GEORGE FRIEND has pledged his future to Middlesbrough and has declared that he is over the disappointment of missing out on promotion to the Premier League.

The 27-year-old left-back will return to pre-season training with Boro on Monday with the rest of the squad, having been given an extra week to recover from their exertions that saw them fall short in the Championship play-off final against Norwich at Wembley a month ago.

Since then, Friend has been the subject of interest from Premier League clubs including West Ham United and West Bromwich Albion, but Boro do not want to sell any of their better players as Aitor Karanka prepares for another crack at the Championship.

And Friend is happy on Teesside, taking time out of his holiday yesterday to officially open a new artificial pitch at the club’s Herlingshaw facility at the Eston Sports Academy.

“I'm not on Twitter and things and I think that helps,” said Friend of the speculation. “Of course you do hear things, I do have an agent and people are talking about it all the time.

“It is a little bit of a distraction but not enough to put me off. It's more of a compliment to be honest, I think any player quite likes the fact that there's interest in them because it means you've done something right in a way so I'm very happy at Boro and I'm ready to start again on Monday for another successful season.”

Having taken the summer to reflect on Boro’s season, Friend did not have any problems coming to terms with his side’s failure to gain promotion at Wembley, conceding that Norwich were the better side on the day.

“When you think back to the game it's hard and you don't have good feelings about it but I feel like I'm over it definitely,” said Friend, whose side play York City in their first-pre-season friendly a week on Saturday.

“When I watched it back I didn't think we deserved to win, I think it would have been a lot harder to accept if they'd scored a last gasp goal and we'd lost it like that.

“I'm over, it's fine, we've got a good group here; manager, chairman and a great squad so hopefully we can produce another great season.

“It was a remarkable season in all, with everything that happened, the cups, all the drama, perhaps it would be nice to have a season with a little less drama and some success at the end of it.”

Friend feels refreshed after his month off, and is only now focusing on the season ahead. “I think since I have come back from my holidays I've really started thinking about it,” he said.

“Before that I wanted to have a month off football and just be with my family and friends and people that I have connected with. Then I can come back refreshed and excited again to see the buzz around the town. People have been coming up to me and I think they are over Wembley as well, which is refreshing and they are ready to go.

“I’ve only just looked at the fixtures. I saw Preston and the Forest game but I haven't gone into great detail because I just want to get ready for pre-season.”

Boro are likely to go to Marbella for pre-season, as they did last season under Karanka and also in the days before the play-off semi-final against Brentford, and Friend hopes to make the most of the hot weather.

“We're likely to go away and we have to deal with that,” said the full-back. “I just love being back so the weather doesn't matter anyway, I'd be more annoyed if it was snowing or wet and we couldn't train for whatever reason.

“You've got to enjoy the sun when you can because a lot of times in the season it is pretty dire, especially those Tuesday nights away at wherever. It will tough but that's part of it and we've got to get ready for a tough season ahead.”

n Friend was speaking at the unveiling of a refurbished full-size 3G floodlit pitch at the club’s Herlingshaw site, following an investment of £447,142 by the Premier League and The FA Facilities Fund. The site, which is based at South Bank, Redcar and Cleveland, is used by Middlesbrough Football Club’s Foundation as a base for a number of their club and community group sports sessions including use by their ladies’ team, disability groups and schools partners.