Middlesbrough facing familiar sounding pr

GARETH SOUTHGATE today assured fans he plans to recruit a quality a replacement quickly if Luke Young completes his proposed move to Aston Villa.

Right-back Young is in the Midlands discussing terms after Boro accepted an offer the manager said was simply too good to refuse.

"We've had some enquiries from Villa over the last few days and they've come up with an offer which we think is acceptable to us," he said.

"Sometimes an offer can be one that makes it very difficult to turn down.

"Nothing has gone through yet so I don't want to talk too prematurely about anything but Luke's down there having talks and I would imagine undergoing a medical and we wait to see what happens from there.

"Until everything's sorted out I don't want to talk about Luke in the past tense as he's still our player at this moment in time time.

"But it's important that if he does move on, we're able to replace him very quickly."

Young, 29, was one of Boro's most consistent performers last season after joining the club in a �2.5m summer move from relegated Charlton Athletic.

The news has come somewhat out of the blue for Boro fans with the start of the season eight days away from the seasonal curtain raiser against Spurs but Southgate - pictured above on the day Young joined Boro - remains typically unflustered.

"I'm very relaxed about it," he said. "I know that come next Saturday we'll have a strong team and a strong squad.

"You learn very quickly as a manager that you have to deal with these events calmly and quickly.

"It would be easy for people to get jittery at this time and to panic. But I'm very pleased with where we're at.

"This is an unexpected event but you have to deal with those events during a season and how we react is the most important thing."