Hull City are set to secure the loan signing of Chelsea’s young right-back Ola Aina today, according to the Daily Record.
The newspaper claim on the live transfer blog on their website (10:51) that new manager Leonid Slutsky will make the 20-year-old defender his first signing at the club after arriving following Marco Silva’s departure.
It is claimed that the Russian boss has close ties with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and has used his powerful contact to benefit his new club.
Hull will be aiming to make an immediate return to the Premier League next season, having suffered relegation alongside North East sides Middlesbrough and Sunderland, and will hoping that Aina can play an important role in their push for promotion.
The young defender is a graduate of the Chelsea academy, having been born and bred in London and has come through the youth ranks at Stamford Bridge.
Able to play anywhere across the back four, he has six appearances for the senior Chelsea side, with his debut coming in August 2016 as he was named in the starting XI for their 3-2 League Cup win over Bristol Rovers.
He also has experience at every level of England youth teams up to the England Under-21s, where he has been named on the bench twice but is yet to make an appearance.
His proposed move to Hull will be the first time he has left Stamford Bridge during his career, but Antonio Conte obviously believes it is the right time for him to earn experience of consistent first team football.