Gaël Kakuta is poised to complete a loan switch from Chelsea to Fulham until the end of the season.

The French winger began his medical at lunchtime today and if, as expected, there are no problems, he will end the manager Mark Hughes' search for a dynamic and creative midfield signing. Fulham, meanwhile, have dropped their interest in Manchester City's Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Carlo Ancelotti, the Chelsea manager, has agonised for some weeks over whether to loan out Kakuta, weighing up the benefit of him being able to enjoy greater playing minutes against whether the club might need him over the second half of the season.

He has been unable to grant the 19-year-old, who is rated as the brightest young talent in French football, the game time to accelerate his development, starting him only once in the Premier League this season and four times in total.

Ancelotti was on record as saying that he could not start his young players while the club were enduring their "difficult moment," which appeared to end last night with the 4-0 win at Bolton Wanderers.

Ancelotti finally decided that the change of scene would be the best course of action and, rather like the former Chelsea manager José Mourinho did in the second half of the 2005-06 season with Wayne Bridge, he has handpicked Fulham as the club for the loan.

Fulham have shown an interest in taking Kakuta since they became aware that Ancelotti was considering the move and they will not now pursue Wright-Phillips any further. They had held talks with City about taking the winger on loan but they were told that the only option was a permanent transfer, which they did not want. City have refused to soften their stance.

Chelsea are also close to an agreement with Leicester City for the loan of the 20-year-old Dutch left-back Patrick Van Aanholt for the remainder of the season. As with Kakuta, Ancelotti has high hopes for Van Aanholt but he has found it difficult to offer him sufficient playing time. Van Aanholt spent most of last season on loan in the Championship at Coventry City and then Newcastle United.