STEWART Downing will today stun Middlesbrough by handing in a written transfer request.

After a frantic weekend on Teesside chairman Steve Gibson and chief executive Keith Lamb both went on the offensive to warn off any clubs interested in capturing the leftwinger described by Gareth Southgate as ‘our best player’.

After Saturday’s 2-1 FA Cup third round victory over Barrow the Middlesbrough manager said that Downing ‘had genuine love for this club’.

But that does not look like being enough to see the England international remain at the Riverside.

Yesterday, Lamb dismissed a reported £6m Tottenham Hotspur bid for the player as ‘derisory’ And Gibson underlined Middlesbrough’s determination to retain their key players when he said: “I can confirm that we have received an offer from Spurs for Stewart Downing and I can also confirm that we have rejected that offer.

“I’ve spoken to Daniel Levy (the Tottenham chairman) and told him categorically that their interest is not welcome.

I’ve also told him that we will not entertain any further offers for Stewart or, for that matter, any other senior member of our squad.

“The same applies to Tuncay and it also applies to Gary O’Neil.”

Tuncay has been linked with Chelsea, while Portsmouth are keen to take O’Neil back to Fratton Park.

With the club unwilling to enter into talks with prospective buyers for Downing, the 24-year-old will take the matter into his own hands and the England winger from Pallister Park will submit a transfer request to the club he supported as a boy.

The revelation is a massive blow to Boro supporters and sets the winger on a collision course with Gibson. The chairman is adamant all the club’s top players will still be at the club when the transfer window closes on February 2.

“I repeat: none of our senior players will be leaving the Riverside Stadium this month.

“We’ve got a talented group of players and it’s time for us to knuckle down and focus on the job in hand.

“As far as we’re concerned, this is now an end to the matter,”

said the chairman, who now faces a situation similar to when the club reluctantly allowed Yakubu a move to Everton move after the player requested to leave the Riverside.

But with Boro’s valuation for Downing thought to be around £15m, Spurs will have to make a significantly improved bid if they are to secure the services of a player capped 21 times by England.

Downing signed a new fiveyear deal last February, but it is understood he has become increasingly unsettled in recent months and now believes that his future lies away from Teesside.

Downing played in Saturday’s victory and yet again he was Boro’s outstanding performer.

But it may prove to be one of the final times that fans will see the club’s highest-profile academy product in a Boro shirt.

After the match, Southgate again reiterated his desire to keep Downing ahead of his battle to avoid relegation.

“At the end of the day, we believe he’s our best player so we don’t feel that it would be wise for us to let him go and I don’t think it would look great for him.

“The club are in a difficult situation at this moment in time and everybody needs to be rallying for the cause.

“The situation is that I’m not under pressure to sell any player and the only way any player will leave is if everyone at every level of this football club believes it’s the right thing and will help us to climb up the table.

“We’re very much together on that,” he said. “I feel he has a genuine love for this club and he would want to see this club do well.

“So I’m hoping we can keep him with us past February 2, put January behind us and build together as a squad.

“But before then we’ve got two very important matches coming up.”