isn’t completely throwing cold water on this, but he’s saying pump the brakes a little bit.

Romano seems to agree as well.