DAVID MOYES has revealed that he demanded some financial assurances from Sunderland owner Ellis Short before agreeing to take over at the Stadium of Light.

Moyes was confirmed as the Black Cats’ new manager this morning, having signed a four-year contract to take over from Sam Allardyce, who left to take charge of England yesterday evening.

The Scotsman will be in the stands when Sunderland continue their pre-season preparations at Rotherham this afternoon, and will head straight to France for a three-game pre-season trip tomorrow.

As well as quickly getting to know the players in the current squad, Moyes will also be targeting some new additions with Sunderland still to make a single signing this summer.

He has already discussed potential acquisitions with Short and Sunderland’s chief executive, Martin Bain, and is satisfied with the spending power that will be at his disposal in the next few weeks.

“The club were really slick,” said Moyes, who has been out of work since being dismissed from Spanish side Real Sociedad last November. “Martin Bain and Ellis were great in getting things done.

“They’ve given me some guarantees and reassurances about what we can do because let’s be fair, we’ve got a big club that we need to take forward and make sure we’re not celebrating about staying up, That can’t be the goal, it’s not my goal for sure. I’m really looking forward to the challenge.”

Moyes established his reputation as a leading Premier League boss during more than a decade in charge of Everton, and having taken the Toffees from perennial relegation battlers to a side that competed in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, the new Sunderland boss sees parallels between his new position and the one he inherited when he took over at Goodison Park.

“It feels really good (to have been appointed), and it’s something I’ve been hoping to get done ever since I heard Sam had the possibility of going to England,” said Moyes.

“I knew that Ellis had been interested in me in the past, and I was hoping he would come back for me again, and he certainly did.

“It’s a really big job. Everybody knows that you’re going to be playing in front of 45,000 or 46,000 every week in a big stadium, and that was a big appeal to me.

“It reminds me a lot of when I took over at Everton, a club that was bobbing around at the bottom. What we need to do at Sunderland is move up and do what we did at Everton. We need to move up the table and be competing up at the top end.

“I’m looking forward to it. Sam did a great job in keeping the club up last year, but we have to get away from being that sort of team. That will be the biggest challenge for me.”

Sunderland kick off the new Premier League season at Manchester City in three weeks’ time, and Moyes admits time is of the essence as he attempts to prepare his side for the new campaign.

“I need to get to know the players as quickly as I can,” he said, in an interview with Sunderland’s official website. “I’m going to meet the players and staff at Rotherham and I will travel with them to France tomorrow.

“I’m looking forward to getting that done as quickly as possible because I need to see what we have in the club and what we have in the academy. Have we got young players coming through?

“I need to find out quickly and make sure we have a team that can compete in the Premier League and win enough games, first to be away from the bottom end and second to try to get ourselves up the table.”