GIVEN how close they came to securing promotion last season, it is tempting to assume that Middlesbrough do not need to do too much different to go one step better this time around. Tempting, but according to head coach Aitor Karanka, also wrong.

The history books are littered with sides that followed a defeat in the play-off final with a below-par next nine months that resulted in a painful backward step.

As a result, when Karanka sifted through the wreckage of his side’s Wembley defeat to Norwich City, he quickly concluded that doing nothing was not an option.

Stewart Downing and Christian Stuani were signed to freshen up the attack, with one more major signing – most probably Blackburn’s Jordan Rhodes – still in the pipeline, and Lee Tomlin was deemed surplus to requirements and allowed to join Bournemouth despite having been one of Boro’s most influential players last season.

Having gone so close once, Karanka is desperate to avoid missing out again. So while some of the Championship’s other promotion hopefuls might have improved over the summer, the Spaniard is confident Boro will also be much better this time around.

“I think we need to improve a lot,” said Karanka. “Last season, I think our season was a surprise to everybody, but this season, everybody is going to expect Middlesbrough to be one of the best teams in the league.

“For that reason, we have to work even more than we did last season. We have had to bring in more players, especially in the positions where we struggled a bit last season. That was especially with scoring goals. If I compare with Watford, their strikers scored almost 70 goals. We scored 25 or 30. We needed to improve that.

“It is the quality of the additions that is important, because the more quality you have, the more chances you have to score goals and win games. That is why we’ve tried to bring in the right players.”

The bookmakers make Boro and Derby County joint favourites to lift the Championship trophy next May, but you have to go back to the 2001-02 season, when Manchester City were crowned champions, to find the last time that the second-tier title went to the side that started the campaign as favourites.

“This season, once again, I expect up to ten teams to be fighting for promotion,” said Karanka. “You will have the three teams who got relegated (Hull, Burnley and QPR) who are strong, and I expect Derby and Nottingham Forest to be going for promotion again.

“Brentford and Ipswich should be up there again, and you’re probably talking about between six and ten teams fighting for the positions at the top.”

Nevertheless, Karanka will begin the season in an optimistic mood, adamant that his players have successfully shelved any lingering disappointment from their Wembley no-show.

“The players are like me – they are very excited,” he said. “They feel that last season we were close, but we have improved the squad this season so we should have more chances, as long as we work in the same way we did last year.”