BRAD GUZAN will be confirmed as a Middlesbrough player later today – and is set to make his first appearance for the Teessiders back at Aston Villa tomorrow.

Guzan spent yesterday at Boro’s Rockliffe Park training ground undergoing a medical and finalising the personal terms of his move from Villa Park.

He will sign a two-year contract this morning, and will swell a goalkeeping contingent that already features Victor Valdes, Dimi Konstantopoulos and Tomas Mejias.

Despite his struggles in the second half of last season, Guzan will be given the opportunity to stake a claim for Boro’s senior goalkeeping spot, and is set to feature in tomorrow’s friendly against Aston Villa provided his registration is completed in time.

The 31-year-old was told earlier this summer that he did not feature in Villa boss Roberto Di Matteo’s plans, but Boro head coach Aitor Karanka regards him as an experienced figure who could make a valuable contribution to the Teessiders’ campaign in the top-flight next season.

Tomorrow’s game is one of three remaining warm-up games ahead of Boro’s Premier League opener against Stoke, with matches against Udinese and Real Sociedad set to follow the trip to the Midlands.

Karanka is still finalising the make-up of his starting line-up for August 13, with his seven signings to date eclipsing the number of additions made by every other Premier League team.

The Spaniard always insisted he wanted to complete the bulk of his transfer business as quickly as possible, and David Nugent has been impressed at the speed with which Boro’s summer signings have settled into their new life on Teesside.

“They’ve settled in really well,” said Nugent. “We do have a lot of Spanish players in our squad, especially those who’ve already been here, so obviously they don’t have the language barrier.

“But Alvaro (Negredo) has played for Man City before, and Antonio (Barragan) has been at Liverpool so they’ll have no problems settling in.

“There’s a lot of competition, so the lads are fighting for their places. Whether we’re in the starting 11 or not, we’ll all get behind each other and hopefully get a good start to the season.”