Middlesbrough struck gold with £6.5m Aston Villa transfer after £10m valuation fell | OneFootball

Middlesbrough struck gold by signing Gareth Southgate from Aston Villa in 2001 for £6.5m.

Middlesbrough hit the jackpot by signing defender Gareth Southgate from Aston Villa for £6.5m in 2001, after his valuation dropped from £10m.

Many know Southgate as the cool-headed figure who guided England to back-to-back European Championship finals, with his post-playing career making him an icon of English football.

However, there was a time when the ex-Three Lions boss was one of the most sought-after defenders in the Premier League, as he was part of a formidable Aston Villa defence between 1995 and 2001.

This saw plenty of interest from other Premier League sides, but with the Villains holding firm on their £10m valuation, it seemed like the centre-back would remain with the Midlands-based club.

That was until a drop in his valuation the following year allowed Middlesbrough to swoop in and pick Southgate up for just £6.5m, which turned out to be an excellent piece of business for the Teesside club.

Gareth Southgate's memorable Middlesbrough exploits

After spending much of his career with Crystal Palace and Aston Villa, Southgate decided in 2000 to hand in a transfer request at Villa Park, citing a desire to "achieve" in his career, and calling it "the right time to move on".

However, due to his steep £10m asking price in the summer of 2000, there were no takers, which forced the then-29-year-old to remain with Aston Villa through the 2000-01 season, with a team he believed were nowhere near the top flight's elite clubs.

Come the following summer, Villa's steep valuation had dropped to just £6.5m, which saw Middlesbrough swoop in to reunite Southgate with his former England coach Steve McClaren.

The defender penned a four-year deal at the club, and would go on to be a key part in the heart of their defence over the next five years, eventually racking up just over 200 appearances for Middlesbrough in all competitions.

Southgate was appointed captain in his second season at the club, and became the first, and currently only, Boro skipper to lift major silverware in the club's history when they won the League Cup in 2004.

Having pledged his allegiance to Boro after a rumoured move to Manchester United in 2004, Southgate continued his career in Teesside until 2006, with his final appearance for the club coming in a 4-0 defeat in the UEFA Cup Final to Sevilla.

Boro's playing the patient game and waiting for Southgate's asking price to drop was a stroke of genius by McClaren, who set the club up with an incredible figurehead and defensive stalwart for years to come.

The 57-time-capped England international brought home the first, and only, piece of major silverware in the club's history with the League Cup win in 2004, and would play a key role in some of Boro's most successful years in their history.

He also went on to spend three years in the dugout, and gave the club some stability in the immediate wake of the departure of McClaren, before it sadly ended in relegation to the Championship, and his subsequent sacking in October 2009.

It's fair to say that the Teesside-based outfit hit the jackpot by swooping for Southgate on a cut-price deal, and their patience paid off hugely, as he and McClaren went on to form an excellent leadership duo through some of the most memorable and successful times in the club's history.