Get the FREE Mirror Football newsletter by email with the day's key headlines and transfer news Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

David Moyes has been warned he can't spend his way out of trouble at Sunderland - as owner Ellis Short prepares to sell up.

The Sunderland boss, whose side is bottom of the Premier League, was on Tuesday handed a stark warning.

The club's financial plight means he will have only “very limited” funds in the transfer market.

Sunderland chief Exec Martin Bain admitted: “We are not going to be able to spend to get out of trouble. That is the loud and clear message.”

However Moyes confirmed he is still committed to the cause and isn't walking out, despite being unhappy with his scope to spend.

(Image: Stu Forster)

Despite this season's record £100m-plus Premier League TV deal Sunderland are £140m in debt with a £73m wage bill and still making a loss.

Asked how much Moyes would get to spend, Bain said: “The word is limited, I could probably say very limited with regards to the January transfer window.

“The club in recent years has reached a point where we can’t keep having this short term fix because it just keeps comes back full circle.

“Maybe in the past, and I don’t want to talk disparagingly or single anyone at this moment of time, it is the big buys that come back and haunt you in many ways. If you get those wrong, it causes you an issue.

(Image: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty)

"In terms of this transfer window in January, we have reached a point where there has to be a time where you don't have that short-term hit to plug the holes in the dam."

Sunderland are reluctant to sell prime asset Lamine Kone, a target for West Ham, who has a release clause in the region of £25m, because Moyes won't be allowed much of the sum raised to spend.

England keeper Jordan Pickford, rated at £15m, is also not for sale, because his potential is unfulfilled.

“We don’t want to get into selling assets in the January transfer window. We don’t want to be forcing David into a corner, just because of the situation that we have,” said Bain.

In January last year, Sunderland bought Kone, Whabi Khazri and Jan Kirchhoff and it lifted the club out of trouble.

(Image: Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)

Bain said: “There will be people who will argue that we did that last year and it worked, I recognise that, but that kind of purchase from the past can lead you to where the club is now.”

Short who has been owner for eight years, has pledged to plug losses until he finds a buyer, with interested parties doing serious diligence. But with their Premier League status in serious doubt, a sale is difficult.

Asked about Short's wish to sell up, Bain said: “If there is a buoyant housing marking and someone comes up garden path saying they are interested in buying your house, you’re going to have a chat with them to see what they are going to say. We would listen to offers.

(Image: Getty)

“I believe Ellis has the interests of the club at heart and he wouldn’t turn away anything that is beneficial to Sunderland football club.”

Bain is backing his team work with boss Moyes to unpick the long standing problems at the Stadium of Light, which has had

Moyes is Sunderland's seventh boss since 2011, and thought he would get more scope to spend when he took the job.

(Image: Plumb Images)

But Bain is confident Moyes soldier on and keep Sunderland up. He said: “You get an approach to life where you don't want to let one another down. I think I have got that with David. I wouldn't want to walk out on him at the moment, I would feel bad about it, and I don't think it's in David's character either.

“Football is so short-term with success and jobs. Maybe I should be battering his door down to say “You've got the right manager, you've got the right chief executive, this is the time to put some cash in in January because the consequences of going down are so drastic'.

“But I just, in my gut somewhere, it's not what I believe is right for Sunderland Football Club. I really don't. I think it'll come back to haunt us and more so for the reason that I actually don't think £10 million will make much of a difference.”