Relegated Birmingham City are on the verge of signing former Arsenal starlet Quincy Owusu-Abeyie.

The 22-year-old is due in Birmingham next week to finalise the move from Spartak Moscow, according to sources in Holland.

Blues manager Alex McLeish and his backroom team have been working on a deal for some time now, and negotiations have been kept remarkably hush-hush.

But after Derby County's Stephen Pearson snubbed Blues, McLeish stepped-up his interest and Owusu-Abeyie is ready to join in the next few days.

Blues are also in the hunt for Ben Watson and are reportedly going to make an improved £2 million offer for the Crystal Palace midfielder.

Owusu-Abeyie was born in Amsterdam and represented Holland at under-21 level, but earlier this year he was cleared to play for Ghana, just in time to take part in the African Cup of Nations.

A centre-forward or left-sided attacker with blistering pace, he was loaned by Spartak to Spanish side Villarreal.

Aresenal snapped him up from the Ajax academy but he moved on to Russia in January 2006 for £1.45 million