Steve Bruce plans Sunderland player clear-out

Steve Bruce, the Sunderland manager, says he intends to spend as much time shipping players out of the Stadium Light as he will bringing them in this summer. George McCartney, Daryl Murphy, Teemu Tainio, David Healy, Nyron Nosworthy and Marton Fulop are all believed to be available for transfer this summer while Bruce would sell Phil Bardsley or Anton Ferdinand if the price was right. "There's not much I'm certain about when it comes to the transfer market but one thing I do know is that, by the end of it, there will be more players going out than coming in," Bruce said. "It'll be nothing like last summer when we had stacks of players going out and stacks of players coming in. I can't ever envisage doing anything like that again in my time here at this club." Instead, Bruce intends to focus on recruiting a small number of high-quality players to the club with a view to building on their 13th-place finish in the Premier League next season. "We're in an area at the moment where we are going for quality rather than quantity, so you are looking at a handful of players, who won't come cheap, but will hopefully take us on to the next level," he said. "Part of the overall strategy, though, is to ensure that we don't carry surplus players who would have more chances elsewhere. "I don't want to go into detail, but there would be a significant saving in wages if we were able to move on a number of players who are free to find other clubs. "It's a very important part of the summer strategy for us, because that is money what we could spend elsewhere. "The owner has been very generous with his funding, but we can't expect him to keep putting his hand in his pocket." Sunderland's chairman, Niall Quinn, confirmed: "Steve has money to spend this summer, but obviously players who leave and therefore bring in transfer fees and reduce wage costs; that money will also go to the manager."