A major development has emerged on Viv Solomon-Otabo and it could impact Portsmouth's chances of signing him.

What's the talk?

According to the Northern Echo, Sunderland are confident that they will be able to secure a deal to sign Viv Solomon-Otabor on a free transfer next month. His contract is set to expire at Wigan and Sunderland are preparing an offer for the winger, which they believe will be successful.

Portsmouth were also said to be keen on Solomon-Otabor, along with Charlton, Blackburn and Blackpool, over the weekend. However, Sunderland now seem set to win the race for his signature after this major development.

Wigan boss Leam Richardson explained earlier this year that Solomon-Otabor has been struggling with an issue in his knee and has been playing through pain. He told Wigan Today:

"Viv's got an issue with his knee, where he's got a couple of floating bones in there.

"Fair credit to the kid, he wants to play through the pain, and he's having to be injected to allow him to do that.
"He's obviously only firing at a certain percentage, but he wants to be involved in the fight and you can only respect him for that."

Bullet dodged

Portsmouth fans will be delighted that the club have seemingly managed to dodge a bullet with this deal. Solomon-Otabor failed to impress in League One for Wigan and may have been a waste of a signing for Portsmouth as he has not performed well enough to suggest that he would be a good addition to Cowley's squad. Therefore, they could be dodging a bullet by allowing Sunderland to swoop for him.

Michael Eisner should make sure that it stays that way and not try to usurp the Black Cats in the coming days/weeks. He should watch Sunderland complete a deal for Solomon-Otabor whilst pursuing his  own targets who could provide significant improvement to Portsmouth's squad.

The £1.5k-per-week dud averaged a dismal WhoScored rating of 6.55 in League One for Wigan. 14 Portsmouth players managed better than that last season, which suggests that he would not be a quality addition to Cowley's team.

Portsmouth fans will be happy to read that he is set to sign for Sunderland instead of Portsmouth. Eisner and Cowley will not have to deal with the inconsistent winger at Fratton Park and his performances could actually boost Portsmouth's chances of finishing above Sunderland next season if he is unable to improve from his Wigan displays, as two goals and four assists from 28 appearances is a disappointing return from the forward.

Hopefully, Portsmouth will be able to find a winger to bolster their squad who boasts better statistics than Solomon-Otabor, but that is down to Eisner and Cowley to pull a top player out of the bag.

AND in other news, Eisner must seal Pompey swoop for ace who's “got everything”, Cowley would love him...