Wright: 'Substantial offer' made by Arsenal (PhilCole/Allsport)

The 23-year-old will become Arsenal's third signing of the summer when he returns from a holiday in Cyprus at the end of the month. He will put his name to a five-year deal worth £50,000 a week that will increase the pressure on David Seaman.

Having haggled for weeks with Feyenoord over a price for Poland goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, Arsenal finally lost patience last weekend.

Wright's signing follows last week's £8m arrival of striker Francis Jeffers from Everton and the £8.5m capture of Holland midfield player Giovanni van Bronckhorst from Rangers on Tuesday.

With Arsenal still in the hunt for England defender Sol Campbell, they will already have committed themselves to more than £30m in transfer fees and wages by the time Arsene Wenger and his squad return for pre-season training on July 5, and it is clear the Highbury board is determined to give Wenger all the backing he needs to launch a credible Premiership challenge to Manchester United.

Spending on such a mammoth scale would also appear to end suggestions that Wenger is looking to leave Arsenal shortly, and he in turn hopes it provides strong enough evidence to persuade the unsettled midfielder Patrick Vieira to remain at the club.

For Ipswich, the move is a huge blow and one that follows their failure to persuade Moroccan forward Hassan Kachloul to join them rather than Aston Villa from Southampton.

Wright, a product of Ipswich's youth system, has made 291 first-team appearances. He has been a mainstay of the squad that has made remarkable progress under George Burley in the last two years, culminating in them qualifying for next season's UEFA Cup.

Moves were afoot last night to replace him with Coventry's Swedish international Magnus Hedman, as it emerged that the new three-year contract signed by Wright in May contained a clause allowing him to leave Portman Road if Arsenal came calling.

Ipswich chairman David Sheepshanks said: 'Arsenal have made a substantial offer for Richard Wright and the board have given him permission to speak to them about personal terms.

'There are some formalities to complete and these include the fact that Richard will have to pass a medical in early July.'

Ipswich manager George Burley revealed today that Wright only signed his new contract with Ipswich last year on the condition that it contained a clause agreeing that he could talk to any club who made a substantial offer for him.

So Ipswich have given Arsenal permission to talk to Wright. Arsenal want the England keeper to sign a five-year contract but it is unlikely that any deal will be completed until the beginning of next month.

'The last thing I wanted was to let Richard go,' Burley said. 'But we had this agreement that we would let him talk the any club who made a substantial bid and that is what has happened.

'We didn't want a situation like the Sol Campbell one whereby he would walk away from here on a free transfer.

'I feel sad about him going because I rate him very, very highly. It was me who gave his first-team chance when he was 17. Although it has not been finalised yet, I anticipate that he will go. I am certain he will be joining Arsenal.'

Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein said: 'Arsene has identified the players we would like to sign and we are doing everything we can to help him. The Arsenal credit card is in meltdown at the moment.

'Obviously there will be some players leaving and as regards Sol Campbell, the ball is in his court.

'He has said he will make a decision in the next two or three weeks. We would like it to be before pre-season, otherwise he may find we have other fish to fry.'

Meanwhile, Dein has admitted that the club will have to sell some players to raise money.

Dennis Bergkamp says he is happy to stay at Highbury but there are doubts over strikers Sylvain Wiltord and Nwankwo Kanu, who is the subject of interest from Spanish side Deportivo La Coruna.