Sunderland's plan still on the right track – Niall Quinn

Feb 25 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

NIALL Quinn insists Sunderland remain as ambitious as ever and will “kick on again” in the summer if they secure their Premier League status.

Quinn spoke of a ‘five-year plan’ upon his arrival at the Stadium of Light as the spearhead of the Drumaville Consortium, a strategy which relied heavily on Roy Keane.

While former manager Keane is gone, Quinn insists the club’s determination to move forward as a Premier League force is not – and that they can continue to “make waves”.

He also defended the appointment of Ricky Sbragia once again – insisting he has a big part to play in the club fulfilling their ambitions.

“To stay up this year is key and we won’t look much further,” Quinn said. “To stay up would be good – two solid years [in the Premier League] and then you are ready to go again.

“We will look to dress it up in the summer and kick on again. Two fifths of the journey is done. I don’t know what the end goal is. The club are making waves, but it’s the toughest league in the world. We are starting to build something here and Ricky is very important to that.

“His coaching is very good, we are playing really good football. We just need a bit of strengthening here and there.”

The days of Sunderland spending huge amounts in the transfer market may be numbered – Sbragia was restricted to a couple of loan signings in the January window – but there should still be leeway for the Black Cats boss to recruit provided he is prepared to make hard decisions on his existing squad members.

One of those decisions is on the future of Dwight Yorke, who will wait to see if Trinidad and Tobago can take him to a second World Cup before deciding whether to prolong his club career. And while he may prolong his playing career, the midfielder is still set on a career in management.