For the second successive campaign, the Teessiders confirmed their top-flight status on the penultimate weekend when they defeated Portsmouth 2-0 at the Riverside Stadium last Saturday.

However, even victory over Manchester City tomorrow could see them finish in 13th place at best, and that is way short of the manager's long-term ambitions for the club.

However, while acknowledging that the gap between the big four and the rest of the division is sizeable, he is happy to embrace the challenge of trying to close it.

Southgate said: "At the moment, there is a bit of a split between mini-leagues within the league, but your aim as a club and as a manager is to try to bridge that gap.

"I refuse to accept that we have to be in the sort of area we are in the table now forever.

"You have to strive to compete with the very best. Of course, the top teams, because the continually qualify for the Champions League, continue to have more funds, and that can make them stronger.

"But we have to be clever in the way that we recruit. It is about getting the right people at your club.

"Sometimes in the modern world, that means paying the highest money - but not always, and that's the challenge for us."

Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan sparked a major debate earlier this week with his comments about the dominance of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, and while Southgate admits they are in a league of their own, he insists that is not set in stone.

He said: "Everything goes in cycles - nobody would have felt a few years ago that Chelsea would be in that group of teams, and teams can just as easily drop out of it if things aren't done properly.

"That always has to remain your goal. Those top teams have been in there for decades, not just for the last few years in the Premier League."

Southgate will hope to end the current campaign on a high tomorrow, when he will come up against former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson in what could be his final game in charge of City.

Asked about continuing speculation that the Swede could lose his job at the end of the season, he said: "Everybody in football is surprised at it.

"From the outside, he appears to have done an excellent job in his first season there.

"The situation with all football clubs, though, is that every club has a chairman and an owner and they have the decision on what goes on.

"I am very fortunate here that I have got the full backing of somebody who is looking longer-term, but other people will have different visions.

"But I don't think anybody would question the job that Sven has done this season."