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Tottenham confirmed the signing of Brighton central defender Jan Paul Van Hecke on Thursday evening, signing the Netherlands international on a “long-term” contract with the North London club. The 26-year-old talent makes the move to Spurs for a reported fee of €60 million and is the club’s third defensive signing ahead of the new season, following the arrival of Andy Robertson and Marcos Senesi on free transfers from Liverpool and Bournemouth respectively.

“It’s a huge honour to become a Spurs player and when you join such a big club, it’s a dream come true,” said the defender in a club statement on the Tottenham website. “I already have a really strong connection with the head coach, who I’m looking forward to working with again. Micky (van de Ven) has also told me some great things about the club, so I can’t wait to get started. I’ve been at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as an opposition player and now I’m looking forward to walking out there in front of our fans wearing the Spurs shirt. That will be a special moment.”

Van Hecke’s deal isn’t quite as high as the €80m fee Brighton were reportedly holding out for, but the Dutchman still makes the move to Tottenham for a sizable sum of money. At €60m, Van Hecke departs Brighton as the club’s third biggest sale of all time and joins Tottenham as their fourth most expensive signing of all time. The North London club have also never spent so much money on a defender before, with the Dutch talent ranking 13th in the Premier League’s list of biggest transfer fees paid for a defender. As the graphic below shows, a €60m fee would also make Van Hecke the 18th most expensive central defender ever, coming just short of what Manchester City paid for Matheus Nunes.

The most obvious reason behind Tottenham’s aggressive move for Van Hecke is due to the likelihood of Cristian Romero departing the club this summer. The Argentine talent may currently be the Spurs captain, but the last 12 months have shown the 28-year-old defender to be somewhat unreliable on the pitch, concerning constant suspensions and injuries, as well as off-the-field issues that frustrated fans. And constant links to Atlético Madrid suggest that Tottenham are now looking to move on their senior defender and need a ready-made replacement to slot in alongside Micky van de Ven and Luka Vuskovic.

This comes on the back of Tottenham’s wider problems in defence. Last season, the North London club conceded 57 goals in 38 games, which was the fourth-worst defensive record in the entire league. As such, Van Hecke joins a host of new faces in defence next season, and with every intention of trying to help the club steer clear of the issues that almost led to relegation just a few months ago.