In 2008 Boro smash their own transfer record with the £12.7m signing of Afonso Alves in January, Marvin Emnes, Justin Hoyte and Didier Digard also arrived at a combined cost of £10.5m, taking the manager's gross spend to £23.2m.Has Gibson's Cash Dried Up ... Or Is He Having Second Thoughts?
In 2008 Boro smash their own transfer record with the £12.7m signing of Afonso Alves in January, Marvin Emnes, Justin Hoyte and Didier Digard also arrived at a combined cost of £10.5m, taking the manager's gross spend to £23.2m.But ... let's put it into perspective. It wasn't all one-way traffic.
Selling Jonathan Woodgate, Luke Young, George Boateng and Lee Cattermole, collectively brought in £17m, plus the departures of high-earners like Gaizka Mendieta, Mark Schwarzer and Fabio Rochemback on free transfers.
Southgate knows Gibson wants a return on his spending, and Boro's current mini-crisis (no win in six games) has come at a difficult time.
The transfer window opens in a matter of days, and we have to wonder if Gibson is set to build Boro's future around a manager who has just taken a mauling in the press from former skipper George Boaten.
Southgate: "For me the club should be run for the fans but we can't keep expecting the chairman to bail us out if we need money.
"For us as a club, that's one of the reasons we feel we need to reduce our debt, cut our cloth to a level of the support we get through the turnstiles.
"It should be run as a profitable business. Part of the job of any manager in any business is to make the most of the funds that he's got and that's how I view my position here.
"We want to play attractive football and the football coaching side is the side of the job I enjoy the most, but when you are in charge of a club you need to keep your finger on the pulse of the finances as well."