Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate is looking for hungry players as he attempts to guide the club back to the Barclays Premier League at the first attempt.
The former England defender is ready to launch his summer recruitment drive knowing he is likely to lose Turkey international Tuncay Sanli and with Stewart Downing almost certain to follow him out of the club once he has recovered from foot surgery.
Boro have already been linked with hugely experienced Manchester United duo Gary Neville and Paul Scholes, although their rebuilding programme is yet to get off the ground in earnest.
However, Southgate knows exactly what he is looking for as he tries to put together a team which can cope with the very different challenge of life in the Coca-Cola Championship.
He told the Evening Gazette: "We are focused on what we are looking for. The key element is we bring in the right kind of character. Of course we want to bring in good players but they have to have a hunger for the challenge of helping to mount a promotion bid.
"If they have experience of the league we are going into then this will obviously help. But that doesn't mean we are ruling out signing Premier League players."
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some one said sir alec was after alves but sir alec said on he'll still take his car to the carwash himself
He should've gone for neville and scholes last season, would've probably saved them from the drop; no way will they drop to the Championship - besides, their wages will be massive.
I cannot believe southgate still has his job - loyalty is one thing, crass stupidity is another!
The fixtures are out next week; that's when the reality of relegation will really kick in for us all - esp us at SJP, we can't even arrange a pre-season friendly!
Gibbo is an plonker for having faith in Southgate.
We are doomed to spend the next few years fighting off relegation into lower depths.
Forget about trying to get back into the P/L.
good luck southgate i dont think the likes of gary neville and paul scholes want to play for a championship side. but why not opt for some more players who arent too old that theyl collapse on the pitch LOL. but i cant get my head around the fact that southgate claims he knows what he is looking for!
Southgate knows exactly what he is looking for? It's a joke.
I find this whole issue difficult to stomach. Wasn't last seasons objective to recruit to stay in the premiership and was not the way to do it with people like Gary Neville and Paul Scholes to bring on the youngsters? Are we sure and is Steve Gibson sure that Southgate really does know what he is looking for. Because he failed miserably to find it last season. Are we all sure that if he has it, that he knows what to do with it, because last season he had all that he said was needed and look what happened!
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