TONY PULIS has expressed his intense disappointment at Middlesbrough’s failure to make any deadline-day signings, and candidly admitted the current squad is “not good enough to win promotion”.

Boro tried to sign more than half-a-dozen players ahead of yesterday’s 5pm deadline, but were unable to add anyone to their current ranks.

A move for Everton midfielder Mo Besic collapsed when Boro were unable to agree the financial framework behind the deal, while Toffees winger Yannick Bolasie refused to leave Goodison Park as he continued to hold out for a move to a club in the Premier League.

Millwall turned down a series of offers for Jed Wallace and George Saville, while QPR also rejected Boro’s moves for midfielder Luke Freeman.

Boro can still sign players on loan ahead of August 31, and Pulis will be doing all he can to persuade Steve Gibson and Neil Bausor to push as hard as possible in the next couple of weeks.

The Teessiders have lost Ben Gibson, Adama Traore and Patrick Bamford since the end of last season, and Pulis does not think the current squad is capable of making it to the Premier League.

The Boro boss said: “The squad isn’t good enough to get promotion. It hasn’t got the depth or the quality. We missed out last year in the play-offs because we lacked a little bit of quality in certain areas, and I don’t think we’ve improved that so far.

“When I came into the football club, the club had spent a lot of money and there were a lot of things that had to be achieved.

“If you look at the seven months I’ve been at the football club, one of the things we tried to do was get in the play-offs. I think we were too far away to win automatic promotion, but we got in the play-offs and just fell short of that.

“Then we wanted to improve the players we have here, and I think you only have to look at Adama and his performances and everything else.

“Then, we wanted to generate enough money from incomings to put the club on a sounder base. Again, I think we’ve achieved that with the sales of the players that have gone over the past few weeks, with Gibson, Bamford and Adama.

“What we wanted to do, and what we needed to do, was improve in terms of bringing players in. We’ve not managed to do that, so that’s a disappointment. It’ll be a disappointment for everybody at the football club.”

Pulis’ frustrations are obvious, but the Boro boss feels it would be unfair to focus too much attention on the last-minute collapse of the Besic deal.

The Teessiders are likely to make another move for the Bosnia international in the next few days, with Pulis insisting it would be wrong to pin any blame on the midfielder despite yesterday’s drama.

He said: “It’s not Mo – there were seven or eight players out there we were trying to get in. Everybody’s throwing it all at Mo.

“He’s a fantastic kid with a great attitude and played really well at this football club. I’d love to have him back, so it’s not just Besic, there were others players as well that deals fell down with for all sorts of reasons.

“Just to pick Mo out of the pack, I don’t want to throw everything at Mo, I don’t think that’s right.”

Boro signed three outfield players this summer – Aden Flint, Paddy McNair and Jordan Hugill – but the latter is nursing a hamstring injury that is likely to mean he is sidelined until the end of the international break.

As a result, Pulis is likely to name an unchanged starting line-up for tomorrow’s home game with Birmingham City.