Woodgate Moves to Tottenham in £8m Deal

Tottenham Hotspur have completed the £8m signing of Jonathan Woodgate having reached an agreement on personal terms following lengthy talks with the England centre-half over the weekend.

The 28-year-old, who missed Middlesbrough's FA Cup victory at Mansfield Town supposedly with a calf strain, had traveled to London on Saturday to meet the Spurs hierarchy after opting to move to London rather than to rejoin Newcastle United, who had also been given permission to open talks after having a similar bid accepted by Boro on Friday.

While Kevin Keegan admitted defeat in his attempt to sign the center-half on Saturday, there had been concerns that Tottenham would struggle to better the defender's current £65,000-a-week wage - a percentage of which is understood to be paid by his former club Real Madrid, whom he left for the Riverside in a £7m deal - given the relatively tight wage structure at White Hart Lane.

Woodgate has signed a deal that will see him earn a basic weekly wage on a par with the club's highest earners, Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov, with bonuses and incentives likely to swell his salary above that he enjoyed at the Riverside.

Juande Ramos, who suffered a first defeat in a knockout cup tie for two years at Manchester United yesterday, will be without the suspended Michael Dawson for next weekend's trip to Everton following his dismissal at Old Trafford for handball. Ledley King was also absent at United. Woodgate's time with Madrid may have been wrecked by injury but Ramos saw enough to pursue his signing. The former Leeds defender is eligible to compete for Spurs in this season's Uefa Cup.

Tottenham also expect to sign the Hertha Berlin left-back Gilberto today and continue to monitor goalkeepers, though a replacement for Paul Robinson will probably not arrive until the summer. The club's sporting director, Damien Comolli, has been impressed with Brescia's Italy Unde-21 international Emiliano Viviano and sent scouts to the Netherlands yesterday to watch Ajax's Maarten Stekelenburg and Piet Velthuizen of Vitesse Arnhem in the clubs' Dutch league match.