SUNDERLAND are expecting the signing of Will Grigg to be confirmed this morning.

The Black Cats had a bid accepted in the hour leading up to last night’s 11pm transfer deadline for the Wigan striker.

It was the fifth bid lodged by the club, for a goalscorer manager Jack Ross has courted over the last few weeks.

And, speaking this morning at the Academy of Light, Ross confirmed the deal was on the brink of being completed.

After signing Kazaiah Sterling on loan from Tottenham yesterday on loan until the end of the season, Ross had already landed Grant Leadbitter, Lewis Morgan and Grant Leadbitter this week.

The Northern Echo:

Ross said: “You hope to come out of the window in a stronger position or not weaker – and I think we are.

“We have a loan until the end of the season, a young player with a huge amount of potential in a forward area. We already had Grant and Lewis in and we have had a bid accepted very late for Will Grigg late last night.

“My understanding is that will all go ahead. We were close to the deadline, but from an EFL point of view it’s OK and we are awaiting on FA approval.

“I’m led to believe it’s all OK, but he’s not our player officially yet. It’s very early in the day, but we should know in the next couple of hours and be OK with that.

“We were in a difficult position from late on in that we sold our top scorer with a week or so to go and any club could find that challenging.

“It makes it difficult in a limited amount of time and good teams don’t want to lose their best players. It was difficult to try and strengthen in that time period and we would prefer to do things early, but hopefully we get there in the end.’’

He added: “It was a late one, it goes against how I prefer to work and ideally how you do things. The window has an excitement created around it but from a professional point of view I would prefer it not to be as dramatic as it was.’’