Source: SKY_Sports
Southgate finalises plans
Gareth Southgate has revealed that he has spoken with the players he wants to keep at the club and those who he has decided to let go.
The Middlesbrough boss has acted swiftly following the club's relegation to the Championship and has handed the list to chairman Steve Gibson.
Southgate warned that he would be making significant changes to the playing staff at the Riverside during the close-season, with up to seven players almost certain to be heading for the exit.
Afonso Alves, Tuncay, Robert Huth, Gary O'Neill, Stewart Downing, Adam Johnson and Matthew Bates are all said to be considering their options but Southgate remains confident of assembling a squad capable of gaining promotion at the first time of asking.
"We have to make significant changes as a club," he told the Gazette.
Different challenge
"We are facing a completely different kind of challenge in the Championship. It's always been a very competitive division and it will no different next season.
"But when you look at a lot of clubs, they are based in towns which are a lot similar in size to ours.
"So we have to go there without fear and determined to bounce back at the first attempt.
"If we are going to do that we have to put together a squad which is better than the one we finished last season with."
