A WAVE of optimism may have swept Wearside following the arrival of both a new owner and new manager, but Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn wants to keep expectations in check.

Since the end of the season Dallas-based billionaire Ellis Short has become the Black Cats’ new owner, while Ricky Sbragia has been replaced as manager by Steve Bruce.

Although it appears to be the start of a new dawn at the Stadium of Light, Quinn would prefer supporters not to raise hopes too high.

And having come close to losing their Premier League status last term, Quinn last night said: “The end of the season was a difficult three months, from the start of March right the way through.

“We stayed up which was a huge relief then there was the ownership issue which was a big, big boost for the club and then we managed to get our No 1 target to come and manage the football team which was even bigger news for us.

“We just hope the fans don’t get too excited because they’ve been let-down in the past so we don’t want to be over-doing the promises or anything. We’ve got to find a balance. We’ve sometimes not kicked on. For example last season we were 11th and were at a crossroads -– do we aim for eighth or do we settle for what we’ve got?

“But in the end we went completely the other way and we almost went down.

“Hopefully in the future we will show more resolve, and kick on a bit better. But you don’t want to be bigging yourselves up too much because you know it’s like in football, you’ll end up getting kicked in the you know whats.”

Quinn refused to reveal how much Bruce will have to spend on new signings, but explained reports last week suggesting the new manager has a huge budget could have a detrimental affect.

He said: “I’m not going to name figures, if there’s money needed Steve will get it.

“It can be so difficult because the tabloids throw stupid figures out there, ridiculous stuff, and that puts pressure on you because then players think we’ve got loads of money to spend which we don’t because we’re sensible “Steve has gone back to his holiday, I’ve still got to start mine, but we are in constant contact and we have lots of people at the club doing lots of work in different areas. One thing we have to make sure is that our squad come back in great shape and mentally ready for a different challenge under a different manager.

“The one thing I’m looking forward to next season is the team playing with renewed grit which was a feeling that we probably lacked sometimes last year.”