MICK McCARTHY has already begun preparations for next season's promotion campaign by warning his star players they are going nowhere, despite facing wage cuts of up to 50 per cent.

While the Sunderland boss is refusing to throw in the towel on the fight to beat the drop from the Premier League, he backs himself as the best man to get the side promoted at the first attempt.

With relegation more a case of when rather than if, McCarthy remains convinced his job is safe, and will join his players in taking a hefty pay cut when they are back playing Championship football.

But the Sunderland boss is already thinking long-term, and is warning clubs ready to cherry pick his best players there will be no repeat of the mass exodus that greeted the drop in 2003.

"I think the team that's playing now and all the players here; if the worst does happen, there won't be too many going out of the place," said McCarthy, who lost the likes of Kevin Phillips, Thomas Sorensen, Gavin McCann and Claudio Reyna in the summer of 2003.

"We would be in a strong position to fight to get back in the Premier League. I haven't given up. But I have to be a realist.

"We would be healthier than last time if we go down. There would not be wholesale changes. The team that has played this season and improved and has got better will be around, that will be the team which is here next season.

"The players will be like me, they will take a cut in wages. I'm on a Premiership salary and I will be on a Championship salary if we go down.

"Most of the players have a salary which is reflected by the Premiership, both in bonuses and their monthly income. If anyone were to suggest that they are not doing enough to stay up, I would say to them that is rubbish.

"If your income is going to be cut by 50 per cent, you would do a bit more, wouldn't you?

"The players are under contract. I don't have to worry about that. It's not like before. The players will be fine, they will be staying.

"You can go through all the names but, a bit like Bob (Murray) not speculating on me, I'm not going to speculate on any of them."

If publicly the fight to stay in the top flight goes on, privately the ramifications of the likely relegation will be regularly discussed between McCarthy and the board.

The squad will undoubtedly need fine tuning in the summer, and McCarthy will need a transfer fund to launch the Championship campaign - a battle he says he is best equipped to fight.

"There's no point me sitting here saying 'we're going to do all this' (to stay up) because you would think I was a nutter," said McCarthy.

"I have to take that longer-term view. There's no suggestion that I'm going anywhere.

"If the worst happens, who is going to come in here and get any more out of that group of players than I did last week (against Chelsea)?

"I don't think there is anyone. If the worst happens, I think I'm the best bloke to get us back up. That's my view on it. No-one has suggested anything different."

His group of players are already receiving admiring glances from other Premiership clubs. Dean Whitehead has caught the eye of Liverpool, with Liam Lawrence, Julio Arca and Stephen Elliott all likely to be courted in the summer.

McCarthy would have been keen to get the message home to the board during talks this week about the need to keep his current squad together whatever happens over the coming months, but he was determined to play down the relevance of Tuesday's meeting.

His position was not on the agenda, and the fact there has been no vote of confidence from chairman Murray delights the former Republic of Ireland boss.

McCarthy said: "I think there has been a misconception, that there has been this special meeting with the board, an extraordinary meeting between me and them.

"I meet on a regular basis with them to discuss the running of the club, it's ongoing, it's about the future of the club. The fact that Bob (Murray) lives in Jersey means I don't always get to chat to him.

"But I speak to John Fickling (vice chairman), Peter Walker (chief executive) and Lesley Callaghan (marketing and communications director) on a daily basis. There are occasions when we can all sit down together.

"It (McCarthy's position) wasn't (discussed at the meeting) and there's no suggestion of it.

"Whenever Bob's asked about me or anyone else is asked about me, all he has to say is one positive thing and all of a sudden I have a vote of confidence which is the worst thing. I don't want one."

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