West Bromwich Albion are close to securing a deal to bring Alex Mowatt to The Hawthorns this summer.

What's the talk?

That's according to a claim made by The Telegraph journalist John Percy, who revealed in a post on Twitter that the out of contract Barnsley central midfielder is scheduled to have a medical at West Brom in the coming days, and, barring any 11th-hour hitches, he will complete a free transfer to the Championship side later this week.

It had previously been reported that Valerien Ismael was extremely keen for a quick reunion with his Barnsley captain at Albion, something that now appears to be have been pulled off by the Frenchman rather efficiently.

Ismael will be buzzing

Considering just how impressive Mowatt was under Ismael last season, the fact that the 45-year-old appears to have snapped up the 26-year-old on a free transfer is sure to have left him buzzing.

Indeed, over his 44 Championship appearances for Barnsley last term, the £3.6m-rated midfielder scored eight goals, provided seven assists and created nine big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 1.8 shots and making 1.5 key passes per game.

The £6.5k-per-week man also made an average of 0.8 interceptions, 1.7 tackles, 1.3 clearances and won 4.9 duels per league fixture, with these metrics seeing former England U20 international earn an average SofaScore match rating of 7.10, ranking him as Ismael's best performer in the second tier of English football.

His displays played a massive role in helping the Tykes defy their pre-season expectations last time out, with Ismael guiding the highly unfancied side to a rather extraordinary fifth-place finish in the Championship - the club's highest final league position since their Premier League campaign back in 1997/98.

As such, with West Brom hoping to secure an immediate return to the top flight next season, the addition of a player who very nearly fired Barnsley up last term would appear to provide Albion with a huge boost to their chances of going on to achieve this feat, as well as with a player who Ismael trusts completely.

In other news: Get it done: Ismael must sanction West Brom summer swoop for "fantastic" £12k-p/w gem