Source: Telegraph
Sunderland contracts to include relegation clauses
Quinn will happily walk away from the negotiating table if his club's targets are unwilling to sign deals that would see their wages slashed dramatically if the Wearside club slips out of the Premier League.
'For new players now, we would insist upon a relegation clause and that would tell you what their intentions are, too,' Quinn said.
'I'm not trying to put them in a weakened position, but there should be some consideration given to 'yes, I'm going to give you all this money, but if you fail, then next year I can't'.
'It's as simple as that and even if it cost us a signing I would stick with that, definitely. In the modern world, at a club like ours and where we are on our journey, we'd have to.'
Quinn continued: 'I remember what happened a few years ago when we went down and so many members of staff lost their jobs. That was the cruellest thing of all, seeing non-football staff pack their bags and have to go. That hurt the very epicentre of the club.
'You don't feel so sorry for the player who gets to drive his Ferrari out of the gates. This time, we've been determined to have a plan in place and we try very hard when it comes to relegation clauses.
'You agree contracts over a sporadic period, but we've probably got to the stage where we're 90 per cent there.'
The £18-million rated Tottenham, striker Darren Bent, is at the top of the Stadium of Light's wanted list along with Manchester City defender Richard Dunne and Wigan midfielder Lee Cattermole.
They have been identified as priorities as recently-appointed manager Steve Bruce sets his sights on steering the club into the top half of the Premier League following last season's flirtation with relegation with the backer of new owner Ellis Short's millions.
'We're about to start our third year in a row in this division, so we're not a yo-yo club any more,' Quinn added. 'One of those yos has gone and we just need to get rid of the other one now. We're a yo club."
Staying in the division gave everybody a massive lift. You only have to imagine how bad relegation could have been to realise how it important it is. If we could kick that on and have a comfortable year in the Premier League - and by that I mean understanding from a very early stage that we weren't going to get relegated - you'd then see what this club was capable of.
'Are we going to get full houses every week? Do we need to kick on? That has to be the aim and it's a reasonable aim. It's not a stupid aim.
'There's no point talking about finishing in the top-four at the moment. It's nonsense. It's just so, so hard to talk like that. You've got to gradually have achievable aims. Our next achievable aim is to become a comfortable Premier League club.'
