Bristol City are set to make Derby County midfielder Jason Knight their fourth signing of the summer with the Robins having agreed a package worth £1.75million for the Republic of Ireland international.
As first reported by the Telegraph, Knight is due to have a medical at the Robins High Performance Centre in the next 48 hours having not joined the Rams squad for their pre-season training camp in Spain.
City look to have finally got their man after having two bids rejected last month for £1.4m and £1.6m and after Paul Warne appeared resigned to losing the 22-year-old last week, an agreement looked to be on the horizon.
Robins full-back Kane Wilson could also make a move to Pride Park but discussions for the 23-year-old, who saw a transfer to Bolton Wanderers collapse, are not thought to be part of the Knight deal and would be a separate transaction.
Knight is capable of covering a number of positions having played at right-back, right wing-back, in a holding role and as a more advanced playmaker but his place in the City side looks to be in midfield.
Nigel Pearson admitted last month, having signed defender Ross McCrorie, Rob Dickie and Hayden Roberts, that midfield was his next area of need and that is also by working on the theory that Alex Scott will remain at the club for the 2023/24 season.
Knight has made 166 appearances for Derby since moving to England when he was 16 and has accumulated 20 international caps, with Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny indicating he needed to be playing at a higher level to keep his place in the starting XI.
Knight had been on a short break following his international exploits and although City were unsuccessful in their first two attempts at signing him, lines of communication remained and, as the Robins squad flew to Austria last week for a training camp, technical director Brian Tinnion remained behind in Bristol to get the deal done.
He could be through the door in time for City’s first pre-season game of the summer with League One Reading the visitors to the High Performance Centre on Wednesday.
Wilson, meanwhile, is unlikely to be involved in that game having not travelled to Bad Radkersburg as he isn’t part of Pearson’s plans moving forward. City are hopeful of selling the wing-back, who has two years remaining on his contract, with a low six figure expected to cover their compensation costs paid to Forest Green Rovers last summer.
Knight would add youth to a midfield department which Pearson accepts is an ageing part of the field as Scott and Ayman Benarous aside, Matty James, Kal Naismith and Andy King are in their 30s and although Joe Williams is 26 has experienced multiple injury issues limiting his availability.
James and Williams are also in the final years of their contracts at the club and Knight represents not only a signing for the present but also the future of the Robins midfield.
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