MIDDLESBROUGH’S players returned to the North-East yesterday determined to put Monday’s Wembley heartache behind them, with defender Ben Gibson convinced Aitor Karanka will still be around to lead a promotion charge next season.

Karanka’s first full season in charge at the Riverside Stadium ultimately ended in frustration when Norwich City returned to the Premier League at Boro’s expense following the Championship play-off final.

The Spaniard’s reputation has been greatly enhanced after orchestrating a top-six finish this season, an outcome which put Middlesbrough in with a serious shout of automatic promotion right up until the final week of the campaign.

It is a top two spot which will be targeted for the new season in August, with chairman Steve Gibson set to help Karanka make the necessary adjustments in the hope of taking them on to the next level.

Jose Mourinho’s former No 2 at Real Madrid is sure to be on the list of potential targets for a number of clubs this summer; two of those he has been linked with are top-flight neighbours Newcastle and Sunderland.

But defender Ben Gibson is certain Karanka, who still has one year remaining on the contract he signed 18 months ago, will be focused on continuing the job after coming so close to celebrating promotion this season.

“It will be key that we keep him,” said Gibson. “I have no doubt the gaffer will still be here. He got the lads together in the dressing room after the game and said ‘we are in this together and we have got to go one step better. This destroys us inside now but we make sure it motivates us’.

“I have no doubts he will be with us because he wants to finish the job off he started. Everyone loves this club, it is a massive club. We are all together and we have all bought into what we have done.

“You have got to remember this team’s squad has only been together for about a year. We were talking about the Marbella training camp in pre-season, there were about six lads that are here now.

“The rest was filled by youth team members.

“We are hoping that a year under our belts, a year of experience and getting used to playing with each other, will help us go better next year.”

While Karanka claimed he has no intention of turning his back on the remaining term of his deal, England Under-21 defender Gibson has done his bit to persuade him to concentrate on making the club stronger.

He said: “Every summer is a big one and there is always chopping and changing. You would think going into this summer that we are in a stronger position to attract players than we were the last one, after being in a play-off final.

“We brought these players in last summer after we had a mid-table season, so imagine what players we can bring in to boost the team now.

“But I would just say ‘please stay at our football club’. I believe in him. He is the manager that has instilled a winning mentality, not just in the first team, but throughout the football club. You just look at the reserves and the Under-18s, people are winners now and it hurts when we lose.

“Obviously the boys are distraught now but I would say ‘please stay gaffer because I want you to get my football club back in the Premier League’. I feel as though he is the best man to do it.”

Gibson was a wounded young man at Wembley on Monday, having felt this would be the year the hometown club he has supported since childhood would make that leap back in to the big time.

He said: “I am just distraught. We said it was going to be the best day or worst day of our lives and obviously it was the worst. It is something we have to use now to motivate us when we come back and make sure we go one step better next year.

“We are just so disappointed because to get beaten by a better team you can take it, but I am not sure they are a better team. They were on Sunday and handled the occasion better than us. I am devastated. The annoying thing is we didn’t really do ourselves justice.”

Norwich took the lead in the 12th minute when Daniel Ayala was robbed by Cameron Jerome and the powerful striker slotted in the opener. Three minutes later Nathan Redmond took Gibson on before firing low beyond goalkeeper Dimi Konstantopoulos.

It felt at that stage that Boro had already lost the final and Gibson said: “Whether it was the occasion or not I don’t know, but we didn’t come out the traps.

“We didn’t play the way we normally would. The funny thing is, I said ten minutes before we came out of the changing rooms ‘whatever you do, if you concede one, don’t have a whirlwind ten minutes where you concede two and you lose the game’. That is what we did and it cost us. We will learn from it and let’s hope we go one step better next year.

“We have got a good bunch of lads. We have got steel, grit, determination. I am ever so proud of them. I am proud to be part of this team, with these players and this staff. We have fought our way into this position.

“It didn’t happen on Monday but I have no doubts it will happen next year.”