Middlesbrough boss Chris Wilder says Djed Spence has expressed his desire to leave, and he expects that to happen, but the player will be expected to report back for pre-season training if no deal is struck with Tottenham before then.
The 21-year-old right wing-back helped Nottingham Forest gain promotion to the Premier League during an eye-catching season on loan with Steve Cooper's side in the Championship. Spence is understood to be keen on a move to Spurs, but the north London club are yet to push through their attempts to prise him away from Boro.
Wilder namechecked Tottenham repeatedly when speaking about Spence and indicated that the player does want to join Antonio Conte's side. The Boro boss also stated that while he does expect a deal to happen for the right wing-back to leave the club, currently, nothing has progressed.
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"If nothing happens with Djed, then he's our player, and he'll be back for pre-season," Wilder is quoted as saying in The Northern Echo. "From my point of view, negotiations between Kieran (Scott), Neil (Bausor), Steve (Gibson) and Tottenham stay between Kieran, Neil, Steve and Tottenham. If the deal doesn't get done, we'll see where we go from there. Have I got input into it? Yeah, 100 per cent. The boy obviously doesn't want to come back here, which I've got absolutely no issue with. He obviously sees his future away from here, and he had a brilliant season last season.
"We're expecting that deal to happen, but if it doesn't, then he's our player. From a club point of view, the deal has to be right. We're not trying to stand in the way of anybody. I've never done that as a manager, and I've had plenty of situations before where opportunities have come along to players.
"But there's always three parties involved in any deal, and it's got to be right for all three parties for it to happen. It's got to be right for the player, and obviously, from the noises, it sounds as though [Spurs] is where he wants to go. Tottenham want him, and we're prepared for that, but it's got to be right for us too. It all needs to marry up."
He added: "We're a reasonable football club, but some of the numbers you sometimes get quoted are ridiculous, and we're not going to allow anyone to take advantage of us.
"We got quoted £20-25m for a forward playing in the Championship recently, but we didn't think that was a fair number. We're prepared to pay fair numbers, as we always have done, but we're not going to be silly, and we're certainly not going to be giving our players away for a fee we don't think is right. Ultimately, Djed's our player.
"We're not reliant on getting in money for Djed Spence. Although obviously, it would help. We're certainly not in a position where we're having to wait to see what happens with Djed before we can get other things done.
"I spoke to the chairman, and Steve is ambitious and excited about the future. The good thing about Steve is that he knows the club have to do their absolute maximum to support a push to be in and around the top of the division. That means getting the right players in, although it also has to be at the right value too. We'll walk away from deals if they're not right for us."
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