JUST IN ;Blackburn Rovers highly-rated youngster confirm Tottenham fourth summer signing

Tottenham confirm the transfer of highly-rated youngster Ashley Phillips from Blackburn Rovers… with the defender becoming Ange Postecoglou’s fourth summer signing

Tottenham have completed the signing of Blackburn Rovers defender Ashley Phillips.

The 18-year-old has signed a five-year contract after undergoing his medical with the club last month.

Phillips enjoyed a breakout campaign for Rovers last term in the Championship, featuring eight times with a further six appearances across all competitions.

The highly-rated defender has also made several appearances for England across various junior levels over the past two years.

Phillips told the club’s website: ‘I can’t wait to get started. It’s a really massive club with good players and staff with an exciting future.’

When asked for his ambitions on this season he said: ‘To be involved with the first-team environment hopefully make some appearances.

‘It’s a dream I’ve always had and it would be a massive moment for me and my family. I’ve always dreamed about being in the Premier League and can’t wait to play in it with the Spurs shirt.’

His arrival follows the signings of Manor Soloman on a free transfer, James Maddison from Leicester for £40m and Guglielmo Vicario for £17.3m.

Spurs have also made loan deals for Dejan Kulesevski and Pedro Porro permanent this summer.

Meanwhile. Wolfsburg defender Micky van de Ven is due to fly into London this weekend for a medical ahead of completing a £43million move to Tottenham and signing a five-year contract.

This comes after Mail Sport revealed that Ange Postecoglou’s side were on the verge of signing the defender after weeks of negotiations between the clubs.

The 22-year-old central defender enjoyed a successful season with Wolfsburg, leading to interest from several European clubs.

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Well, this is pleasant news to wake up to! Tottenham Hotspur have made official the signing of 18-year old central defender and England U20 international Ashley Phillips. He joins Spurs from Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £2m.

This is a signing that we knew was coming but I don’t think anyone expected an announcement this early on a Saturday morning. Tottenham thought they were signing the 6’4” defender earlier in the week for a negotiated fee of £3m, with the player agreeing to come, but Blackburn got greedy and tried to ask Spurs to pay upwards of £9.5m including escalators. However, there was apparently a purchase clause of £2m that kicked in on Friday, and with the player already having passed a medical and no other clubs entering the fray, Spurs were able to wait it out until that release clause kicked in.

Phillips is a massive defender in stature and highly rated at the U20 level, having been compared to a young Virgil van Dijk. He’s a product of Blackburn’s academy and made his first team debut at age 17. He’s a player who is almost certainly one for the future, which makes it slightly curious that Spurs are pulling out the stops on social media to announce his signing. That said, he’s clearly a player with a big future and this is an exciting signing. Definitely the kind of player who could thrive at Spurs under Ange Postecoglou in the coming years.