The Boro manager says the north-east club should continue to develop their own players even if they are relegated from the Barclays Premier League.

Middlesbrough go into Saturday's home match with Aston Villa three points adrift of safety with just two fixtures remaining.

Many supporters blame their troubles on the decision to sell several experienced players.

George Boateng, Luke Young and keeper Mark Schwarzer departed last summer, following Jonathan Woodgate, Ayegbeni Yakubu and Mark Viduka out of the Boro door, but Southgate insists he had little option.

The Middlesbrough manager said: "It's too easy to say that experience might have made a difference. The experience we had either wanted to move on or we had to sell.

"Successful teams do have experienced players but the bigger picture is why we had to take those decisions - and the people who have moved on have had mixed seasons.

"The crucial thing is who you are able to bring in."

wealthy owners

Southgate said the only way for Boro to compete with the increasing number of wealthy owners in the Barclays Premier League is for the club to continue to produce their own young talent.

"In an ideal world you would bring your young players through the ranks and financially for clubs like ourselves that is the future because it is impossible to compete with the billionaires coming into the league," said Southgate.

"If you get 20 billionaires, three are still going to get relegated, so there has to be a sense of how you build a football club for its long-term survival.

"We will continue to invest in the academy and what we have to do is ensure the quality of player coming through is good enough to play at the highest level."

Southgate said that would not change even if Boro are relegated - and they need to claim at least four points from their remaining matches and rely on their rivals slipping up to have any hope.

He added: "There are no thoughts in my mind of doing anything different next season but of course I have learned lessons.

"I think you would be mad if you were in this position and had not learned lessons but the benefit of hindsight is something we have every Monday morning after a fixture."