Watford are close to signing Roberto Pereyra from Juventus in a £10.4m deal that could rise to £13m.
The Watford owners, the Pozzo family, know the Argentinian well from his time at Udinese and have reached an agreement with Juve to sign the player, who is now in talks with the Premier League club over his terms.
The 25-year-old attacking midfielder, who can also play wide on the left, represented Udinese for three seasons from 2011 before joining Juve, first on loan and then on a permanent basis. He made 52 appearances for Juve in 2014-15 and featured in the Champions League final against Barcelona but found his chances restricted last season.
Pereyra has 10 caps for Argentina and reached the 2015 Copa América final with the national team. The Watford manager, Walter Mazzarri, said last week that he is still looking to add two or three key players to his squad and Pereyra now looks like the first.
Mazzarri said before the 1-1 draw at Southampton: “The club has given me the possibility to go ahead with two or three new players. They say it’s no problem if we need them, and I think we need them. I prefer not to go into much detail but it will probably be one of each position of defence, midfield and forward.”
Watford drew their opening game of the season 1-1 at St Mary’s and face Chelsea – 2-1 winners against West Ham on Monday in Antonio Conte’s first game – on Saturday.