JACK ROSS has held a number of discussions with Sunderland’s prospective new owners this week – but the Black Cats boss has not felt the need to check whether his own position is safe.

After weeks of negotiations, Stewart Donald is set to relinquish his majority stake at the Stadium of Light in the next few days, with a formal announcement possible before the weekend.

Donald has agreed to sell the bulk of his majority stake in the Black Cats to MSD Partners, the New York-based investment firm that manages the capital of billionaire businessman Michael Dell.

Dell, whose involvement in Dell Technologies makes him the 25th richest man in the world, will be a passive, minority investor, with ownership of Sunderland switching to Glenn Fuhrman, John Phelan and Robert Platek, who are the principals of MSD Partners.

Donald and Charlie Methven will retain a stake in the club, and continue to be heavily involved in its day-to-day management, and despite recent speculation linking former boss Sam Allardyce with a possible return to Wearside, it is anticipated that Ross will be retained as manager.

The Scotsman’s position has been the subject of increasingly heated discussion in the opening six weeks of the season, with Sunderland failing to win four of their first eight league games but still finding themselves in fourth position, with a game in hand on two of the three sides above them in the table.

However, while he has spoken with Donald and the MSD Partners group this week to get a feel for Sunderland’s future direction, he has not felt the need to seek clarity over the security of his own position.

“Have I asked about my position? No, is the simple answer to that,” said Ross, who insists his main priority in the last 24 hours has been planning for tomorrow’s game at Bolton Wanderers. “I’ll be entirely truthful, I’ve had conversations with them, but I’ve never once asked about my own position.

“What will be will be in that sense. I believe I’m a good football manager, and I think I’ve proven that. I’ve got a win record, percentage wise, that stands up against a lot of people. I’m thorough in what I do.

“Will that always guarantee success and good results? No, of course it doesn’t, that’s the nature of the beast being involved in this job. Should somebody walk in tomorrow, become the new owners, and decide there’s a better manager out there, that’s fine. It’s no problem. I’ve survived in the past and I’m sure I’d work again.

“I know people might not believe me, but I don’t worry about that. I worry about doing my job right every day, I don’t worry about somebody deciding that something else would be better, that’s fine.”

There is a certain irony about Sunderland being taken over by a billion-dollar investment group just as they are heading to Bolton, a club that could not afford to pay their players for almost half-a-year before being the subject of their own successful takeover at the end of last month.

Unlike Bury, who were expelled from the Football League after their financial problems became unsurmountable, Bolton survived by the skin of their teeth despite being the subject of two EFL deadlines that could have resulted in their Football League share being withdrawn.

Sunderland’s recent financial problems never got that acute, but the club were more than £140m in debt before Ellis Short relinquished control to Donald and agreed to forego the majority of the sum that was owed to him.

Since taking over in the summer of 2018, Donald and Methven have reduced outgoings and brought Sunderland’s balance sheet back under control, and while there has been a degree of controversy about their use of parachute payments to facilitate an agreement with Short, Ross feels the current regime deserve huge credit for stabilising things so successfully in order to attract new owners.

“Modern football is tough because a lot of big expectations are placed upon club owners,” said the Sunderland boss. “The expectations to chase dreams and chase success in a very quick way can lend themselves to decisions being made that are perhaps incorrect.

“Maybe in the fullness of time, people might take a step back and look at what’s happened here in the last 15 or 16 months since Stewart took ownership, and maybe understand how important that has been for the club. It has stabilised the club, and ensured it didn’t go in a wrong direction.

“If this (the takeover) does go ahead, people will maybe reflect on that and understand that he has played an important role in the club continuing to move forward in the right direction. I can’t speak for whoever might take charge of the club, but the conversations to date would suggest there will be a sustainable approach given to try to grow the club in the right way.”

And while any future decisions about the club’s executive management might be out of his hands, Ross is delighted that Donald looks set to extend his involvement on Wearside.

“I came to the club at a time where I could have gone elsewhere,” he said. “One of the reasons to come to the club, not the only reason but definitely one of the factors, was that I liked Stewart from minute one.

“I get on with him really well from a personal point of view, taking away the side of being the chairman and me being the manager. I like him as a person, I think he likes me, and we get on well.”