WITH money as tight as ever on Teesside, Tony Mowbray has urged Middlesbrough supporters to be realistic in their expectations of summer arrivals and insists he will take his time in identifying players he feels will boost their chances of promotion next season.

The search for new recruits is already underway inside the walls of Boro's Rockliffe Park HQ, while Mowbray's scouting team are already scouring several leagues across Europe in the hope of unearthing more bargain buys.

The Boro boss has already been on one scouting mission, understood to be in France, having flown straight out after last weekend's penultimate game with Charlton Athletic and another trip is scheduled next week after the season finishes at Sheffield Wednesday tomorrow.

Mowbray faces an even tougher task to find players capable of making a difference next season and has already been told more cutbacks must be made when it comes to transfers and player wages.

He will trawl through a list of free transfers and target the lower leagues across France, Spain, Belgium and Holland, but it is likely Boro's biggest signing of the season could be in the shape of a loan player.

The days of marquee signings coming through the doors are well and truly over on Teesside, and while Mowbray understands supporters have their own ideas of players they would like to see arrive at the club, he insists everyone must remain realistic.

"A lot of lads wait for me outside after games and give me names of players they'd like me to sign and yet the harsh reality of it is, we would all like to sign a, in an extreme example, Wayne Rooney or a Robin van Persie, and yet we can't," Mowbray said.

"Some of the names might be Championship players this year and yet the reality is we can't go and prize certain players away from clubs even though we might like to.

"That's why I can't sit here and say we're going to bring in X amount of players. We are asking questions, we are out there looking. What market are we looking in? We're looking in different markets really, because that's our responsibility.

"If we sell someone for X amount of pounds we might be able to buy one or two, but if we don't we'll have to look at loans and free transfers, different leagues around Europe.

"Some of the targets people have in mind are just unrealistic. Do they want to come here? How much money are they on? How much will they cost? All this has to come into it."

Although the summer recruitment drive is already in full swing before the season ends, Mowbray admits that does not necessarily mean players will arrive at the club in the early stages of the transfer window.

A problem the Boro boss is keen to avoid is rushing into signing players when a little bit of patience could result in a better option becoming available, especially when it comes to the loan market.

With that in mind, Mowbray has urged everyone to have patience over the coming months, even if he would like to do some business early on.

He said: "I think we have to wait and see what happens. In an ideal world you get them in as soon as you can so that when you come back from pre-season they're already here but that's not always as easy as you would like.

"The biggest issue is when do you push the button on somebody. You might take a second division player from France or Spain on a free and next week a really really talented loan player might be let out from Chelsea or Man United and you think he might be much better than the player you've just taken.

"Rather than filling holes you'd rather wait for the right player, because otherwise you're just filling holes and if those players don't work they get tagged as your signing."

Before the squad jet off on their holidays after Saturday's final game, Mowbray will also have to address situations regarding his out-of-contract players.

Nicky Bailey is one of those in question, but the Boro boss remains tight-lipped over whether the club will offer the midfielder a new deal.

He said: "Until I speak to Nicky on Monday I won't be making any comments really.

"There's lots of different issues with different players. If you picture Hoyte, he ran out of contract, went and scoured the market, realised he wasn't getting a deal and yet was happy enough to come back and sign a new contract on a salary that was acceptable for us.

"That might happen with one or two players. Generally you don't let contracts run down on players if you feel you want to keep them, because if it was a huge asset we would have made sure we had protected that."