Yakubu stuns Boro with transfer request after being told - you're staying

Furious Boro chairman Steve Gibson blocked the Nigeria striker's attempt to secure a £10million move from Teesside and insisted he sees out the remaining three years of his contract.

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Staying put: Boro striker Yakubu

But Boro fear Yakubu, the club's top scorer for the last two seasons, will be unsettled by the events this week after a summer of intense speculation.

Everton chairman Bill Kenwright contacted Middlesbrough chief executive Keith Lamb earlier this week to table a £10m offer for Yakubu - as revealed in Sportsmail yesterday. Steve McClaren paid Portsmouth £7.5m for the striker two years ago.

With the clock ticking down to the start of the new Premier League campaign, Boro rejected that offer but were stunned that Yakubu, prompted by his advisers, demanded talks with manager Gareth Southgate the following day, claiming he was unhappy and wanted to leave.

That came less than a week after Southgate had a private meeting with Yakubu and sought assurances about the player's future. Yakubu said that he was content to stay.

A Boro source said: "It was almost laughable. Yakubu was happy one minute and then claiming he was unsettled and wanted to leave the next. He has been told in no uncertain terms that he is not for sale and he is not leaving.

"There is a risk he could sulk and be unsettled by all this but that's a risk they're going to have to take at this point of the summer."

Everton, Manchester City, West Ham and Portsmouth have enquired about Yakubu's availability this summer but, after losing Mark Viduka on a free transfer to Newcastle in May, Boro have been reluctant to sell and no club has indicated a willingness to match their £10m valuation until this week.

Southgate has considered signing a replacement for Yakubu should he did leave, having already added Arsenal striker Jeremie Aliadiere and Turkey's Tuncay Sanli in the close season.

But Boro would miss Yakubu, whose Premier League goal tally for the last four seasons is second only to Thierry Henry. Middlesbrough boss Southgate has contemplated a move for Tottenham striker Mido and Manchester City's Georgios Samaras but that was earlier in the summer.

Everton, meanwhile, will have to dig deep to land Benfica midfielder Manuel Fernandes after the Portuguese club insisted they wanted to keep the 21-year-old.

Fernandes, who is also interesting Manchester City, has a £12m buy-out clause in his contract and spent the second half of last season on loan at Goodison Park, where problems with his third-party ownership scuppered any thoughts of making the deal permanent in light of West Ham's problems with Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano.

But Everton boss David Moyes will try again to reach an agreement, having failed to prise Argentina's Lucho Gonzalez from Porto. Benfica own 50 per cent of the player and Fernandes said: "I am happy at Benfica and now I am only thinking about a good season ahead."

Moyes has had a £10m bid for Gonzalez - another player who was only half-owned by his club - turned down by Porto, who ended debate about the midfielder's future by buying up the other 50 per cent of the player last night from his third-party owners.