MICHAEL Carrick says he knows what he wants his Middlesbrough squad to look like come the start of the Championship season as the club continue their transfer push to make more signings.

Boro got six new faces through the door in a week, with five of those players featuring in Saturday's 0-0 pre-season draw at York City, but the Championship promotion hopefuls want to further strengthen their squad in the coming weeks.

Boro are understood to be in the market for a left-back, with Ryan Giles still a leading target, at least one striker and a central midfield player, but Carrick is calm and happy with developments as the recruitment team work hard behind the scenes.

The head coach is delighted to have half a dozen new players in already and says Boro have a well thought-out plan that they're continuing to work towards ahead of the coming campaign.

“It never works where you get every signing through the door before day one," said Carrick.

"We obviously had a plan, and we have targets and we know what we want the squad to look like for the start of the season. We’re working towards that and that won’t change.

"At this time of year, every team is trying to improve and we’re the same. We’ll see what happens - whether it happens this week, next week or in two weeks time or beyond, it’s just always an ongoing thing.

"It’s constant working to improve the squad, and then once the window is finished, we start immediately to work for the next one. That doesn’t mean we’re not happy with what we’ve got, we’ve just got to strive to keep moving forward."

The four outfield signings so far - Rav van den Berg, Alex Gilbert, Sammy Silvera and Morgan Rogers - are all youngsters who are judged to have big potential and their best years ahead of them, with Boro now targeting more senior, experienced players.

As Carrick demonstrated last season with Hayden Hackney, however, he's not afraid to give young players leading roles, and while there'll be understandable patience with the young new signings, if Carrick believes they're ready now then he'll play them.

He said: “All players have potential, so it doesn’t matter what age they sign. It’s all about what’s next. They are here now and they will be judged on how they’re performing now and throughout the season.

"Yeah, some of the boys are a bit younger, but have good pedigree. They’re part of the squad, they’ve fitted in really well and are talented. So we will look to get them involved as much as we can and build from last season and the strong squad that we had then. We’re still looking to improve as a team and as a squad, and there is plenty of time to do that.”

READ MORE:

Last season's star man Chuba Akpom, meanwhile, is continuing his recovery from a knee injury he suffered at the end of last season. Akpom didn't travel with the squad on the pre-season trip to Portugal and wasn't involved at York on Saturday or Hartlepool on Friday night.

Carrick said: “Chuba’s just going through his recovery, but he’s good. He actually got injured in the last game of the season, so he’s had to work hard over the summer with a little bit of rehab. We just have to manage him and try and get him back in the squad as soon as we can."

Anfernee Dijksteel, Hayden Coulson, Martin Payero, Josh Coburn, Jonny Howson and Matt Crooks also missed both friendlies.

Carrick said: “It’s just that time of year really. You pick up a few niggles and some boys come back with issues that they have to work on to get up to speed. We have a few knocks and niggles throughout the squad, but nothing serious. We would expect everyone back in the group over the course of the next week or two."