Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate will not allow any player to leave his club unless he has already found a replacement.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 insisted Boro are yet to receive any bid for England winger Stewart Downing or international colleague Jonathan Woodgate with Tottenham and Newcastle respectively understood to be considering formal approaches.

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 really, 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."

In fact, Southgate does not intend - and indeed, does not have to - sell any of his current squad, and is concentrating solely on the task of finding new recruits.

However, he knows a substantial bid for either man could prompt the club to consider the situation.

In the meantime, he will prepare his players for Saturday's FA Cup fourth-round trip to League Two strugglers Mansfield intent only on the task of ensuring their passage.

Woodgate remains a doubt with a shin injury, but Downing should be available as the debate over his future rumbles on.

Southgate is aware of how the speculation can affect a player, and while he has not had to intervene in recent days, he has reassured the winger in the recent past of the regard in which he is held by his home-town club.

He said: "I talk to all of the players all the time, so there have been no different conversations.

"I have spoken to Stewart over the last fortnight or so because that has been rumbling on in the background for quite a while, so I think it's important I re-iterated to him my feelings on it. But no, I haven't felt the need to do anything else.

"These things, if you allow them to, can unsettle anybody - that's why it is important to deal in fact and not perception.

"A few weeks ago, we were talking about the run of form we were having and there was too much negativity in the club, I felt.

"We had to put the facts of where we were and what needed to be done on the table, and we have started to make steady progress.

"That, as a player, is all you can focus on, your performances on the field, and the rest of the club has to deal with the other situations."

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