Spurs Seal Woody Deal
SPURS tonight completed a deal to sign England defender Jonathan Woodgate from Boro.
No fee or contract details have yet been announced.
Woodgate, 28, joined Boro from Real Madrid in the summer after a successful loan spell with his hometown club when he won several Player of the Year awards.
But he has been missing from the side through injury in recent weeks and Robert Huth and David Wheater have cemented a promising partnership at the heart of the defence in his absence.
Explaining the decision to allow Woodgate to move on, manager Gareth Southgate said: "You're looking for everyone at your club to want to be here and be part of it.
"We wanted to give Jonathan the opportunity to speak to other clubs because when clubs call you about a player it usually means the player knows about it anyway.
"We were then asking a question of Jonathan, do you want to be here and be part of what we want to do or do you want to head off? And it seems he wanted to head off."
Southgate said Boro's strength in the centre of defence would soften the blow of losing a quality players like Woodgate.
"We have some outstanding players in that area of the field, internationals in Robert Huth and Emanuel Pogatetz and U21 internationals in David Wheater and Chris Riggott.
"There are also people like Matthew Bates, who's coming back from injury, and young Seb Hines who's coming through the ranks and who we think a lot of.
"It's an area where we have got cover, we don't want to lose good players but there are all sorts of factors involved when a move takes place."
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