MICHAEL CARRICK is hoping Middlesbrough’s busy summer will prevent the need to make similarly wholesale changes in future transfer windows.

Boro brought in 12 new signings during the summer window, with Michael Carrick overseeing a major overhaul of his squad in the wake of last season’s play-off defeat.

Unsurprisingly, it has taken a few of the new arrivals time to settle, although a run of seven successive victories in all competitions ahead of today’s home game with Stoke City suggests things are coming together nicely.

Even so, Carrick accepts it is not ideal to be making so many alterations at the same time, and while Boro will look to make additions when the transfer window reopens in January, with the acquisition of another forward regarded as a priority, there are not major gaps that need plugging.

The same should be true in the summer, with most of this year’s signings having been recruited on long contracts, and having successfully assembled the core of a squad that should remain in place for a number of seasons, Carrick is hoping for a much less hectic window next summer.

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“A large part of the plan was to try to get a real foundation in place that can carry the club forward,” said the Boro boss, who works closely with head of football Kieran Scott and chief executive Neil Bausor as part of the club’s wider recruitment team. “We wanted to try to get a base in place that we can build on.

“If you’ve got that, then hopefully you don’t have to have too much chopping and changing in every transfer window. It’s certainly best to try to avoid that if you can.

“Ideally, you don’t want to be changing everything at the end of every season, although that’s not always something you’ve got control over. Sometimes it’s in your control, sometimes it isn’t. It can be taken out of your control a bit, and you just have to deal with it.

“All I would say is that we’re certainly very happy with the group we’ve got at the moment. Obviously, we’ll be looking to improve it and tweak it as we move forward, I think that’s pretty obvious, but we’re really happy with what we’ve got at the moment.”