Sunderland chairman Bob Murray has furiously denied claims by manager Mick McCarthy that the club had planned for relegation from the Barclays Premiership.
Murray was responding to comments from McCarthy who implied last week the club's summer transfer activity was executed mindful of what shape they would be in should they make an immediate return to the Coca-Cola Championship.
Murray, however, insists the club had returned to the top flight with no thoughts other than staying up.
He told the Sunderland Echo: "I was very angry to read the comments at the weekend which are blatantly untrue and insulting.
"We did not go up into the Premiership just to make up the numbers or with a plan to come back down - that is just a ludicrous suggestion.
"We did expect it to be a difficult and hard first season back, as Wigan and West Ham did, but we did not expect us to be in the position we are today - and none of us are happy about that."
McCarthy had said: "There was a view taken in the summer that, of course we wanted to stay up and do well, but if we didn't then the group of players here will stay here and be a force to be reckoned with in the Championship...
"We have lacked experience this season but if we had gone out and got experienced players on big salaries, we might have had a real problem if we had gone down.
"If it turns out that we're not good enough and we go down, this team stays together unless any decide they don't want to."
The Wearsiders lie 16 points from safety at the foot of the table with 14 games to play and are nine points adrift of second-bottom Portsmouth with relegation looking all but guaranteed.
