Sunderland's players are relaxed ahead of the new season despite boss Sam Allardyce's departure, insists keeper Vito Mannone.

David Moyes was announced as the newly appointed England boss' replacement on Saturday and is the Black Cats fourth manager in less than three years.

"[Changing manager] is just a football thing that can happen at any time," Mannone told BBC Newcastle.

"It's happened a few times. We're used to it and know what we need to do."

The 28-year old continued: "It's a new start again. We want to be optimistic and be positive.

"This time around we've got a solid base. We did very very well in the last two or three months of last season," the Italian stopper added.

"It's down to us really. The technical staff are doing a great pre-season for us, we've got great fans. and everything is fantastic to push on."

"We will listen to [Moyes'] ideas and hopefully it will work out even better," he added.

"From what I've heard he is a hard worker. That's all we need to know. For me the best way is the hard work, without that you can't do anything.

"That's how we managed to do the great results at the end of the year."