Boro finished 13th in the Barclays Premier League at the end of the last campaign, only securing their top-flight status with a game to spare for the second successive year.

Manager Gareth Southgate immediately signalled his intention to raise the bar at the Riverside Stadium and has worked hard during the intervening weeks to establish a new regime which he hopes will pay dividends this time around.

That includes the recruitment of new signings – to date, Dutch striker Marvin Emnes and French midfielder Didier Digard have arrived on Teesside with Mark Schwarzer, Fabio Rochemback, Gaizka Mendieta and Dong-Gook Lee having left, and there could yet be further additions.

However, O'Neil is convinced that whatever else happens before the transfer window closes, Boro will be stronger when the new campaign gets under way.

He said: "We need all the good players we can get. We are probably still a little bit shy on numbers, especially if a couple more go out.

"Hopefully we will get a couple more in, but I expect us to be stronger than we were last year.

"We are okay with what we have got – I think we will do better than last season even if we go in with what we have got at the moment.

"But hopefully, they will add a couple more and we can push on.

"It's a really good chance for us to push on. If we can get off to a good start and get ourselves into the top half early, then let's see where we can go."

See Thursday's Mail for full story