Bruce arrived on Wearside this week with the promise of financial backing from new owner Ellis Short if he can find the men he believes can drive the club forward.

Quinn has warned, however, that Short will not spend for spending's sake after seeing the club only just survive relegation from the Barclays Premier League last season despite investing almost £80million in new players during the previous two years.

But rather than targeting marquee signings, the Irishman is hoping Bruce can be as inventive as he was at former club Wigan, where he discovered the likes of Wilson Palacios, Maynor Figueroa and Amr Zaki and reaped the rewards.

Quinn said: "His experience does count for a lot in this appointment, there's no doubt about that.

"He has taken many a rough diamond and polished them up beautifully, and the clubs he has been with have benefited.

"We hope he can do that for us. The good thing he feels right now is he has been told, 'We trust you, your record has been very good on that. If the deal is smart and it's intelligent, we will do it'.

"But he also knows we have some very good players at the football club and he has given them a big thumbs-up because individually, we have some great players, there's no doubt about that.

"I think we will get the best of both worlds. He will gel what we have, we will see a different team spirit. I hope to see a togetherness next year, all the things a good Sunderland team needs.

"If we can get it right in the transfer market as well, then we have a real chance."

Although they have spent heavily in recent years, Sunderland, like the vast majority of their Premier League rivals, simply cannot compete with the super-rich clique currently engaged in the chase for Brazilian superstar Kaka.

But Quinn insists he is happy to be operating on a more modest, yet still very healthy, level.

He said: "I would never knock any other club, but you know something, I don't envy the clubs paying £75million for a player. In some ways it would make me feel very uncomfortable.

"But it's their business, they are able to do it, good luck to them.

"Where I grew up, there were people on our street who had three cars - nobody else had one.

"I didn't get jealous of them, I just couldn't wait for the day when we got our one - and then when we did, ours was newer than their three.

"That's just something in life. You just hope we will be clever enough to be able to compete with that."