Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn insists manager Ricky Sbragia's job is safe.
"We are 100% behind Ricky," Quinn told Sky Sports News.
"I said it when Roy Keane was around - I am like a team-mate, it's a partnership between myself and Ricky. We are trying to help Ricky and he's doing a superb job.
"You must remember that he had no players to sign in the transfer market - he took over on the eve of the window so he had no scouting done and he got a couple of loan players in.
"He hasn't had that much of a grasp of being manager in terms of doing it his way and we've asked him to do a very difficult job.
"The great thing for me would be for us to stay up, sit down and have a review for a few days away from Sunderland and then plan for something really big next year.
"But there is absolutely no truth that we are looking at anybody else. It's Ricky Sbragia's job, he's our manager."