Source: SKY_Sports
Gibson - Decision before weekend
Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson has confirmed that he is likely to have appointed the club's next manager by the weekend.
Gibson fired Gareth Southgate on Tuesday and is now on the look-out for his first new manager in three years.
But Gibson admits he has already made approaches for Southgate's replacement.
"Once the decision was made, about replacing Gareth, we needed to build a strategy," said Gibson.
"The first step in that strategy was to remove Gareth - I had made enquiries before I did that.
"We are well on with it.
"I don't expect us to have someone before Preston but I do expect us to announce it before this weekend."
Gibson has moved to assure fans that his main aim is to get Middlesbrough back into the top-flight.
"Our passion hasn't gone and our ambition hasn't gone," said Gibson, who confirmed that he decided to axe Southgate three weeks ago.
"With the right appointment we have a great chance of getting promotion in the top-two. I see it as a five-four club race maximum.
"At the beginning of the season I made it clear, we had to get promotion. In football terms it wasn't a tough decision.
"The league table flatters the performances."
Gibson also intimated that he was not going to go down the lines of appointing an inexperienced manager, like his previous appointments of Bryan Robson, Steve McClaren and Southgate.
"I wouldn't rule it out, but that is unlikely to be the path I go down," he added.
LMA
Meanwhile, the League Managers' Association's chief executive Richard Bevan has criticised Gibson's decision.
"We are very disappointed for Gareth," he said.
"Middlesbrough are only one point off an automatic promotion place and I believe it is a mistake.
"It's a demonstration of the pressures now at the top and the bottom of the table showing on administrators.
"Gareth is a manager learning his trade and Arsene Wenger has said of him that he could be manager of England one day."
