David Moyes says he will stay on as Sunderland manager for next season

David Moyes said he intends to stay on as Sunderland’s manager next season but hinted that this stance is dependent on Ellis Short, the club’s owner, offering him the funds to renew about half the squad.

A week ago Moyes indicated he was very close to resigning but he now seems minded to rebuild his career in the Championship. At a meeting with Short and Martin Bain, Sunderland’s chief executive, in the aftermath of last Saturday’s defeat against Bournemouth that confirmed the club’s relegation from the Premier League, both men were adamant they want him to remain in charge.

Such positive mood music saw the former Everton, Manchester United and Real Sociedad manager say “yes” to a television interviewer in response to a question about whether he would still be on Wearside next season but there is much still to be finalised when Moyes meets Short again this month.

Perhaps tellingly, the Scot became a little more cryptic when subsequently quizzed about his future and apparent change of heart from seven days earlier. He merely reiterated – repeatedly – that he has a four-year contract.

“Ellis and the board want me to stay, the conversations with Ellis have been very good,” he said. “We’ll have another meeting at the end of the season. We’ve only put initial plans down. I know what needs to be done to get back in the Premier League, I know the requirements, but we’ve only had initial talks.

“I want to be able to have a team which would come straight back up. That’s my aim, to get us get back into the Premier League. And we have to look at how we do that. That will definitely be the key to the talks.

“I’ll know more come the end of the season, once we see exactly what we’re able to deal with, what we can work with, then we’ll know exactly what we can do. We’ll get together and see how we look.”

The 54-year-old said he was confident he had “the 100% backing” of Short and Bain. “The talks were very good,” he said. “But we haven’t nailed down everything because we have only had an initial conversation.”

Those comments have not been welcomed by the majority of Sunderland fans, some of whom demanded Moyes’s sacking during recent games but he remains defiant and privately insistent he will not be forced out by supporter dissent. “When I sat here right at the start of the season it felt like every Sunderland supporter wanted David Moyes as manager,” he said. “And I think every single Sunderland supporter knew a rebuild was needed.”

Those fans had hoped Moyes could accomplish it without suffering relegation but the club’s sixth manager in seven years believes he has been made the scapegoat for a series of bad decisions predating his appointment.

Matters are complicated by Short’s enthusiasm for selling Sunderland, something which Moyes suggested may be on the horizon. “There’s a bit of that in the background,” he said. “But I can’t give you any more at present.”

With three loanees returning to their parent clubs in the summer and 10 senior professionals out of contract, upheaval is imminent and Moyes, who spent £30m last summer, will next week begin telling players whether he will offer them new deals. John O’Shea is expected to stay but most will depart.

Whereas a bidding war for the much-coveted goalkeeper Jordan Pickford beckons, Jermain Defoe’s agreement contains a clause enabling the England striker to leave on a free transfer. “It’s within Jermain’s rights to execute the clause,” Moyes said. “It’s up to him.”

Sam Allardyce has confirmed his interest in bringing Defoe to Crystal Palace, who would be likely to face competition from Bournemouth, West Bromwich Albion and West Ham United for the 34-year-old.

“If we are safe and Jermain Defoe is available, and he wants to come to Crystal Palace, I would be interested,” Allardyce said. “Until that time, when we are safe, I can’t pursue that. When we are safe, someone else who is already safe may already have done it. Who knows?”

Sunderland’s latest accounts reveal that Margaret Byrne received an £850,000 payoff after resigning as chief executive in the wake of Adam Johnson’s conviction on child sex offences. They show that Byrne was paid £1,207,770 during the year to 31 July 2016, £850,000 of it in “compensation for loss of office”.

Byrne resigned on 8 March last year after admitting to “a serious error of judgment” in allowing Johnson, who had initially been suspended by the club after being arrested, to return and play a part in Sunderland’s successful fight against relegation. It has also emerged that the club’s £84m wage bill last season was bigger than that of the champions, Leicester City.