Martin Carter deserves huge credit as Middlesbrough win big in Djed Spence sale

As Djed Spence finally completes his move to Tottenham Hotspur one man should not be forgotten when handing out the praise. After standing their ground and refusing to give in easily, Steve Gibson and Niel Bausor deserve praise for ensuring that Boro will receive a big sum that will go a long way to helping the club strengthen their own squad in the remainder of the window.

The exact finances of the deal are not known, and probably never will be, but Boro officials are said to be really happy with the fee they've managed to negotiate out of the deal and they deserve credit for that. As Chris Wilder noted, with Tottenham the only show in town as far as Spence offers were concerned, which meant any potential bidding wars were off the table and Boro were forced to bide their time against a notoriously tough negotiator.

Now that the deal is finally done though, the club have extra funds with which to help Wilder add strength to his own squad as he plans to follow Spence to the Premier League by winning promotion on Teesside in the upcoming season. As we can all see, there is still plenty of work to be done on that front.

Full details as Djed Spence completes Spurs move

But one position Boro won't have to worry about is replacing Djed Spence. As Wilder pointed out, it's an incredible deal for a player who's barely played for the club's first team. His move to Spurs comes off the back of a hugely impressive loan spell at Nottingham Forest where he helped them to promotion too.

Why don't Boro need to replace a player who quite clearly has so much ability? Thanks to head of academy recruitment Martin Carter - the man who also brought Spence to the club after his release from Fulham - they already have that player at the club.