AHEAD of a potentially pivotal Easter weekend in Sunderland’s fight for Championship survival, Chris Coleman has admitted the time has come for Ellis Short to sell even if he hopes a change at the top would not lead to his own exit.

While reaffirming a belief that all of his players should treasure how lucky they are to be playing and describing some within the game as “mercenaries”, the Black Cats boss is desperate to remain in charge at the Stadium of Light regardless of what division they are in.

By that time Coleman would like to think Short, the club’s American owner who has drawn a line under his spending at the club as he seeks a sale, has made some progress in moving on so Sunderland can look to the future.

There has been a lot of talk this week about interested parties after former chairman Niall Quinn, who has denied any involvement, was touted as someone who could front up a bid to take over the challenge – just as he did in 2006 with the Drumaville Consortium.

Coleman knows a change of ownership is required, even if that could put his own position under greater doubt because a new chairman could lead to a change in the manager’s office too.

He said: “There needs to be change. I didn't really believe the rumours about Niall because I know Niall – not that I would have been against it. Change needs to happen here, clearly. The sooner the better for everybody. Even if - and I hope it's not - new chairman, new owner, new manager, but we need a new direction.

“Ellis is not interested any more with Sunderland, he wants to move on so we need someone to come and buy it, grab it by the scruff of the neck and say this is the direction we're going in. At what point that is, I don't know.

“I do worry about it (manager’s position), to be honest. I don't want my time here to be six months of struggle and I don't get the chance to turn it into something I believe it can be turned into.

“But when you're a manager you know if there's a bad run of results that's it. You know the pressures when you walk through the door, so I'm not complaining. We need change – at certain levels!”

Sunderland had just fallen to the foot of the Championship when Coleman took over in November, and he has struggled to turn things around since then.

There were signs of a recovery early in his reign but he has failed to win any of the last ten and that has left a five-point gap to make up to safety. Two of the remaining eight games arrive over Easter, with today’s trip to Derby County followed by Monday’s visit of Sheffield Wednesday.

“I do worry about my record, of course,” said Coleman, who will be without Joel Asoro today because of the six-day head injury rule after he suffered one with the Sweden Under-21s.

“We haven't won in ten and we're rock bottom of the league. It was tough for Simon Grayson as well. I don't know if there is a new owner what he'll have planned. I don't know what the owner now has planned because I’ve not spoken to him.

“But I don't think I can change enough in one window with no money. I'm not good enough to change everything that needs changing in one window. I'm not going to turn around and say I'm unlucky, it's just football facts.

“I think after a dozen games our win ratio was one in three, now we haven't won in ten. It's been a tough one. From where we are you have to say if we stay up it's a win.”

That is the message he is stressing to his players, and he has been all week. Coleman’s own career was cut short aged 32 having failed to properly recover from the injuries sustained in a car crash 18 months earlier. He thinks his players have to appreciate what they have.

The 47-year-old said: “It goes so quickly a playing career. When you do the same thing every day, sometimes we're human beings and we need a bit of a change. Every walk of life is the same. But if you look at it, what a job it is, what a job I've got to be involved in football – I love football, it's my life.

“You have good and bad times and we're having a bad time. My message to the players, mostly, is 'yeah, it's tough, but remember how lucky you are, how lucky we all are to do this job and be at this club.'

“If you're talking about winning Premier Leagues and Champions Leagues, that's for a select few. Most of us are never going to get there, that's just how it is. For what we're doing now, we're part of a big club, a really good club in difficulty, but we're still here and involved in football. That's our job. We're super, super-lucky people.

“I'll never forget that moment of losing those five or six years playing. But then it shaped me in a different way and pushed me into another direction maybe I wouldn't have gone in if I'd played on. I'll never forget that feeling.

“I feel sorry for them when it gets to the point where they are drifting and playing at 70 per cent because it's going to come to an end for then I don't care how much money they've got in the bank they'll never get this time back.

“Then you've got other players who are mercenaries, and it's all about money, not football. There's no pride in their job. They're pretenders and I've absolutely no time for them whatsoever. There's not a big enough distance on the planet that I'd like to be away from them.”

As well as Asoro being missing today, full-back Billy Jones will be absent while defender Marc Wilson is available again so is in contention to replace suspended Jake Clarke-Salter.