Town are hopeful of completing the signing of Peterborough United winger Gwion Edwards later today, while keeper Bartosz Bialkowski's new contract is also very close to being finalised, TWTD understands.
News that the Blues had had a £700,000 offer accepted for 25-year-old Edwards broke on Friday with discussions regarding personal terms starting over the weekend.
Yesterday, Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony revealed that Edwards had said his goodbyes at a pre-season friendly on Saturday.
Once confirmed, Edwards will become manager Paul Hurst’s third Town signing and the first he has paid money for following the recruitment of loanee Trevoh Chalobah from Chelsea and Jordan Roberts, who joined on a free transfer after leaving Crawley.
Edwards had spells with Aberysthwyth Town and Cardiff City as a schoolboy before joining Swansea’s youth set-up as an U15.
All good, nice moment on Saturday at St Neots as Gwion sought me out for a hug, a thank you for helping his career and a goodbye. Great guy & hope he rips up the championship :). Class of him to do this. https://t.co/PVsge69lZp– Darragh MacAnthony (@DMAC102) July 15, 2018
Having signed professional terms with the Swans, the Lampeter-born wideman was sent out on loan to St Johnstone in Scotland in January 2013 where he made his first senior appearances in a spell which ran to the end of the season.
He rejoined the Saints for the whole of the following campaign and over the course of his two spells made a total of four starts and 20 sub appearances for the Perth-based club, scoring once.
In March 2014 he moved to then-League One Crawley on loan, scoring on his debut as a sub in a 2-0 victory over Tranmere, and the following summer he moved to the Red Devils on a permanent basis having been unable to break into the first team at Swansea.
After making 71 starts and 12 sub appearances for Crawley, scoring 15 times, Wales U19 and U21 cap Edwards joined Peterborough in June 2016 for an undisclosed six-figure fee. He went on to make 62 starts and 12 sub appearances for Posh, netting 16 goals.
The Blues are also near to tying up the loose ends on three-times-Player-of-the-Year Bialkowski’s new contract.
The Polish international will put pen to paper on a new three-year deal with an option for a further year perhaps as soon as today.
We understand weekend reports in the national press claiming the deal is worth £20,000 a week are a significant exaggeration, although the 31-year-old has received a substantial pay rise and will now be one of the club’s top earners.
Town rebuffed offers from Birmingham to keep hold of Bialkowski, whose current deal is up at the end of the coming season.