RICKY SBRAGIA wants to stay as Sunderland manager next season – whatever division they are playing in.

The Black Cats boss’ primary goal when he took over in December was to keep the side in the Premier League and he remains optimistic he can achieve that.

But whether it will be enough to keep Sbragia in charge at the Stadium of Light beyond this month remains to be seen, although there continues to be a strong belief it will not.

There are suggestions he could return to his role as first team coach regardless of what happens against Chelsea on Sunday.

But despite admitting results should have been better during his six months in charge, the Sunderland manager, who has 13 months remaining on his contract, said: “I would not have thought I would be manager this time last year.

“I had a decent impact as caretaker and got some good results against teams we probably should beat any way.

“I still want the job I am contracted. There always has been speculation from the first day I took the seat.”

During his coaching days with Bolton, Manchester United and Sunderland, Sbragia became accustomed and familiar with taking a more backseat role.

And for that reason stepping into frontline management in the richest league in the world brought higher demands on him as person.

“I don’t regret it because there are not many people who get the chance to be a Premier League manager,” said Sbragia, right.

“When you get the opportunity you don’t turn it down.

“There is no way I thought I would be a manager. I could have ducked it but I would have regretted it.”

If Sunderland beat Chelsea then they will remain in the top tier of English football for a third successive season.

Defeat, though, and the Black Cats will be in the hands of Hull City and Newcastle United, who can both overtake them if they win their matches against Manchester United and Aston Villa respectively.

But Sbragia is not about to start pointing the finger at his players for an alarming drop down the league table, as a result of four wins in 22 matches under his guidance.

“Everything stops and starts with me, it’s as simple as that and I never blame players, everything is down to me,” he said. “I know what I have taken on and what I had to do and hopefully by Sunday I will have achieved that.

“Just now we are in limbo, can’t really plan anything until 6pm on Sunday and then everything changes and if we do stay up I will have a few jars.”

Sbragia added: “I would have hoped to have been out of this by now and I believe we should be, we only have ourselves to blame. It is still in our hands we are not depending on anyone else but ourselves and on Sunday I hope to rectify it and get a win.

“Niall Quinn asked me to take the job, it was a difficult job and I could have said no to it and ducked the issue but I thought we could stay in the Premier League.”

Sbragia refuted suggestions Sunderland were considering suing Manchester United if they field a weakened team at Hull. And, rather than criticising Sir Alex Ferguson, the Sunderland manager expects United’s team to provide a stern enough test for the Tigers.

“He will play a team to win it I would never be critical but may be Darren Fletcher, Gary Neville, Wes Brown, will play and they are not reserves players,”

he said.

“You never come up against an easy Manchester United team. Alex has total belief in his players and squad, reserve or youth team level always believe they can win because of the talent being sent out.

“He will do what is right for Manchester United.”