TONY Mowbray admits he will have to release players he would rather keep in order to rebuild his Middlesbrough squad for another Championship promotion push.

While Boro could theoretically still scrape into the play-off places, a four-point deficit with two games to go means they are almost certain to remain in English football's second tier next season.

That will lead to further budgetary restraints, and Mowbray's first decision at the end of the season will revolve around the future of the clutch of players who are due to become free agents this summer.

Barry Robson has already confirmed he will be leaving to join Vancouver Whitecaps, while Adam Hammill will return to Wolves when his loan expires.

Matthew Bates, Justin Hoyte, Tony McMahon, Malaury Martin, Bart Ogbeche, Danny Coyne, Jonathan Franks and Jonathan Grounds are all entering the final two months of their contract, and at this stage, it looks as though none will be offered a new deal.

That should create some much-needed leeway in the budget, but it will also rob Boro of some of their most influential performers.

"We've already made most of the decisions in our mind," said Mowbray. "I've talked about the financial situation quite a lot recently, and that obviously dictates what can be offered and what can be done.

"We need to find some money to change the squad around a bit, so there might be a scenario whereby certain players that are more than capable of helping our squad do not get re-engaged.

"That might happen because we need their salary to be able to bring a different type of ingredient into the squad. We've probably lacked a creative ingredient this year, and that's meant we haven't been able to score enough goals.

"We need to add a different ingredient, but where do you find the money to do that? If it's not going to be added on to the budget, you have to find it from somewhere within."

Middlesbrough's budget is currently understood to be the third-highest in the Championship, but a small number of players account for a disproportionately high percentage of the total outlay.

Scott McDonald, Kevin Thomson and Stephen McManus, all of whom were signed by Mowbray's predecessor, Gordon Strachan, are believed to be three of the highest-paid players in the Championship, and it will be difficult to move any of the trio out of the Riverside this summer.

As a result, there is no chance of Boro breaking even unless promotion is achieved, and chairman Steve Gibson will have to continue to take up the slack.

The latest set of accounts released in March revealed that Boro's parent company, Gibson O'Neill, refinanced £27.8m of external debt by replacing it with internal debt.

At the time, the annual loss was running at £14m, meaning Gibson is effectively subsidising more than £1m-a-month in order to keep the club afloat.

"I don't think anyone should question what the chairman has done over the last few years," said Mowbray. "He has invested in the football team heavily over that period.

"There comes a time where you need to balance the books because, at this moment, he is heavily out of pocket every month. Heavily."We're trying to balance things up a bit more and that process will continue. Things have improved on the financial side, but there's still a need to do more."

However, Mowbray remains confident Gibson will continue to support his efforts despite what looks like being a disappointing end to the campaign.

"I speak to the chairman most days," he said. "He's always up for a fight and a challenge. He doesn't see any negatives, he only sees progress being made at the moment.

"He knows there's no quick fixes. We all hoped we could fix things via promotion, but if that doesn't happen, we have to work our way through it."

The more immediate challenge is to select a side to face Southampton tomorrow. Provided Blackpool and Cardiff do not both win, Boro will still have a chance of promotion when they kick off at 5.20pm. Even if results have gone against his side, however, Mowbray does not feel this is the time to be blooding a host of youngsters.

"We still have something to fight for, and other clubs in the promotion fight will expect us to give this our very best shot," he said. "I don't think it's a day to be throwing younger players in.

"If results don't go our way and we have one game left, maybe we'll look at that sort of scenario against Watford when we might have nothing really to play for.

"But at this moment, our focus is on trying to beat Southampton. I'm sure West Ham would expect no less, and we need to try to find a performance for our own supporters."