Having seen Mark Viduka follow Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink out of the Riverside Stadium in the summer, the 36-year-old is now preparing himself for the exit of Ayegbeni Yakubu.

The 24-year-old Nigeria international headed for Everton last night after the Teessiders accepted an $28million bid from the Toffees and gave them permission to speak to the player.

It would be a major surprise if David Moyes did not now complete a deal which has been under discussion for some time, ending Yakubu's two-year stay at Boro.

Southgate's club would make a healthy profit on a player for whom they paid Portsmouth $18million, but it leaves them needing to establish an entirely new forward line.

Since the former England defender succeeded McClaren last summer, he has allowed Hasselbaink, Massimo Maccarone, Malcolm Christie and Danny Graham to leave, and seen Mark Viduka reject the offer of a new contract to join derby rivals Newcastle.

However, he has been far from inactive in recruiting replacements with Dong-Gook Lee, Jeremie Aliadiere, Tuncay Sanli and Mido all arriving in their wake, and it would be no surprise if he was handed a sizeable chunk of Yakubu's fee to replace him should the deal, as expected, go through.

But the fact remains that in the Nigerian, Hasselbaink and Viduka, he would have lost the three men who have scored the bulk of the club's goals over the last three seasons, and that will pile the pressure on the men who now have to take up the baton.

Everton's breakthrough was confirmed by Boro yesterday afternoon.

A club spokesman said: "We can confirm we have agreed a fee for the sale of Yakubu and he has been given permission to talk to Everton.

"We will only confirm the fee once any deal is complete."

The Toffees later revealed the size of their club-record offer in a statement on their official website, www.evertonfc.com.

It said: "Everton can confirm that they have agreed a club record transfer fee of £11.25million with Middlesbrough for the transfer of Yakubu.

"The Nigerian international centre-forward is now travelling to Merseyside for talks with the Toffees."

Yakubu scored 35 goals in 103 appearances for the Teessiders, although his critics will point to the fact that a significant proportion were from the penalty spot, and that his contribution tailed off in the latter months of each of his two seasons in the north-east.

He returned to training with his Boro team-mates yesterday after missing the 2-1 win at Fulham on Saturday and going AWOL earlier in the week, although he may now have worked with them for the last time.