FIND out what the chairman has to say on Yakubu, Mark Viduka, attendances and the chances of further activity before the transfer window closes.

Steve Gibson gave a revealing insight into the club when he spoke to BBC Tees commentator Paul Addison before the Newcastle game.

This is what he had to say.

On why it was decided to let Yakubu leave: "We got 18 very good months out of him. He switched off half way through last season, we've never really been able to understand why, but sometimes you've just got to move on and that's what we decided with Yakubu. It's just disappointing he made the decisions he did so early in this season and so late in the summer."

On how Mark Viduka was offered more than half of the club's annual gate income to stay with Boro: "It is a big loss but we have to be realistic. I've read comments in the paper that we left it late to start negotiating his contract. That's not true. We started speaking to Mark and his agent last Christmas.

"We made him what we thought was a very good offer. I was told from the onset by his agent that it was all about money, that Mark was for hire and he would go to the highest bidder.

"I found that in the space of a week that bidding had gone up by many millions and it got to a situation where I felt almost tainted by it, it was a really uncomfortable situation.



"I went on behalf of the football club and I spoke to Mark for many hours about it and I took it as far as I was comfortable, in fact I took it to the point where I was uncomfortable, and it was a relief to me when he actually said he was going to Newcastle because of the sums of money that were involved.

"The signings we make are so important to the financial stability of the club because the headline is always the transfer fee but a four or five-year deal with players today can be £15m in wages and maybe £10m in a fee, so your financial risk is £25m and the decisions have to precise, thought about and detailed.

"With Mark Viduka we took it for a player who's 32 next birthday, asking for a three-year contract, asking for a sum of money that would have been per year more than half of the gate income, for one player.

"We looked at the facts and in three years Mark averaged eight goals a season in the Premier League. He turned what I believe to have been a fantastic offer down and we move on."

On attendances and attitude towards the club: "I keep on saying that in the last ten years outside the top four we've been the most successful club in English football across all the competitions and for a club of our size to achieve I think is enormous. I think the majority of the fans understand that.

"But the football perhaps during a given time was not the most exciting but Gareth wants to change that around, he believes he's bringing players into the club who can do that.

"We're excited about it, there's a lot going on behind the scenes but we do need time and a little bit of patience but we believe we can get there.

"Four years ago the average crowd at the Riverside was 32,000 and since then we've won the Carling Cup, had two extraordinary campaigns in Europe and we've finished seventh in the Premier League but each year the season tickets and attendance has dropped.

"I sometimes think we have an air of pessimism around the place and we have to sometimes look at why that happens. It doesn't help when ex-players almost have an agenda to knock the club at every opportunity.

"This close season we've spent £19m on signings - everyone seems to take it that Jonathan Woodgate was just a given but we had to work tremendously hard on it. That's a big investment, £19m, for a club that gets gate income of about £7.5m a season."

On prospects for the season and the chances of further signings: "We need to be patient, it will take time for this team to settle down and perhaps we haven't finished just yet in the transfer market.

"We are developing, it will take time, we've got a lot of ambition at this football club, there's a lot of investment going on behind the scenes that we will get our return on in the long term, and I'm talking about things like the Academy.

"But if players are available that will improve the squad, this club has the ambition to go and get them if it's at all deliverable. I can't make any promises in the transfer market over the next week but we have some things which are bubbling away and we hope we can get a positive position on."

On his intention to keep Boro out of foreign ownership: "It is the town's football club and I remember many years ago when it was fashionable to take football clubs into plcs and I thought plcs are business, this isn't a business, it's a sport and that's the main thing. I really believe you improve the business side of your football club in order to improve the football club, not for the shareholders or the investors, it's a sport."