RICKY SBRAGIA insists he has no idea whether keeping Sunderland in the Premier League will be enough for him to keep his job, but preparing for a “difficult” few years is the only thing on his mind.

Over the course of the last month Sven-Goran Eriksson and Alan Curbishley have been mentioned as possible replacements, despite chairman Niall Quinn’s recent insistence that they are not looking for anyone else to manage on Wearside.

Victory at West Brom this afternoon would put Sunderland seven points clear of the relegation zone with four matches remaining, strengthening the chances of Sbragia retaining his position at the Stadium of Light.

The Black Cats boss, however, is not worrying himself with what could happen, instead he is relaxed and firmly focused on preserving topflight status before firming up his summer transfer plans.

“I want to keep Sunderland up. Whether that’s good enough for the people upstairs is another thing.

“I can’t talk or think about what they’re thinking,” said Sbragia.

He is due to have another meeting next week to discuss transfer targets, having already outlined to Quinn that changes needed to be made to the Sunderland squad ahead of next season.

Sbragia is under contract for a further year, having signed an 18- month deal after lifting Sunderland’s fortunes in the immediate aftermath of Roy Keane’s departure in December.

But he has warned supporters that becoming a real force in the Premier League could still take time.

“From my point of view, the next three or four years are going to be difficult,”

said Sbragia.

“It’s alw a y s d i f f i - c u l t until you get a foot in the door. We were bottom of the Champ i o n s h i p , now we’re in our second season in the Premier League.

“Staying up for a second season is a big deal.

“Being in the Premier League is a big thing and it’s difficult.

We need to continue progressing. That’s at the stadium, on the playing field and at the training ground, too.

“The first four years (in the Premier League) are difficult. You have to chop and change your squad around and bring in better players, it’s as simple as that.

“You just hope the people upstairs want to stay with you.

“It’s one or the other. I go back to my experiences at Bolton. Every year they brought in two or three players, just to tweak it, to change it, to make it better.”

And it is his experiences at Bolton, working under Sam Allardyce, that he is looking to use to his advantage this summer, when he will be looking to “tweak” his squad.

He is ready to move on a number of his first-teamers, while he has already been on scouting missions and is considering which players to target this summer.

“We’ve got to buy in new players and we know that,” he said.

“We know some players might be unhappy and coming to the end of their contracts.

“We just need a change. You always need a change, if you don’t you become complacent.”

There was an element of complacency in the way Sunderland dropped back into relegation trouble after hitting a seven-match winless run before last weekend’s timely 1-0 victory over Hull.

And Sbragia has revealed how asking his players to come up with targets for the remainder of the season helped to rediscover the winning feeling – something he hopes will continue at the Hawthorns today.

“We’re trying to get the players to set targets for themselves,”

said Sbragia.

“We haven’t said anything about their targets, we’ve just pinned them on the walls. For the Hull game, we put it on the door before they went out.

Just to remind them of what they’ve said.

“We haven’t talked about individual games or beating Hull 1-0, just looked at the remaining games.

“If they achieve it, I might take them for a day’s racing at York as a reward.

“They’ll have deserved it if we do stay up. They’ve been through a lot.”