Aston Villa are on the brink of a club record £30million deal for Emi Buendia, the Norwich attacking midfielder.
Buendia is close to joining Villa after undergoing his medical in Argentina on Saturday, in a transfer which could eventually become worth £40million.
Villa have moved swiftly to move for the playmaker, with talks accelerating rapidly from Friday night, and personal terms plus a sell-on have been agreed with the Championship title winners.
Arsenal have also been interested in Buendia, who cost just £1.5million from Getafe in June 2018, but Villa appear to have won the race for the talented 24-year-old.
It is understood that Arsenal did make a late move to sign Buendia but Villa moved very quickly and submitted the most attractive offer to Norwich.
The deal will eclipse Villa’s previous transfer record of £28million for Brentford’s Ollie Watkins last summer.
Norwich will also bank a significant profit, beating their own record transfer sale of an initial £25million for England defender Ben Godfrey, who joined Everton last year.
There was an initial 20 per cent sell-on agreed with Getafe in 2018 but it is understood Norwich bought that out two years ago and therefore will be guaranteed the fee in full from Aston Villa.
Norwich lifted the Championship title last month and will now focus on signing players with the funds, with the deal agreed between head coach Daniel Farke and sporting director Stuart Webber.
Last week, Webber said: “If we do sell one of our players , it’s going to be a club record.
“It’s probably going to start with a number three in front of it and that will give us great opportunities to maybe make the whole better as well. We’re really relaxed on that front.”