Arsenal are to offer central defender Rob Holding a new contract.
The 21-year-old was signed from Bolton last summer for £2.1million.
He was regarded by manager Arsene Wenger as an investment for the future.
But he has been so impressive in the first team appearances he has made that the club will now give him a pay rise that will put him in the £25,000-a-week bracket less than a year after he joined.
He was outstanding in the 2-1 FA Cup final triumph over Chelsea when he was paired with Per Mertesacker to solve a central defensive crisis for Wenger, who was without Laurent Koscielny through suspension and Gabriel and Shkodran Mustafi because of injury.
And the duo subdued the threat posed by Chelsea's Diego Costa and Eden Hazard.
In total, Holding played 18 first team matches – nine in the Premier League, five in the FA Cup, three in the League Cup and one in Europe.
But Wenger has seen enough to suggest that Holding will be a huge asset in the immediate as well as the future.
Holding will be on England Under-21 duty for the UEFA finals in Poland this summer and a new deal will crown an amazing year for him.
After the FA Cup win he described the turnaround.
“Last season, I was on the pitch at Derby after Bolton lost and we were relegated,” he said. “Now I have won the FA Cup at Wembley. It is a crazy, crazy feeling.”
He will report back in July with new team-mates to meet.
With his future secured with a new two-year contract, Wenger wants to buy AS Monaco teenager Kylian Mbappe in a £55million deal and he will try again for Algeria international Riyad Mahrez who wants to leave Leicester who will want around £30 million for the winger.