He said: “I’ve said I would like to see Woody stay many times. Woody is important for us and for a lot of players.
“He could be a hero but obviously he has a personal desire and everybody wants to play for big teams and win something.
“Whatever he decides we have to respect that. But what we can do is try and achieve as much as we can while he is here.
“To show him that maybe we might not be able to win the league but in terms of playing UEFA Cup games and qualifying for cup finals we are capable of that.
“If we can get to a final this year it will be a tremendous boost because we will have managed to play three cup finals in four years and that’s not a bad record for a club like Middlesbrough.”
