Despite a strong season last year which saw them finish 7th in the league and have an impressing FA Cup run, Middlesbrough will have been disappointed to have just missed out on the play-offs. 

As a result, boss Chris Wilder is keen to add to his ranks ahead of the new season in the hope of strengthening his team so they are able to compete for promotion next season.

There have only been three incomings at the Riverside so far this summer with Darragh Lenihan, Ryan Giles and Liam Roberts having joined the squad, however, it has otherwise been rather quiet.

With the season starting at the end of the month, you can understand why some at Boro might be worrying about the shape of the squad.

However, Wilder has reassured fans that there is more to come but patience is key as he told Teesside Live: "Obviously the squad isn't as complete as we want it to be. We're impatient with that, but we understand it.

"I'm not going to be the only manager saying that. We all say the same things and we all want our players in and working away. But knowing what the situation is like and the players that we're after, it's a sort of domino effect on a lot of other things as well.

"We've just got to be patient. I am, the club are and most importantly, the supporters need to be.

"We're closing in on a few deals. We could sit here for the next two hours and go through a list of 250 names. Some will be close, some will be way off and others will be linked by agents and others will be genuine.

"But everyone knows we didn't come to the football club to sort of hang around in mid-table. We came in last November to be successful and part of doing that is understanding that the squad needs an upgrade. Players need to move out, which is also an important part of the process and that can help to set us up with players coming in as well."

The Verdict: 

Chris Wilder will have likely wanted to have brought more signings in by this point than he currently has. However, he's also overseen enough transfer windows to know how it can work.

As much as the wait is killing the boss, he will be hoping that some patience can pay off and a a few more signings can get done before the start of the new season.

Boro clearly have names lined up and people they are close to striking deals with, it's now just about nailing down those deals and getting players in the door that area ready to help a push for promotion.