Tottenham news: Paratici’s scouting mission as Nottingham Forest duo tear Leicester apart | Football | Sport

Tottenham technical director Fabio Paratici had planned to travel to the City Ground to watch Nottingham Forest duo Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson. And if the Italian was in attendance, he will have been impressed with what he saw. The impressive, hungry young duo were pivotal for Steve Cooper’s side, who tore their Premier League opponents Leicester to shreds to reach the fifth-round following an empathic 4-1 victory.

Philip Zinckernagel, Man of the Match Johnson, Joe Worrall and Spence were all on target for Forest, who ran riot to dump the FA Cup holders out of the competition.

This was yet another statement performance from Cooper’s men, who will fancy their chances of promotion from the Championship after their second successive Premier League scalp.

Even if Forest are to seal their return to the top-flight, they will now have a job keeping some of their most-prized assets.

According to Football.London, Tottenham are monitoring the performances of both Johnson and Spence and Paratici was expected to attend this afternoon’s match.

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Spurs want to strengthen at right-wing-back despite the signing of Emerson Royal last summer from Barcelona.

They have now watched Spence closely on a number of occasions this season and this was his latest stellar, marauding display on the right flank.

Meanwhile, Johnson was the subject of a club-record bid from Brentford in January but Forest battled hard to keep hold of their attacking midfielder.

He finished brilliantly through the legs of goalkeeper Danny Ward to add a second for his side against the Foxes in the first half.

Earlier this week, Tottenham bigwig Paratici revealed the club will intensify plans for this summer’s transfer window in May.

Johnson and Spence are now expected to remain under consideration after emerging as two of English football’s brightest young talents.

“Now we have three or four months that are really, really tough,” Paratici said.

“We can check where the team needs, what the coach thinks about this and when we arrive in May after the season we can check better and we can know what we have to do in the summer.

“Now is early to say what we need in the summer. I am very positive, I think the work balance is the most important.

“We want to achieve this type of situation, to have a balanced roster which in every position has players, the right players, committed, focused with good mentality, good dressing room.”