AITOR KARANKA continues to target another couple of additions in the final 12 days of the transfer window, but even if no one else arrives before the start of next month, Ben Gibson claims the current Middlesbrough squad is already superior to the one that almost clinched promotion last season.

Boro’s boardroom team have been in contact with their counterparts at Nottingham Forest in an attempt to sign Michail Antonio, but strong competition from West Brom and Derby County means it will be difficult to complete a deal for the attacking midfielder.

Derby had an initial bid of around £4m rejected on Tuesday, and while Boro’s willingness to include Mustapha Carayol as part of any agreement has been well received, Forest boss Dougie Freedman’s determination to hold on to Antonio will make it hard for the Teessiders to prise the 25-year-old from the City Ground.  

Karanka is also considering a couple of loan options from Chelsea, but having already added six players to the squad this summer, including £7.2m attacking duo David Nugent and Cristhian Stuani, Gibson feels the Boro head coach has already improved on the squad that lost May’s play-off final at Wembley.

“We know we have the foundations of a good side from last season,” said the centre-half, who returned from a hamstring injury to make his first appearance of the campaign in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Derby.

“We needed to add a little bit to it, and obviously we lost a couple of players, which was always going to happen. But if you give me the squad now compared to the squad we had last season, I would choose this squad every time.

“That’s no disrespect to the players that have gone, it’s just that I think we’ve really strengthened well. We’re looking positive, and we can’t wait for every game.”

Karanka has focused most of his attention on improving his side’s attacking options, and it is telling that despite the arrival of Nugent, Stuani and Stewart Downing, his final transfer dealings of the summer are also likely to be focused on the attacking third.

All four members of the defence that started at Derby were part of last season’s squad – Tomas Kalas spent three months on loan from Chelsea before signing another season-long deal at the start of the summer – and while Jack Stephens and the injured Alex Baptiste have arrived to provide some additional cover, the back four has effectively remained unchanged from last term.

That is hardly surprising given that Boro boasted the best defensive record in the Championship last season, and Tuesday’s resolute display at the iPro Stadium suggests the club’s defenders have picked up where they left off in May.

“I don’t pick the team, but as a defender who was part of a really successful defence last season, I don’t think there was any need for any real surgery there,” said Gibson. “We had the best defence in the league last season, and we’re determined to claim that record again.

“That doesn’t mean that you get complacent because you’re not guaranteed to do the same thing again. This league is tough, and if you take your eye off the ball for one minute, it’ll cost you.

“So we’ve just got to make sure that we do the same things we were doing last season. We’ll also need to use our squad again because there weren’t just four defenders who played last year and kept clean sheets.

“There were a lot of players who came in to contribute to that – people like Woody (Jonathan Woodgate), Seb (Hines) and Ken (Omeruo) – and I’m sure that’ll be the case again. We’ve got a good camaraderie, and that makes it easier for whoever comes in to do their job.”

Tuesday’s draw extended Boro’s unbeaten start to the season, but having led for more than 70 minutes following Kike’s early opener, there was an inevitable sense of disappointment when Johnny Russell drilled in an 88th-minute equaliser.

The result leaves Boro two points adrift of the early league leaders, but with Derby being hotly tipped to contend for promotion despite failing to win any of their opening three games, Gibson is keen to accentuate the positives from Tuesday’s outing.

“When you’re 1-0 up with only a few minutes left, to finish 1-1 is really disappointing,” he said. “We’ve thrown a couple of points away, but it’s still early in the season and I can’t really remember them having too many clear opportunities.

“We were solid and resolute, and I thought we did a really good job. They were always going to have a lot of possession, but they weren’t really hurting us. We did that well and were patient, but we didn’t quite get over the line in the end.

 “It’s only early, but Derby are a very good team and even though they haven’t won yet, I have absolutely no doubt that they’ll be right up there. They’ve spent a lot of money and have good footballers, and everything’s geared towards them being right up at the top of the league. I don’t think they’ll disappoint.”