Boro return for pre-season training on July 7 and will prepare for the Barclays Premier League campaign with friendlies against York, Carlisle, Hibernian and Darlington either side of their Algarve Cup clashes against Celtic and Vitoria Guimares in Portugal.

The two games in Faro are attractive fixtures, although Southgate is determined to lay the foundations for the new season as early as possible.

He said: "In many respects, the quality of the opposition gives the players something to look forward to, but it is what we work on during training and can we take that into the matches?

"We need to nail down the details of how we play a lot earlier in pre-season this season so that anybody who comes into the side knows exactly what is expected of them."

An injury-hit Boro suffered a slow start to last season, winning only two of their first 15 league games and losing eight to add to an air of pessimism that started with a 3-0 pre-season defeat by German side FC Schalke in Austria.

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