MICHAEL CARRICK feels the summer transfer window has left Middlesbrough in a “really good place” as they look to continue climbing the Championship table.

Boro enjoyed a busy summer, making nine signings to strengthen a squad that only narrowly missed out on a place in the play-offs last season.

Just as importantly, the Teessiders also held on to their prize assets, rebuffing Ipswich Town’s attempts to sign Emmanuel Latte Lath in the final 24 hours of the window.

Saturday’s 2-0 win at Cardiff City sees Boro sitting in seventh position as they head into the international break, with Carrick delighted at the strength of the squad that has been assembled at Rockliffe Park.

“We feel like we’ve strengthened for sure, and that’s not always easy to do,” said the Boro boss. “We feel like we’ve added some really, really good players.

“We already had good players too, which we saw because other people want them. That’s a great sign for us. Hopefully, that we kept them shows that we want to try and achieve something this season.

“There is a long way to go, so we’re by no means getting ahead of ourselves. But at the moment, we’re in a really good place.”

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Boro face a blank fortnight because of the international break, with their next Championship action not coming until September 14, when they host Preston.

In the past, Carrick has been able to work with the vast majority of his players during an international window.

This time around, however, Boro have nine of their players away on international duty – the tally rises to ten if loanee Sammy Silvera is included – which will limit Carrick’s ability to make tactical tweaks in the next couple of weeks.

“All of a sudden, we’ve got quite a few players going on international duty,” he said. “When I first came, there wasn’t an awful lot. We would have quite a big squad training in the international break. Now, I think we’ve only got eight senior players training on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in different ways.

“That’s what it looks like. We’ll get the balance right. We’ll train well, train as normal. But we have to balance that because some lads have played a lot and some haven’t played as much. It’s important to take a deep breath and take a few days off as well at some point. Then we’ll come back strong.

“George (Edmondson) will train with us and get settled in. Ben (Doak) is away with Scotland. Neto (Borges) is settling in. We’ll train for a little bit, have a good rest over the weekend and then be back ready for next week.”