Sunderland transfer news: Tony Mowbray's key insight into summer plans - and why shock promotion would be relished

Mowbray has only a limited role in recruitment but has been part of planning meetings over recent weeks, and says the club have a good idea of their next steps when the season ends.

"Kristjaan will know better than me, because while I sit in some of those meetings, I don't sit in all of them," Mowbray said.

"Have we got loads of players [lined up] who'll cost £10 million and we'll go and sign eight of them [if we're promoted]? I'm not sure.

'We have got a lot of talented, young players from around the world that we think could help this young team in the Championship keep developing and keep growing.

"If we did win four games, it would change the dynamic of the summer I think.

"I would suggest Kristjaan has to dare to dream [and so plan for the Premier League], and for me as a head coach I just have to try and focus on winning the next game."

Sunderland remain firm outsiders for promotion with their fate no longer in their own hands ahead of their trip to Preston, but Mowbray has rejected the idea that it would be too soon in the club's rebuild to up to the top tier.

While there is no pressure to achieve promotion, the head coach has outlined why it would be a major bonus: "I think from my point of view, as a team we're just trying to win the next game and if we do that, the consequences of that are what they are.

"I think there are plenty of clubs who have got promoted, had to do surgery on the team and have maybe even gone down, but have been so much stronger to go back up again.

"At West Brom we bought some really good players [after promotion], Chris Brunt and James Morrison were there for a long time, it became the foundation of that club being in the Premier League for a lot of years. I chose to go to Celtic which was an emotional decision for me, but the club bounced back because it had gone through that up and down, and had bought some players who then had the experience of that year in the Premier League. That stood them in really good stead, they got promoted again and then stayed there for a long time.

"The question now is whether any club in the modern-day game has the patience to potentially suffer a relegation but stick with it - knowing that the team will benefit and that with the quality of players that you've managed to invest in with that Premier League money, you're going to do well in the Championship.

"You then have that experience of what it's going to be like to go to Old Trafford, to go to Anfield... and what you have to do. "Sometimes you have to go through that experience of how you do it. It would be a great challenge, but the answer is that no one at the club would turn down a shot at promotion, no."