Bolton agree fee for Cahill

Bolton have agreed a fee with Aston Villa for defender Gary Cahill.

The fee is understood to be between £4.5m and £5m, and has been accepted after Villa boss Martin O’Neill rejected previous bids from Bolton and Birmingham.

It now appears Cahill, 22, who has just returned from a three-month loan spell at Sheffield United, will be heading to the Reebok Stadium.

Megson said: “We’ve been negotiating with Villa for two-and-a-half to three weeks now to try to bring Gary to the club.

“We’ve finally reached the point where we have agreed a transfer with Villa that they are happy with and we’ve been given permission to talk to Gaz.

“Hopefully we can get it done quickly but we want to make sure it’s done right.”

Megson is keen to strengthen his defensive options as the Trotters seek to safeguard their Barclays Premier League status.

“He’s a young lad, he’s a good centre-half and he’s got an awful lot of improvement still to come,” added Megson.

“He’s got pace, quality on the ball and will also score you a few goals during the course of the season.”