Crystal Palace are closing in on the signing of Millwall teenager Romain Esse.
Standard Sport revealed back in December that the Eagles had discussed a move for the 19-year-old internally.
Palace sporting director Dougie Freedman went to watch the England-U20 international from the stands at various points this season, while other Premier League clubs kept tabs on his situation.
The Eagles stepped up their interest earlier this week by making official contact with their south London rivals. It is understood the final details of a deal are now being ironed out.
Esse signed a new contract at The Den in the summer and new Millwall manager Alex Neil has stressed Palace must pay “significant money” to land him this month.
“At the moment, there's interest from Crystal Palace, which has been well-documented. How far down the line that is, I'm not sure.
“But I think people need to recognise how well we as a club have done by securing Romain on a new contract which took, by all accounts, a bit of convincing to stay because he wanted to play football.
"He is now playing football, he's certainly been one of our best performers this season. We don't want to lose any of our best players but I think everybody understands the contract situation around Romain.
"If he does move, he'll move for significant money, which from the club's perspective will be brilliant business considering we could have lost him in the summer for free."
