The 37-year-old entered the final week of the January transfer window still trying to land his own targets, but having to deal with constant speculation over some of his biggest names.

Southgate revealed Boro are yet to receive any bid for England winger Stewart Downing or international colleague Jonathan Woodgate.

However, having seen striker Ayegbeni Yakubu leave in an £11.25million switch to Everton as the summer window drew to a close with little time to invest the proceeds, Southgate admitted he would not sell his club short.

He said: "That does make things more complicated if you decide to take a bid for somebody and you don't have a replacement in mind.

"But we wouldn't let anybody go unless we thought we were suitably covered in that position or had somebody else coming in who we thought could replace the player that was going."