The Black Cats last week opened negotiations with manager Roy Keane over a new contract - he is currently in the last year of his existing deal - but only after making sure they had a long-term plan to put in front of him.

Quinn said: "I have always got to be one step ahead. One of the things I realised the day I came here - and I had to learn very fast - was it's not about what is happening today, it is about what is happening six months down the line.

"I spent the first couple of years trying to be six months ahead.

"How this new influx of money throughout the Premier League has changed my approach is that it is now more than the next six months, it has got to be six months, 12 months, 18 months.

"I have got to look at the next three or four (transfer) windows, and you have got to have stability around the place.

"I think we have that. From where we came from two and a half years ago, that stability has more than crept in, you can almost touch it around here now. We have a strong base.

"But it could end very quickly with the money that's flying around the place and people jumping up and down about large sums of money being paid.

"We just have to play a slick game and the difference now is we are ready for the next two years."

Quinn and the Drumaville consortium he leads have funded a major regeneration of the club in the last two years, and have big plans for the future.

However, the chairman, who both played for and briefly managed Sunderland, knows their dreams will only be fulfilled if they take the fans along with them.

He said: "You asked yourself a question: one trophy since the war - why are we getting 49,000 at matches?

"That is enough to kill off any football club, one trophy in that amount of time.

"There is something deeper here at this club, and I have no idea how far it is going to go. The potential is frightening.

"We had a change in the shareholding there recently and people might have expected us to do a big PR song and dance about it - that wasn't the case.

"We just sent the message out that the machine has got plenty of oil in it and we are kicking it on, and the big thing is on the pitch.

"The only thing we can ask in return is that the people come and watch us and continue that great affinity and make it even bigger and better."

Quinn's comments came as he joined forces with Gina Carter, the widow of former Sunderland keeper Tim Carter, at the launch of an appeal to raise £1.2million to build a hydrotherapy pool at the Percy Hedley School in Newcastle.

:: Donations can be made online at www.percyhedley.org.uk/timcarter, or by texting the word "Percy" to 82540 to donate £1 or "Hedley" to donate £5.