MIDDLESBROUGH are determined to resist any bids for England hopeful Will Lankshear in January – by slapping a £70million price tag on his head
Plenty of Lankshear’s astronomical progress in the flesh this term – including , the club that sold him in the summer.
But it would take an astronomical offer for to consider letting the striker go as they target promotion.
Should the Teessiders go up, they are set to make more than double that fee so selling makes little sense.
so much since moving to the Riverside for an initial £10million in the summer that were genuinely considering calling him up to their senior squad this month.
FA technical director John McDermott has been tracking his progress for some time and was in attendance at the Kassam Stadium to watch Lankshear play in the when on loan from Spurs at Oxford.
The 21-year-old has since moved permanently to Boro where he has blasted 13 goals in as many league games to send the club second in the , level on points with table-toppers Birmingham.
He has another two goals in the , taking his haul to 15 in 16 games altogether.
The former academy player missed out on international action this month – either for the Under-21s or the seniors – due to a minor hamstring injury.
Scouts from Newcastle and Leeds are believed to have watched Lankshear this term, as well as former club Spurs.
But Tottenham do NOT have a buy-back clause on Lankshear, as these are not permitted in transfers between Premier League and clubs.
Spurs do hold matching rights, meaning they can match any offers another club has accepted for Lankshear in the future, as well as a 20 per cent sell-on clause.
They are also due another £10m in add-ons from Boro should they be triggered.
SunSport understands among those add-ons are both playing and scoring for the England senior team.
While there are a number of clubs keeping a keen eye on Lankshear, Boro are understood to have received no enquiries for the forward so far.
Lankshear’s career has so far had echoes of the two centre-forwards in Thomas Tuchel’s senior squad.
He came through Spurs’ academy, as did , but before then moved to , because of their expertise in developing powerful No9s like .
