Boro in good financial state - Lamb

Middlesbrough have accepted some of their top names may leave the club this summer but insist there is no necessity to sell.

Boro will play in the Coca-Cola Championship next season after their 11-year stay in the Barclays Premier League ended in relegation last month. A number of players have already been linked with moves elsewhere while the club are preparing for a huge drop in revenue.

But chief executive Keith Lamb insisted: "The club remains in a good financial state and it is our aim to bounce back at the first attempt."

He added: "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."

Turkey striker Tuncay Sanli, winger Stewart Downing - despite injury - goalkeeper Ross Turnbull and utility man Matthew Bates are among the players apparently in demand.

Yet Lamb does not anticipate any business until towards the end of the month and will not comment on particular individuals.

"It is too early to say who will be leaving and who will be staying," he said.

"It is that time of the season when if I look in a newspaper everyone is for sale, everyone is being tapped up. The only time we will comment on individuals is when we have a deal to announce and someone leaves."