KEVIN PHILLIPS and Thomas Sorensen will lead a mass summer exodus from Sunderland after Mick McCarthy was ordered to dump around 15 players.

Phillips and Sorensen are to be the biggest casualties of a cull aimed at alleviating debts of over £26m as Sunderland allow for the apocalyptic financial consequences of relegation.

And Hugh Roberts - who yesterday announced his resignation as Sunderland chief executive and plc director - said last night: "There are some big earners who won't be here next season."

The club, who yesterday reported an operating loss of £4.8m for the six months to January 31, will also make up to 83 non-playing employees redundant.

With the Nationwide League beckoning, McCarthy has been told to slash a crippling wage bill and send a more streamlined squad into next season's promotion battle.

Phillips, a long-term target of Tottenham Hotspur who has also been linked with Middlesbrough, will have no shortage of potential suitors.

Arsenal and Manchester United are among Sorensen's admirers and his departure - together with Phillips's exit - would bring in up to £10m.

While the departure of Phillips would be unpalatable to the club's fans, Sunderland's plc chairman Bryan Sanderson warned they must adopt a pragmatic approach that would involve "tough decisions".

He said: "Painful restructuring will be needed on both the playing and non-playing side of the business. But we are determined to take tough decisions in the best interests of the long-term future of the club."

Sunderland are determined not to sell their most prized assets for knockdown fees, but the collapse of the transfer market and the introduction of the window could force their hand.

A posse of Premiership rivals are known to be interested in Jody Craddock and Gavin McCann, while David Bellion and Jurgen Macho will leave when their contracts expire this summer.

But with the rest of English football suffering from a cash crisis, McCarthy might have trouble persuading other clubs to sign players who have failed to guide Sunderland to safety.

The Black Cats' wage bill is now a huge 70 per cent of their turnover - an increase of about £5m, or 46 per cent, on the same period in 2002 - and relegation will leave a massive black hole in their finances.

McCarthy must spend the next month deciding which players he can sacrifice to satisfy the Stadium of Light moneymen, while at the same time retaining a squad sufficiently strong to mount a concerted promotion assault.

It will be a devilishly difficult balancing act, as acknowledged by Roberts. He said: "The squad is about 40 players and we need to take that down to a more realistic level. It is big, even by Premiership standards.

"The players will be informed about the financial situation and be told about the position the club is in. We're not making any proposals for moving players; the prime mover is Mick McCarthy.

"You don't appoint a manager of his class and then not give him free rein to get the squad he needs.

"But the most important next step is restructuring the squad to take the wage bill down.

"We want to reduce it by a fairly chunky figure - several million pounds - and it's a major challenge.

"The difference between the Nationwide League and the Premiership is big, and our income is going to be significantly down because of the television monies.

"Some players would look to leave because they had a better opportunity elsewhere."

An 11 per cent drop in the average League attendance at the Stadium of Light thus far this season was reflected in a £1.7m fall in gate receipts and programme revenue.

But Sunderland will really feel the pinch next season, when television revenue will be halved to around £6m as a result of the parachute payments.

They hope to save more than £1m with the job losses, which could see almost 40 per cent of club staff laid off.

Sunderland employees have until Monday to take voluntary redundancy, after which there will be compulsory departures.

Roberts said: "It's a sad day when you tell staff that they're going to be made redundant."

Mark Tearney, of the A Love Supreme fanzine, said: "It seems sacrifices will have to be made.

"Hopefully whatever players are left will help us come back up."

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