MICK McCarthy last night set his sights on next season's First Division title after dismissing suggestions that he was about to walk out of the Stadium of Light.

The Sunderland boss is still reeling from Monday night's dramatic play-off semi-final defeat to Crystal Palace that dashed the Black Cats' hopes of a return to the top-flight.

But, with the start of the new Coca Cola League campaign just 78 days away, McCarthy has already started to turn his attention to the future.

Last year, relegation from the Premiership heralded a summer of tumultuous transfer activity as a stringent cost-cutting exercise saw 23 senior professionals leave the club.

The next couple of months will not be quite as hectic but, with 13 players having come to the end of their current contracts, the exit doors at the Stadium of Light should still see some brisk business.

McCarthy has already made contract offers to some of the players he wants to keep on Wearside and, while he acknowledges there will be changes before the start of next season, he is confident Sunderland can build on a campaign that has taken them to within touching distance of the top-flight.

"We'll be endeavouring to win the league next year," said the former Republic of Ireland boss. "If we can build on this season then that's the important thing.

"I wanted to be in the Premier League - I still do - but I get a bit cheesed off when people talk so disparagingly about the First Division.

"I wonder whether we've had a more enjoyable season this season than last. I wonder whether getting to the semi-final of the play-offs and scrapping to get into the Premier League is better than getting your backside kicked every week like the season before.

"We all want to be in the Premier League and I'm no different, but I like to have a competitive team and be trying to win things rather than propping everyone else up.

"We'll do it again. I've got faith in my ability and the ability of the players and the staff that will be remaining. We've got to be determined and come back in the right frame of mind."

Jason McAteer is one of the players currently sweating on a new deal, and the club captain warned Sunderland's board that they could face a fight to hold onto McCarthy himself in the wake of Monday's defeat.

The Black Cats boss has silenced the critics who questioned whether or not he could turn around a club who suffered 17 successive league defeats earlier this year.

His exploits have seen him linked with a number of managerial posts, including the role of national coach for South Korea, but McCarthy's only interest is in reinvigorating his Sunderland squad for another promotion push next season.

"I'm not looking for anything," said McCarthy, who first moved to the Stadium of Light in March 2003. "I love my job, I want to continue, and I'll be here at the start of next season.

"I love the job and I'm not looking for anything else. I enjoy what I do here and I think everybody knows that.

"I've never given anybody a reason to suggest or think otherwise. But don't think that it can't happen.

"I'm not trying to give out the wrong vibes but, if we'd finished seventh or eighth in the league, I might be sat here with people asking if I was going to keep my job because they were trying to shift me out.

"It's like anything else, if Real Madrid come in tomorrow, what am I going to say? It's just a hypothetical one because it's not going to happen."

Monday night was a disastrous end to an otherwise impressive campaign as Sunderland saw their play-off final spot wrestled from their hands by the most questionable of refereeing decisions.

McCarthy is still enduring sleepless nights following referee David Pugh's decision not to punish Neil Shipperley for a blatant push on Mart Poom, but he is adamant that the controversial finale should not overshadow the nine months of progress that had gone before it.

"It's been a remarkable season from where we started off," he said. "It sounds a bit hollow after such a big disappointment, but the players have put in a great shift all season long.

"I think it's been a terrific season but, because it ended on a sour note, that tends to mask everything else."

* Goalkeeper Mart Poom has been named in the Estonia squad for this month's friendlies with Scotland and Denmark. Estonia face the Scots in Tallinn on May 27 and have another home game with Euro 2004 qualifiers Denmark three days later.

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