STEVE Bruce says Niall Quinn will continue to be his Sunderland sounding board, despite stepping down as chairman.

Tomorrow the Black Cats play their first game since Ellis Short took the boardroom reins, at Quinn’s first club Arsenal.

But Bruce was at pains to stress little has changed.

“Niall has been looking at doing something like this since before the end of last season,” said manager Bruce. “Niall’s done the hands-on approach for five years from in between Ireland and here and thought his role in the club now can be of benefit in a different way.

“His role has changed. He certainly hasn’t left. As chairman the work he’s done he can only be applauded for. He’s got the club established in the Premier League, which has always been his aim.

“Niall hasn’t gone away, he’s still very much in touch with myself and will remain that way.”

Quinn has been chairman since 2006, when he fronted the Drumaville consortium which bought the club from Bob Murray, initially combining his role with that of a reluctant caretaker-manager. Having bought a 30% stake in September 2008, eight months later reclusive Texan billionaire Short purchased the club entirely.

He has bankrolled Bruce – breaking Sunderland’s record transfer fee in successive summers – while former striker Quinn was his football consultant.

Last week, Quinn was moved to an “international development” role which saw him spend much of the international break in South Korea with one-time playing adversary Bruce.

“It’s just a different role for Niall really, vacating the chairman’s job,” explained the manager. “The whole structure of the club is still the same. We’ve got a new chief executive in Margaret Byrne and I will speak to Ellis like I normally do, which is once or twice a week if we have to talk about anything.

“Niall hasn’t gone away in that respect. For him it was the everyday mundane running of the club. After five years he thought he’d be better used somewhere else and trying to take the club forward from abroad seems his way forward. The ultimate decision on a player coming in is with the owner. Niall will go to the owner. That’s still exactly the case.”

With Nicklas Bendtner ineligible because he is on loan from Arsenal, Bruce will choose between Connor Wickham and Ji Dong-Won, both yet to make full Premier League debuts.

Like his manager, Ji has spent the week in South Korea.

“We’ll have to see how Ji is. I’m exhausted and I didn’t play,” said Bruce. “You need everyone 100% for Arsenal. Ji could have been playing against West Brom where it was difficult for 20, 25 minutes. That can affect a young player, but thankfully we had players on the pitch with experience of handling those situations.

“He’s certainly in my thoughts. Connor Wickham trained on Thursday having missed the last game with a groin injury so I’ll make a decision on whether it’s Ji or Connor up front.”

Former Gunners winger Sebastian Larsson played an important part as Sweden booked their Euro 2012 place.

“On Thursday they’d all come back from their various countries and a lot of them were extremely tired people,” said Bruce. “It’s not just physically, it’s mentally. Seb Larsson, for example, he’s come through two huge games.

“How is he going to be over the next few days? He was physically shattered. Whether he’d been partying I don’t know and who’s to say he shouldn’t have done after the two results they had?”

Sunderland’s attempts to curry favour with their South Korean hosts could have consequences for the start of next season. “We made our position very clear that if they wanted to call Ji up for the Olympic Games, we certainly wouldn’t want to stand in the lad’s way,” Bruce revealed.

Meanwhile, former Sunderland assistant boss Steve Cotterill is expected to be named the new manager of Nottingham Forest after leaving his post at Portsmouth.