Middlesbrough chief: We will spend big in the summer market

He said: “The manager of Middlesbrough Football Club always has the support of the chairman, and that remains the case with Gareth.

“He has Steve Gibson’s 100% support. He shares our ambitions and he wants to bring in players who are professional and have the attitude and application.

“We need to be signing players who have their best years ahead of them and believe they can achieve their own ambitions here.

“One thing that has been highlighted this season is the inconsistency of performance, and people say, ‘that’s Middlesbrough’.

“There is this perception that we perform well against the big teams and do not perform so well against the lower teams.

“But it does not have to be that way. We have to bring out the best of our players on a regular basis because they have shown it is there.

“We have to bring in players that can perform week in, week out to the best of their ability.”