Chris Mepham who featured for Chelsea’s youth team before becoming established at Brentford is on his way back to the Premier League after Bournemouth reached an agreement with the Championship club to sign the centre-back for £12 million. The two clubs have been in talks since last week and are understood to have reached agreement late on Monday night.

Mepham, who is the first graduate of Brentford’s ‘B team’, is due on the south coast for a medical on Tuesday. The 21-year-old has been a long-term target for Bournemouth, who had offers rejected last summer and in January 2018. He began his career in Chelsea’s youth team and joined Brentford in 2016, going on to make 43 appearances for the Bees and scoring one goal.

With his signing, Mepham becomes the third arrival at the Cherries in this January following the singnigns of Dominic Solanke and Nathaniel Clyne from Premier League leaders Liverpool, with Solanke joining in a permanent deal worth £19 million while Clyne will be at the club on loan until the end of the season.