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Connor Wickham has scored as many league goals as he has had managers at Sunderland.

But the 21-year-old is now carrying the goal burden of the Black Cats as they try to pull off manager Gus Poyet’s “miracle” of Premier League survival.

It’s four goals and four bosses in three years for Wickham, who was branded a “model playboy” in need of “a slap in the face” by Poyet’s successor Paolo Di Canio.

He was told his career was at a “standstill” by Martin O’Neill. And blooded so gently into the top flight as an £8million teenage signing by Steve Bruce he never got going.

Wickham’s personal toil mirrors Sunderland's story of struggle and decline: Poor management, big spending, huge financial losses, muddled thinking and the lack of a coherent plan.

However, player and club have clawed their way back from being lost causes to having a fighting chance of proving themselves worthy of a staying in the top flight.

Wickham’s three goals against Chelsea and Manchester City, earning four points from games that had been written off as defeats by many, mean ­Sunderland could yet pull off Poyet’s “miracle”.

Recalled out of desperation, as a last resort because of injury and loss of form to the likes of Steven Fletcher and Jozy Altidore, Wickham has rewarded Poyet’s boldness.

He will lead the charge against Cardiff on Sunday in a must-win game that will go a long way to determining Sunderland’s fate in a tight relegation scrap.

After three years of turmoil, decline, insults and managerial upheaval, the future for ­Sunderland, whether in the P­remier League, or next year in the Championship, seems to rest on Wickham.

If they survive, they will be in good financial shape, with the £65m TV cash flowing in. If they lose if means running the club on a ­“parachute payment” of £26m.

There will be a summer of upheaval whatever happens.

Nine players are out of contract, and five loanees will leave. ­Saleable assets including Adam Johnson, Emanuele ­Giaccherini, Altidore and Vito Mannone might raise £20m if the club are lucky.

The remaining players have relegation clauses that mean they will suffer a 40 percent cut in wages.

Whether the same principle applies to the club’s under-fire executive board, whose unnamed top earner pockets more than £500,000 a year, and collectively earn double that, remains to be seen.

It is truly win-or-bust on Sunday.