Tottenham set to sign England wonderkid Ashley Phillips after agreeing £3m transfer with Blackburn
TOTTENHAM are set to sign young centre-back Ashley Phillips from Blackburn.
Spurs have agreed a fee of around £3million for the 18-year-old England youth international.
He is set to undergo a medical over the next 24 hours and could fly out to join Ange Postecoglou’s squad on the Thailand and Singapore legs of their Asia-Pacific tour.
Spurs are currently in Perth, Australia, where they lost 3-2 to West Ham on Tuesday.
Phillips, who made 11 appearances for Rovers last season, has long been admired by Spurs who finally are close to getting their man.
Though it is understood the whizkid’s signing will not impact the club’s determination to sign up to two new senior centre-backs this summer.
There has been strong interest in the likes of Edmond Tapsoba of Bayer Leverkusen, Wolfsburg’s Micky van de Ven and Harry Maguire.
While a return for Clement Lenglet, who spent last season on loan at Spurs from Barcelona, cannot be ruled out.
Postecoglou confirmed his interest in bolstering the central defensive area and ideally before their Premier League campaign kicks off at Brentford on Sunday August 13.
The Australian, who has already signed James Maddison, Manor Solomon and goalie Guglielmo Vicario, said: “I don’t think it’s any secret about some of the areas we needed to strengthen.
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“The goalkeeper was one and central defence is another.
“That’s definitely our intention, absolutely (to sign a centre-back before the season starts).
“We’ve been working on it for a while and we’ll definitely try to get it done as quickly as possible.”
While Postecoglou is keen to bring in new faces, he will also have to trim his bloated squad too during this window.
He has brought a massive 31-man squad with him for the tour on the far side of the world.
But there are another six senior players back at home due to injury, including Rodrigo Bentancur, Fraser Forster and Ryan Sessegnon, taking the tally to 37.
Hugo Lloris has also been left behind on the Frenchman’s own request as he looks to seal a move away from the club.
Postecoglou added: “We’ve got a big squad (out in Australia) but my view is I wanted to bring them along and just work with them and get some clarity in my head and give clarity to them because you’ll find that a lot of them will say ‘to be honest it’s not for me, the way we’re playing and the way we’re training’, because like I say I do things differently.
“Every day we have together, every game like last night (against West Ham), it gives you clarity about certain things and there’s no doubt that the squad will be whittled down and there will be some more changes between now and probably the end of the transfer window.”
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