TONY MOWBRAY will not be leaving Middlesbrough and is attempting to conjure up a long-term plan to bring Premier League football back to the Riverside Stadium with chairman Steve Gibson.

A seventh loss from their last eight games on Saturday against Brighton has forced Mowbray to concede defeat in his attempts to lift Middlesbrough back in to the play-off places ahead of tonight's visit of Nottingham Forest.

The horrible run has seen them take a deflating eight points from the 51 available to them since the turn of the year and has left everyone at the club's Rockliffe Park training base baffled.

And with just four matches remaining, talks geared towards further restructuring have been held, with Mowbray, Gibson and chief executive Neil Bausor exploring different avenues and new ideas.

"I've had conversations with the chairman along the lines of how are we going to get a team together to compete and get out of this league? Hopefully we have found some solutions and will find more of those in the summer," said Mowbray.

"It will undoubtedly be about reductions because of Financial Fair Play. It will come down, so it will be more reductions and more reductions. That's why we have to find a way to do it.

"The bottom line is, it is a conundrum. How are we going to get a team to get out of the league with not spending any more money but actually cutting more money from the budget? How will we get better with a further reduction? That's the conundrum when you are losing money off the budget. Surely you would get worse. We have to find the answer, come up with a solution. That's the answer if we have any ambition."

Former Middlesbrough striker Alen Boksic spent the weekend on Teesside to discuss the potential for a tie-up with Croatian football, where he is the assistant manager of the national team.

And with links already in place to Juninho's Brazilian club Ituano, Middlesbrough are clearly looking at forging partnerships on the continent in the hope of attracting talented foreign players at affordable prices.

Given the eight-point gap to sixth spot, promotion has effectively been written off this month so a different approach is needed this summer when a £16m wage bill will have to be considerably reduced further.

And Mowbray, aware of an increase in criticism from certain sections of fans, is desperate to bring brighter times back to the club. He said: "It is important that it is recognised that such a situation is new for the club. We have to find a way of putting a team together which is good enough to get out of this league.

"How will we do it? How many more Grant Leadbitters are out there to get us out of this league? Will we be able to find players good enough to get us out of the league?

"If the answers are no, the pressure keeps mounting for next season. The fans will be grumbling, are we all happy? No. So what's the point. I will move on, the club brings Joe Bloggs in and everyone gets excited for a couple of games, but then reality hits because the players are the players. Over the course of a full season you need to have the quality to win the matches. Where will that quality come from?"

This is the worst run Mowbray has endured in a nine-year managerial career since taking over at Hibernian in May 2004. And, despite losing his job at Celtic when they were sitting second in March 2010, this has been the most frustrating spell he has had to deal with.

But whatever changes have to be done in the summer, he remains confident of turning things around.

"I have been a manager for nine/ten years and I have had relative success," said Mowbray. "I want to be out of this league, I want to be managing in the top half of this division and above. I have spent money in the past to do that elsewhere, but sold a team to do that too.

"We made money ourselves (at West Brom). We sold Diomansy Kamara to Fulham, Jason Koumas to Wigan and Curtis Davies to Aston Villa. Yet we bought Chris Brunt, James Morrison, Jonas Olsson, Youssuf Mulumbu and Graham Dorrans. And won the league basically. Reinvesting money is no problem."

Mowbray has examined everything to find a solution to Middlesbrough's malaise, appreciating that his team are closer to the relegation zone than the play-offs.

But, speaking ahead of tonight's game with top six contenders Forest, he has reiterated a desire to stick around and lead Middlesbrough out of the doldrums.

"I would like to think the people who support our football club understand," said Mowbray, who has a doubt over the fitness of Merouane Zemmama after he went over on his ankle against Brighton.

"There will be those out there who just say keep changing it, see how the new guy gets on and give somebody else a shot. Ultimately it depends on the decision makers at the club. Let's wait and see what the next four games bring, what the summer brings and whether we all feel it's worth pushing on. If not, we will make decisions when the time is right."