Gordon Strachan has admitted it could be well into August before he gets his full promotion-chasing Middlesbrough squad together. High asking prices, coupled with club holidays, means there is little transfer activity at the Riverside Stadium at the moment.

He told the Evening Gazette: "We want to get in as many new players as we can as quickly as possible.

"I'd love to have all my new signings in for the first day of pre-season training but I've been in football management long enough now to know that never happens.

"There's a lot of work going on to bring players in, that's for sure. We know who we want - it's getting them that's the problem."

Strachan, whose only outlay so far this summer is a small fee to Livingston for winger Andy Halliday, admitted: "Middlesbrough is no longer the money pit it used to be. But the chairman is supportive of what we want to do and there are players keen to come."