Dan Crowley, the England and Republic of Ireland youth international, who was signed by Arsenal as a 16-year-old, is on the brink of a move to Birmingham City for £700,000 after a successful stint in the Dutch Eredivisie.

Crowley, 21, had a medical at the Championship club on Wednesday night and will have a further test today before the move is completed. The £700,000 fee will have additional clauses with payments due when he completes a certain number of professional appearances for the club. The move completes an interesting career arc that takes Crowley back to his native Midlands, five years after he left Aston Villa’s academy for Arsenal as a 16-year-old.

A talented creative midfielder he was signed by Arsenal for £209,000, then one of the highest fees paid for a pre-scholarship player and a move that caused considerable upset at Villa. He had two unsuccessful loan spells at Barnsley and then Oxford United before Arsenal’s former academy manager Andries Jonker suggested that he go to Holland to play senior first team football.

Crowley initially went on loan to Go Ahead Eagles in Deventer and was sufficiently successful that he was signed by Willem II, the Eredivisie club from Tilburg in the summer of 2017. He did not break into the team straight away and dropped down a division on loan to SC Cambuur in January of last year. Last season proved a breakthrough year for Crowley, originally from Coventry. He played 40 first team games including a substitute’s role in the Dutch Cup final which Willem II lost 4-0 to the Ajax side that reached the Champions League semi-finals.