Middlesbrough chief executive Keith Lamb is adamant the club is on a sound financial footing and they will not be forced into selling their key players this summer. "The club remains in a good financial state and it is our aim to bounce back at the first attempt," he said.

"We know that not only will we survive relegation, we are in a good position to give it a really good go at getting back again.

"Those that want to leave - and can find a club that can satisfy our demands - may well leave, that's football.

"But by that I mean that (manager) Gareth Southgate is prepared to release them from his squad and we get reasonable compensation."

Despite expecting the club's income to dip by up to £30million as a result of relegation, Lamb has slammed suggestions Boro were happy to go down in order to gain better control of their finances.

He added: "We certainly didn't plan for relegation - we planned to remain in the Premier League, so obviously we are disappointed we were relegated.

"I think the economy of the country has been in most pages of the media in the last couple of months, so inevitably when you look at football clubs, they also will be seen to be part of the economic downturn.

"Add to that our poor performance on the field and it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together and say you are in trouble.

"But we will not go into freefall as a number of other clubs have over the last few years."