Middlesbrough will be looking to learn and build on this season and make a real go at challenging for the play-off places next year in the Sky Bet Championship.

For much of the campaign, they were on the fringes of the top six but never really managed to break into them properly and stay there, with the likes of Brentford and Swansea seemingly permanently out of reach.

Even so, there has been progress at Boro under Neil Warnock and logic dictates, particularly with his record, that a play-off challenge is going to be the minimum aim next season in the Championship.

With that said, it'll be interesting to see which players are involved at the club and which are not, with the likes of Britt Assombalonga leaving recently.

That in mind, here are the ten longest-serving players currently at the Boro squad, put together with the help of transfermarkt...

Anfernee Dijksteel is up first in tenth place.

The full-back joined from Charlton in 2019 after helping the Addicks challenge for promotion in League One and, indeed, seal a play-off victory over Sunderland.

Dijksteel arrived on Teesside in August of 2019 and at the age of 24 has plenty of his best years ahead of him which Boro will hope will see him excel at their club.

He was a regular this season up to an injury against Swansea in March.

In ninth place we find another defender, this time in the form of Marc Bola.

Like Dijksteel, Bola had League One experience with him playing for Blackpool before making the step up to Middlesbrough in July 2019 - he was at the club just days before Dijksteel arrived.

Bola was excellent for Blackpool during his time there and he's become a regular for Middlesbrough under Neil Warnock this season.

Indeed, he's made 39 league appearances so far this season and that is the sort of reliability you need in the Championship.

In eighth place we find Marcus Browne who joined from West Ham United back in 2019 - just a couple of days before Bola did.

The attacker hasn't featured much for Boro this season with just a handful of appearances across competitions this year under Warnock.

Indeed, he'll be eager to try and earn more minutes in the future on Teesside if he can but it remains to be seen what Warnock's plans are for him.

Hayden Coulson is up next.

The young full-back has plenty of potential and Boro fans will hope that he is going to continue to improve and impress in the years to come.

Of course, he's been at the club for a long time but we're looking at purely from when he was officially 'promoted' to the first team which transfermarkt has as back in the summer of 2019 - with him serving the senior side in the league from then.

He's spent time at the likes of St Mirren and Cambridge United so far out on loan during his career too.

George Saville is up next with him joining in January 2019 from Millwall.

The midfielder has spent several years in the Championship now with both Boro and the Lions before that, picking up plenty of experience along the way.

He's closing in on 100 league appearances for Boro now and has made 33 league starts this year for Boro under Neil Warnock, underlining his importance to the side.

He's a player with good experience and still plenty more to give.

In fifth we've got Paddy McNair who joined the club in 2018 from Sunderland.

McNair is a player that has played for the likes of Manchester United as well as the Black Cats whilst he is also an international for Northern Ireland.

He's made 41 appearances for Boro this season under Neil Warnock and it is clear he is a player that the manager trusts.

Evidently, the plan at the moment seems to be for him to remain at the club for a little while longer yet.

Marvin Johnson is up next with him joining from Oxford United at the end of the summer window in 2017.

He's a winger that showed great promise when playing for the U's but perhaps hasn't always hit the heights expected of him since playing for Boro.

He's been used as a sub a lot of the time this season under Neil Warnock and will be eager to earn more starts in the coming seasons.

Marcus Tavernier made his senior debut in August 2017 and has shown real flashes of ability since then.

He's made 25 appearances so far this year in the Championship from the start with another four coming off of the bench.

Evidently, he is a player that could potentially be used further by Neil Warnock in the future as they look to challenge for the play-offs though he is going to likely miss the rest of this season with injury.

Jonny Howson joined from Norwich City in 2017 and continues to be a regular presence in the middle of the park for Middlesbrough.

He has made 38 starts this season for the club and regularly has played out the full 90 minutes showing his reliability and fitness in what has been such a congested, gruelling season for players.

There seems a good chance that Neil Warnock will be looking to continue building things around him for next season at Boro.

Dael Fry tops our list having come into the senior set-up, as per transfermarkt, in 2015 ahead of the 2015/16 season.

He's a ball-playing defender that has been linked with plenty of moves away in his Boro career so far but up until now he has remained on Teesside.

He made his league debut at the age of 17 in the 15/16 season under Aitor Karanka and hasn't looked back since, with him a real fan favourite up on Teesside for obvious reasons.

A bright career lies ahead of him.