West Brom are finally closing in on the loan signing of Filip Krovinovic from Benfica.
The Baggies are now in pole position to bring the midfielder back to The Hawthorns, the PA news agency understands.
Getafe and Bologna have been interested in the 25-year-old but Albion have now made a significant breakthrough with Benfica after weeks of talks.
Krovinovic is now likely to sign a new deal in Portugal before returning to the West Midlands, where he had a successful loan spell last season.
Albion had been struggling to put a deal together given their tight budget restrictions and last week hopes had been fading the Baggies would be able to strike an agreement with Benfica.
They had struggled to put concrete offers down and boss Slaven Bilic had been outspoken at his desire to re-sign Krovinovic.
“I will be extremely disappointed if it doesn’t happen, I don’t even want to think about it,” he said last week.
“Every day when I walk into the training ground I ask about him. Why? Because last year he played a lot of games for us.
“He was brilliant on the pitch. You can be versatile with him on the pitch, you can change systems without changing the players.”
Krovinovic played 43 times on loan last term – scoring three goals – to help West Brom return to the Premier League as they finished second in the Sky Bet Championship.
Albion, who host Chelsea on Saturday, have lost their first two Premier League games and were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Brentford on penalties earlier this week.
