RILEY McGREE has a simple target in mind after committing his long-term future to Middlesbrough earlier this week – winning promotion to the Premier League.

McGree signed a new four-year deal at the Riverside to conclusively draw a line under speculation over his future and ensure his focus is exclusively trained on preparations for next season.

The Australian midfielder suffered a frustrating campaign last term, with a succession of injuries limiting his involvement, but he has returned to pre-season training in perfect shape and cannot wait to get started in this weekend’s opening pre-season friendly against Bolton at Bishop Auckland.

The opening game of the new Championship season is now just over three weeks away, and McGree is happy to cite winning promotion as the key ambition for the new campaign.

“As a club, we’re extremely ambitious,” said the 25-year-old, who joined Boro from MLS side Charlotte FC in January 2022. “We know where we want to be – we want to be in the Premier League, we want to get promoted.

“Hopefully, that’ll be sooner rather than later, and within that four-year period that I know I’m here, I can achieve those team goals and also some personal goals for myself.

Having been unable to agree the terms of a new contract in the second half of last season, McGree went into the summer with his future somewhat uncertain.

He had entered the final year of his previous deal, but while it was the first time in his career he had been in such a position, he was always confident that things would play out as they have.

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“It feels amazing (to have signed the new deal),” he said, in an interview with Middlesbrough’s official website. “I’m really happy and proud to have extended my time here.

“This is the first time in my career where I’ve had to deal with this situation. I’ve just taken it as it’s come. It’s just noise, and I just try to focus every day on what’s happening here (at the training ground) and let those things take care of themselves. I’m very happy and glad that it’s done now.”

McGree was part of the Boro squad that spent last week in Portugal on a pre-season training camp, and having returned to Rockliffe Park, the Australian can sense things beginning to crank up.

The addition of US international Aidan Morris has added some increased competition at the heart of midfield, while the signing of Delano Burgzorg means McGree faces another direct competitor in the attacking-midfield positions.

“There’s a lot of competition for places, and to be a successful football team, there needs to be competition,” he said. “It drives each other on. Whoever plays, whenever, wherever, I think it’s awesome to have that competitiveness.

“I think everyone’s hungry, everyone’s ambitious. We know what we want, and what we’re capable of as a team, and hopefully there’s many exciting times ahead this season and going forward.”

While McGree’s new contract might have hogged the headlines this week, the midfielder had already been the talk of the training ground thanks to something that accompanied him on his return from Australia earlier this summer.

As the pictures from last week’s camp in Portugal showed, McGree is sporting a somewhat raffish moustache. Opinions have been mixed, but it will be remaining in place for the foreseeable future at least.

"It (the moustache) does stay,” laughed McGree. “It stays, and I stay.”