Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn admits the plunging pound could scupper plans to sign permanently on-loan Marseille striker Djibril Cisse.

Quinn said: "Djibril's deal was done correctly, in that the decision will be made at the end of the season.

"Now he loves it here, and he would love to have his future here - we take that as a very good sign.

"But there are a couple of factors at play here. One is that I can't commit to him until we are safe - that's economically rather than football-wise.

"If Ricky wants him football-wise I can't commit to him if we are a Championship club.

"I couldn't give so much of our revenue to Marseille for a starter if we were a Championship club. It would be bad practice.

"We need to know where we are going before we make a decision.

"The second thing to bear in mind is that sterling has fallen apart since we made the deal, and he's become about £2-3m dearer since we first agreed the deal.

"So we have to look at that. I'm not saying we won't do it, I'm saying it has to be looked at."