TONY Mowbray is confident Steve Gibson will provide the funds for some January strengthening if Middlesbrough are still involved in the promotion hunt come the turn of the year.

In the summer transfer window, Mowbray was charged with the task of reducing his club's wage bill, a challenge that was achieved thanks to the departure of the likes of Kris Boyd, Leroy Lita, Didier Digard and Andrew Taylor.

In their place, the Middlesbrough manager has been forced to recruit a selection of free transfers and loan players, and while his squad has proved good enough to carve out a position in the top three in the table, a lack of depth is evident in key positions such as centre-forward.

Addressing that in January could be the difference between winning promotion to the Premier League and faltering in the final stages of the campaign, and having already held tentative discussions with Gibson, Mowbray is confident his chairman will provide financial support provided his side hold their position in the next two months.

"I've discussed it with the chairman and I'm sure we'll be talking again," said the Boro boss. "The chairman has been hugely ambitious in the last few years, to the point where we were favourites to get out of this division a few years ago on the back of spending some money.

"For whatever reason, it didn't work out, but I would like to think that, come January, the chairman will be hugely ambitious again.

"If he sees an opportunity for promotion, I think he would listen to where I think we need to strengthen and try to help.

"The higher up the league we are, the easier those chats will probably be. I think the chairman can see the positive signs, and can also see where I think we are still a little bit short in terms of competition for places.

"You can always take a free transfer, as we have this week, to help make the numbers up. But somewhere along the line, if you have a bigger ambition, spending a couple of million pounds on a player who is more guaranteed to produce the goods is perhaps something we can discuss."

That player is likely to be a striker, with Alex Nimely due to return to Manchester City before the end of the year.

However, as well as attempting to recruit a new player, Mowbray will also spend January attempting to hold on to the prize assets that are already attracting attention from elsewhere.

Rhys Williams, Matthew Bates and Marvin Emnes were all the subject of interest from Premier League clubs in the summer, and the trio have been in excellent form in the opening two-and-a-half months of the current campaign.

Bolton boss Owen Coyle is a long-term admirer of Williams, while Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers is expected to make a renewed approach for both Bates and Emnes, having previously inquired about the duo in August.

Mowbray accepts there is likely to be interest in the key members of his squad, but just as he expects Gibson to make funds available if promotion is a realistic prospect, so he also anticipates his chairman rebuffing outside offers provided his side are ensconced in the upper reaches of the table.

"If we are first or second in the league come January, unless someone wants to offer ridiculous money for one of our players, I'm sure we would see the value of keeping them, even to the point of potentially losing them for nothing in the summer," he said.

"There would be a value of sticking with it to the end of the season to see where we are because, if we were to get back to the Premier League, financially we could probably keep them happy."

Bates, who will return from injury in tomorrow's game at Southampton, is in the most delicate situation as his current contract is due to expire in the summer. The January window therefore represents the final opportunity to prevent him being able to leave for nothing.

Financially, it would make short-term sense to cash in on the skipper if a bid was to be placed on the table, but while Mowbray admits he is not yet in a position to be able to offer a new deal, he is confident promotion would result in Bates remaining at the Riverside.

"Matthew knows our financial situation, and he also knows unequivocally that I would want him to stay and continue to play in our team," he said. "He's in a scenario where his contract is running down, but where we're not sitting here with a barrel load of cash to be able to say, ‘There Matt, sign a new three-year deal'.

"It is what it is, but if Matthew plays for us and we get to the Premier League, I'm sure we'll be able to keep him happy. He's a local lad and I don't he think has any massive desire to leave the area. It's a case of wait and see, but Matthew knows our situation and I know where he is too."