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.
Forest had considered keeping the 21-year-old but he has chosen to join Tottenham. Emerson Royal was the preferred Spurs option in Spence’s position in the 2021-22 season, although Matt Doherty and Japhet Tanganga were also used there.
Tottenham’s targeting of Spence fits with their general policy of signing young talent with potential sell-on value. They abandoned that this month to bring in the 33-year-old Ivan Perisic, who is leaving Internazionale at the end of his contract.
Spence has held down a regular Championship place since December 2019, first with Middlesbrough then Forest. He made his England Under-21s debut in March.
Forest could replace him with the Burkina Faso international Issa Kaboré, who has been on loan at Troyes from Manchester City. The newly promoted club are also interested in Arsenal’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles and the Liverpool defender Neco Williams.
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Brentford had hoped to sign Spence and hope for more success in pursuit of the Egypt forward Omar Marmoush, who recently finished a loan at Stuttgart from Wolfsburg.
Spurs have announced the sale of Cameron Carter-Vickers to Celtic, where the USA defender spent the 2021-22 season on loan.
