Tottenham have completed the signing of England midfielder David Bentley from Blackburn Rovers.
The club confirmed to the Stock Exchange on Thursday morning that a £15m deal, potentially rising to £17m, had been agreed for the 23-year-old.
Bentley passed a medical on Wednesday and Spurs will unveil their new signing at a 10:00am press conference.
A statement from Tottenham plc read: “Tottenham Hotspur plc is pleased to announce that agreement has been reached with Blackburn Rovers for the transfer of the registration of the England international midfielder, David Bentley, age 23 years, to Tottenham Hotspur FC for a total consideration of £15m and up to an additional £2m payable upon future performances.
“The player’s contract is for a period of up to six years.”
Bentley joined Rovers in 2006 and extended his contract last year but made it clear he wanted to move on if the opportunity arose.
“I spoke to the Spurs chairman last night and we agreed a fee and a deal in principle for David,” said Blackburn chairman John Williams on Wednesday.
Arsenal, Bentley’s former club, stand to receive a percentage of the deal – possibly as much as £7m – as part of the terms of his transfer to Ewood Park in 2006. Williams refused to be drawn on that aspect of the deal.
“I am not willing to discuss percentages and sell-on details of monies which may be owed to Arsenal, that’s confidential information,” he added.
In his time at Blackburn, Bentley has scored 13 goals in 102 Premier League games and won six England caps.
He arrivals follows the signings of forward Giovani Dos Santos, midfielder Luca Modric and Heurelho Gomes.
The club have also been linked with a move for Russia forward Andrei Arshavin, who is at Zenit St Petersburg and his compatriot Roman Pavlyuchenko from Spartak Moscow.
