Chelsea are said to be close to signing a deal to bring Ethan Ampadu to Stamford Bridge, seeing off competition from Arsenal and his own father.

The report, which first surfaced in the Sun (though they don’t even bother to say what position Ampadu plays), claims that Chelsea are confident of sealing a £2.5m deal for the 16-year-old defender who has already made his first team debut for Exeter (when he was 15 years 10 months old).

The son of Kwame, the former Arsenal and Swansea midfielder, Ethan is now being used as a central defender after starting his short footballing career as a holding midfielder.

Kwame arrived back at Arsenal in 2012, leaving Exeter, where his son is currently, returning to the club he played for between 1988 and 1991.

 “The biggest compliment I can give him is that he plays like a 35-year-old,” Exeter manager, Paul Tisdale told BBC Radio Devon back in August about Ethan.

“That’s not normally the English way – we like drama, we like spark. But we don’t often encourage and cultivate subtle, classy players, and he’s one of those.”

Kwame is currently a coach at Arsenal’s Hale End Academy.