Omari Hutchinson is set to undergo a medical at Ipswich Town after the club agreed a deal worth up to £22.5million with Chelsea for the winger.
The fee is set to be an initial £20m plus up to £2.5m in add-ons, and would include a sell-on clause, making it a club record transfer for Ipswich.
Subject to Hutchinson completing a medial, the move is expected to be announced in the coming days.
Arsenal will receive a percentage of the fee due to a sell-on clause inserted into the deal when Hutchinson moved from the north London club to Chelsea in 2022.
The 20-year-old impressed on a season-long loan deal at Portman Road in the 2023-24 season, scoring 11 goals in 50 appearances to help Kieran McKenna’s side secure promotion to the Premier League after a 22-year absence.
The Athletic reported earlier this month that Ipswich had enquired about a fee for Hutchinson, who was also attracting interest from other Premier League clubs and teams across Europe.
Stuttgart, Ajax and Feyenoord were also keen on Hutchinson, but the lure of playing under McKenna at Ipswich again gave the newly-promoted side an advantage. McKenna signed a new long-term Ipswich contract in May.
Hutchinson first joined Chelsea as a four-year-old in 2008, but left in 2012 to join Charlton Athletic’s youth system before spending seven years at Arsenal between 2015 and 2022.
Hutchinson impressed on loan at Ipswich (George Tewkesbury/PA Images via Getty Images)
The winger re-joined Chelsea in the summer of 2022 and made his senior debut against Manchester City in the Premier League in January 2023 as a second-half substitute.
Hutchinson represented England internationally up to Under-19 level but has subsequently been capped twice by Jamaica’s senior team.
Ipswich are preparing for their first season back in the Premier League since 2001-02, having secured back-to-back promotions in League One and the Championship.
Hutchinson scored a number of important goals towards the latter stages of Ipswich’s promotion-push, scoring twice against Hull City in their penultimate away game of the season, and adding the second in a 2-0 win against Huddersfield Town that secured promotion on the final day of the campaign.
Ipswich’s current record transfer is the initial £4.5m paid for Sampdoria goalkeeper Matteo Sereni in the summer of 2001.
The Athletic reported earlier this week that Ipswich and Hull City are engaged in active negotiations over the transfer of defender Jacob Greaves, although an agreement is yet to be reached.
GO DEEPER
Omari Hutchinson: ‘The ultimate aim is the Champions League. I have a picture as my screensaver’
(George Wood/Getty Images)