Source: SKY_Sports
Lamb - Boro finances stable
Middlesbrough insist they will not be forced into selling their key players in the summer transfer window.
The club accept that a number of top names will be leaving The Riverside following their relegation to the Championship.
Chief executive Keith Lamb, though, is adamant that it is not a necessity to sell and that the club's finances are stable.
After seeing their stay in the Premier League come to an end, Lamb says the focus is now to return to the top flight at the first time of asking with as many of their current string as possible.
Stable
"The club remains in a good financial state and it is our aim to bounce back at the first attempt," he said.
"We know that not only will we survive relegation, we are in a good position to give it a really good go at getting back again.
"Those that want to leave - and can find a club that can satisfy our demands - may well leave, that's football.
"But by that I mean that (manager) Gareth Southgate is prepared to release them from his squad and we get reasonable compensation."
Key players such as Tuncay Sanli, Ross Turnbull and Stewart Downing are all linked with moves away from the club.
Despite admitting that Downing has been given permission to leave, Lamb insists no business will be done until the end of the month.
"It is too early to be saying who will be leaving and who will be staying," he said.
"It is that time of the season when if I look in a newspaper everyone is for sale, everyone is being tapped up."
Disappointed
Despite expecting the club's income to dip by up to £30million as a result of relegation, Lamb has slammed suggestions Boro were happy to go down in order to gain better control of their finances.
He added: "We certainly didn't plan for relegation - we planned to remain in the Premier League, so obviously we are disappointed we were relegated.
"I think the economy of the country has been in most pages of the media in the last couple of months, so inevitably when you look at football clubs, they also will be seen to be part of the economic downturn.
"Add to that our poor performance on the field and it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together and say you are in trouble.
"But we will not go into freefall as a number of other clubs have over the last few years."
