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David Moyes will not make a decision on his future until the end of the season - despite claims that he could quit by the end of the week.

Following confirmation of Sunderland’s relegation at the weekend, The Sun today claimed that ‘friends of Moyes ’ say he is on the verge of walking away from the Stadium of Light after talks with owner Ellis Short and chief executive Martin Bain this week.

But I understand that report is wide of the mark.

Moyes was told some time ago that his job was safe even in the event of relegation, with the club conscious that the constant managerial changes of recent years - the Scot is the seventh man at the helm in six years - have played a major role in the Black Cats’ problems.

Moyes, Short, and Bain did meet in London at the beginning of the week, but the focus of their discussions was on putting together a plan to mount an immediate promotion challenge next season.

And it is the plan for the summer and beyond, in terms of the budget available to rebuild the squad, that is likely decide Moyes’ future.

He is keen to lead the club straight back to the top flight but with the Championship more competitive than ever, and with up to half the squad likely to move on, Moyes knows that it will take significant investment to ready the squad for a promotion push.

Unless there is money to spend, Sunderland will find it difficult to compete - at least for automatic promotion.

By way of comparison, Newcastle United spent £55m last summer to build a promotion-winning team, while Aston Villa spent a similar amount but still found themselves stranded in midtable.

Sunderland’s latest accounts, published last week, paint a bleak picture with a loss of £33m, debt of £110.4m, and a wage bill of £83m - a salary bill that will have to be more than halved in the Championship, where the club’s revenue will nosedive.