Hull City: Chester completes move to West Brom

The in-demand Wales international was also wanted by Leicester City, who made a late bid to hijack the deal with the Tigers accepting bids from both Midlands outfits.

But West Brom have now won the race to sign Chester, 26, who had one year left on his deal at the KC Stadium.

Albion manager Tony Pulis had previously tried to bring in the ex-Manchester United centre-half during his time at Crystal Palace and has now finally landed his man.

With Robbie Brady’s £7m move to Norwich City set to be completed shortly, Hull’s summer sales are likely to hit the £20m barrier, with Tom Ince having joined Derby County earlier in the close season.

Pulis has revealed that he received a glowing recommendation from Bruce about the merits of Chester, although in an ideal world, the Hull chief would have preferred the player to remain in East Yorkshire.

Pulis said: “James did very well for Hull City. I’ve had a good chat with him and he’s the type of player I like.

“He’s young, a strong character, a good defender, he has good feet and he has the Manchester United stamp all over him, just like (Stoke City’s) Ryan Shawcross and Darren Fletcher. “They’re wonderful lads and I’m told James is as well.

“From the people I spoke to, like Steve Bruce and people in the Welsh party...they speak very highly of him.

“Steve especially gave him a great mention and there is no better accolade than Steve Bruce giving a defender a good drum roll.

“James is a good player who can play anywhere along the back line and I’m confident he will get better with age.“

Hull’s attention is now switching to bringing in more incoming recruits following their signings of Sam Clucas and Ryan Taylor earlier this week.

The sales of Chester and Ince, and the impending exit of Brady, are likely to give Bruce room for manoeuvre in the transfer market with the Hull manager hopeful of signing ‘four or five players’ this month.