Cats will spend big – if they stay up

May 11 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

Quinn broke his usual etiquette to address the players before kick-off and deliver Short’s news. The reclusive billionaire bought a 30% stake in the club in the second half of last year, but has had a disproportionate influence since.

He bankrolled last summer’s spending and despite largely taking a back seat to Quinn, previous manager Roy Keane cited the Texan’s interference as a reason for his departure. It has long been anticipated Short would buy out Quinn’s original backers, the Drumaville consortium, not in his financial league even before the Irish economy collapsed.

After a cost-cutting start to 2009, Short will make his greater presence felt by backing his manager with cash. Whether Sbragia overseas the spending remains to be seen, but he does not anticipate major surgery.

“We will change the squad slightly,” he said. “It won’t be drastic, it just needs tweaking here and there. We are still learning and have a long way to go. A lot of years to go. It is a good start.”

Although it took Marton Fulop’s injury-time save from Gary Cahill to claim a point, Sunderland were by far the better side against Bolton. Sbragia, who fielded a 4-4-1-1 formation, took heart from the performance after six defeats in their last seven matches.

“Our formation was better,” he said. “We have been away and played 4-4-2 and it has not suited us. We were difficult to beat and in the first half we passed it around and maybe surprised Bolton. We needed a cutting edge and didn’t have that. In the second half, Bolton tightened up and maybe we should have bypassed the midfield a bit.

“But we carried on playing through them. We got the work ethic and blocking. We didn’t have that against Everton and West Brom (their previous two matches).

“We need to get results and quickly.”

Kenwyne Jones left the field with an ankle injury 17 minutes from time, but is hopeful of being fit for next week’s televised clash.