STEWART Donald will sit down with Sunderland manager Jack Ross this week in a bid to come up with a plan to make sure next season ends in promotion to the Championship.

The Black Cats are having to come to terms with the fact that a second consecutive year will be spent in the third tier of the English game for the first time in the club’s history.

Donald will be doing everything he can to ensure that the failed promotion push does not have a direct result on his drive for further investment.

The Sunderland owner was sat alongside American businessman, and consortium leader, Mark Campbell at Wembley on Saturday when Charlton broke Wearside hearts by hitting a deserved late winner.

Now the focus from the boardroom will be on trying to make sure Sunderland’s chances of receiving a financial boost from outside investors does not suffer because of the way the season ended.

Campbell was one of those ready to invest in Sunderland if promotion had been achieved.

Over the weekend executive director Charlie Methven admitted that investment was on the cards within days if promotion had been achieved.

“I think there are four or five people who have tabled options to us that are here today, he’s one of them,” he said.

“He (Campbell) is a good guy and he might be someone we get involved. He’s one of four or five options we’ve got, but nothing is done.

“I need to sit down and analyse the next few weeks and see what options are going to be best for the club.”

Donald is looking for the extra funding to take Sunderland on having done what he could since purchasing the club from Ellis Short last year.

He has not had the sort of cash required to pay the £40m to Short himself, which is why parachute payments have been helped to pay the remainder of the money due to the American.

It is no secret that promotion to the Championship would have boosted Donald’s attempts to bring in greater financial muscle, whether that was through a direct change of ownership or investment.

In the mean time Ross will be meeting with Donald to discuss what is needed, without the increase in money that playing at the higher level would have brought, and the Scot looks set to stay in charge.

“Jack is as gutted as we all are,” said Donald.

“But if you’re asking me is Jack Ross going to be here next season, then yes he is, from my perspective.

“It was a big job on his hands. If you play football manager you’re going to say, ‘it’s the biggest budget, it’s Sunderland, you should go up’. But it isn’t like that and Jack has had a lot to contend with.

“He’s been thrown in at the deep end and we’ve done alright. Next year we definitely want to go up and I think Jack can deliver that for us.”

Ross will know where his squad is short if they want to achieve promotion next season, with creativity and an over-reliance on Aiden McGeady in the final third a huge problem that only became clearer towards the end of the campaign.

McGeady remains one of Sunderland’s most highly-paid players so it is not even clear whether he will be around next season, but he is not the only one. The futures of Lee Cattermole and Bryan Oviedo – two more big earners – will again be up in the air before the new season starts.

Sunderland chiefs have always said that another year in League One is not a disaster because it will allow the club further time to prepare to realign its finances following the costly back-to-back relegations from the Premier League.